Colonial Identity and Ethnic Hatred: Fanon, Lacan and Zizek

Abstract

How can psychoanalysis help us understand the construction of colonial identity? Why choose to hate? Why do we fear the theft of our enjoyment? In this chapter I examine some of the philosophical and theoretical developments in the area of racism, hatred and colonial identity-formation through the lens of the work of Frantz Fanon, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jacques Lacan and Slavoj Zizek. In some sense this chapter provides a bridge between Freudian, post-Freudian and object-relations schools in the practical application of psychoanalytic theory.