The Fanonian Psychoanalytic

Abstract

It seems obvious that any investigation of the relationship between postcolonial theory and psychoanalysis must begin with the work of Frantz Fanon. For some commentators, this is largely because of his psychoanalytically influenced book, Black Skins White Masks. For others, it is because of his sometimes experimental and often-politicized psychiatric practice in the Blida-Joinville hospital in colonial Algeria. However, though we readily acknowledge Fanon’s engagement with psychoanalysis and psychiatry, we have given relatively little attention to how his engagement functioned as a strategy rather than an endorsement of psychological and psychoanalytical theories and methods.