1st Edition
Race and the Unconscious An Africanist Depth Psychology Perspective on Dreaming
Race and the Unconscious engages the archetypal African consciousness that enriches our knowledge regarding the foundational mythopoetic of Africanist dreaming.
Featuring crucial historical context, Jungian and post-Jungian theory, clinical case studies, and dream series interpretations, the book offers readers a rich framework for exploring and understanding the language, images, and symbols of African and African American dreamlife. It expands the modern understanding of dreaming with the inclusion of Africanist perspectives, philosophy, and mythology while emphasizing the potential for and process of psychological healing through dreamwork.
Race and the Unconscious is a must-read for Jungian analysts and analytical psychologists in practice and in training, as well as anyone interested in understanding psychological processes inclusive of those of African descent and their culture, including academics and students of sociology, anthropology, African American studies, and African diaspora studies.
Biography
Dr. Fanny Brewster is a Jungian analyst and a Professor at Pacifica Graduate Institute. She is the author of the Racial Complex: A Jungian Perspective on Race and Culture.
"Grounded in African consciousness and the presence of the feminine, Dr. Fanny Brewster has written a beautifully researched and soulfully compelling examination of African dream life. This much needed, deeply thoughtful book explores the dreams voices of African people: our identity, freedom, struggle, lineage, and legacy. Dr. Brewster’s gift for storytelling, handed down to her from her maternal grandmother, illuminates each page, weaving scholarly research with a re-telling that touches the heart and soul. Our dreams are our legacy, and our hope and Dr. Brewster captures them with exquisite clarity and compassion."
Valerie Brown, JD, MA, PCC, Co-Director, Georgetown University, Institute for Transformational Leadership, Buddhist Dharma Teacher and Author Hope Leans Forward and Braving Your Way toward Simplicity, Awakening and Peace.
"Throughout reading this work, I was reminded of my African American grandmother who would look forward to our deceased relatives visiting her because somehow, she knew of the West African belief that people did not truly die until they were forgotten. Addressing the long-neglected dream life of people of African descent, Dr. Brewster’s landmark work takes a deep dive into African philosophy and mythology and its relevance to people of the African Diaspora in terms of their culture, psychology, and ultimately their dream life. It then weaves it all into the development of psychoanalysis and dream analysis and is nothing short of brilliant, culminating in case material that is fresh and relevant. Destined to become a classic, Race and the Unconscious will need to be incorporated into the curriculum of psychoanalytic institutes worldwide."
Dr Kim Arrington, Director of Psychological Services, Garnet Health Medical Center Faculty and Supervisor, Metropolitan Institute for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, New York, NY.
"With great pleasure I endorse Fanny Brewster’s new book on the African psyche. She brings a magnifying lens to images on philosophy, mythology, stories, and dreams, that challenges the Eurocentric blindness of African values and its effect on Black people in the Americas. I commend the reading of this book to old and new generations in the spirit of balancing social psychic energy and embracing healing in the world."
Carmen Ada Gonzalez, Ed.D, Jungain Analyst, C.G. Jung Institute, San Francisco. Recipient of the 2000 Peace and Justice Award from the City of Cambridge.
"Extraordinarily well researched and heartfelt, Race and the Unconscious fills many long-standing gaps in the clinical practice and theory around African Americans in Jungian psychology. Practitioners and clients from all backgrounds will once again benefit from Dr. Brewster’s insight. A powerful and incredible book."
Satya Doyle Byock, Director of The Salome Institute of Jungian Studies and author of Quarterlife: The Search for Self in Early Adulthood.
"In Race and the Unconscious, Dr. Fanny Brewster provides a "Literary dreamlife voice for the African Diaspora" to the reader who is a serious seeker of truth and understanding. This work offers a way to move beyond those historical descriptions of African people which were based more on projections from the European imagination than upon factual information, making them invisible both consciously and unconsciously, without any understanding of their rich inner life and dreams. This book will transform that landscape."
Dr Catherine Meeks, Executive Director Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing, Atlanta, GA.
