Freud and Said

This book examines the theoretical links between Edward W. Said and Sigmund Freud as well the relationship between psychoanalysis, postcolonialism and decoloniality more broadly. 

The author begins by offering a comprehensive review of the literature on psychoanalysis and postcolonialism, which is contextualized within the apparatus of racialized capitalism. In the close analysis of the interconnections between the Freud and Said that follows, there is an attempt to decolonize the former and psychoanalyze the latter. He argues that decolonizing Freud does not mean canceling him; rather, he employs Freud’s sharpest insights for our time, by extending his critique of modernity to coloniality. It is also advanced that psychoanalyzing Said does not mean psychologizing the man; instead the book's aim is to demonstrate the influence of psychoanalysis on Said’s work. It is asserted that Said began with Freud, repressed him, and then Freud returned. Reading Freud and Said side byside allows for the theorization of what the author calls contrapuntal psychoanalysis as liberation praxis, which is discussed in-depth in the final chapters.

This book, which builds on the author’s previous work, Decolonial Psychoanalysis, will be a valuable text to scholars and students from across the psychology discipline with an interest in Freud, Said and the broader relationship between psychoanalysis and colonialism.

“Robert Beshara’s Freud and Said insists that a decolonial analysis of the self, the human, and the past illuminates the conjunctives between Western imperialism and that which the West desires not to claim. Beshara offers a novel reading of Freud through Said’s conceptualizations of the human and those othered by humanity. The product of this reading is a psychoanalysis concerned more with the production of our present than the repression of our past. To resolve the horrors of racial capitalism, Western imperialism, and the murder of Black people, the political excision of identities will not do; rather we must consider that reconstituting the human may be the best strategy yet. Freud and Said offers a powerful propaedeutic grounding decolonial psychoanalysis and contrapuntal theory in liberatory praxis that scholars would be wise to follow.” (Dr. Tommy J. Curry, author of The Man-Not: Race, Class, Genre, and the Dilemmas of Black Manhood.)

“Freud and Said is the first major attempt to read these foundational thinkers together, and what is so remarkable about this scholarly study is not only that it does so from the perspective of les damnées, not only that it enlists Said’s “contrapuntal” methodology to decolonize Freud, and not only that it teases out the repression (and return of the repressed!) of Freud and psychoanalysis in Said’s oeuvre, but that it does all of this at once. From an excursus on Fanon’s bête noire Octave Mannoni to a Lacanian reading of the Spanish conquistadores’ requeremiento as “vel of alienation”, Beshara never shies away from the most political readings of the most erudite texts (and the other way around). Freud and Said is proof positive that decolonization is an incendiary critical praxis.” (Dr. Clint Burnham, author of Doesthe Internet Have an Unconscious? Slavoj Žižek and Digital Culture.)

“An accessible and erudite analysis that renders Fanon’s passionately political project even more current for contemporary antiracist, anti-imperialist engagements through its critical and original reading of key decolonial thinkers, most significantly Freud and Said. Beshara interweaves personal reflection with political and scholarly analysis to offer a vital addition to decolonial methodologies informed by a decolonial psychoanalysis.” (Dr. Erica Burman, author of Fanon, Education, Action: Child as Method.)

“Dr. Robert Beshara’s book, bridging the work of Sigmund Freud and Edward Said, is long overdue and couldn’t have come at a better time. With its finger on the pulse of the current moment, Beshara’s work is rooted in history while providing a framework with which to situate ourselves during these times of sociopolitical upheaval. This astute analysis of the work of the father of psychoanalysis and the father of postcolonial theory – along with a host of other theorists and clinicians – marries the internal experiences found in the clinic with sociocultural theory and praxis. This book is a must read for any scholar, activist, or clinician dedicated to decolonial work and liberation.” (Dr. Vanessa Sinclair, author of Scansion in Psychoanalysis and Art: The Cut in Creation.)

“This book is literally ‘incomparable’, marking out new territory in the field of postcolonial theory to show us exactly how questions of race and nation intersect with a conceptualization of subjectivity. Robert Beshara, who marks out a path that will guide others, handles that intersection, an encounter between Sigmund Freud and Edward Said, with creative care and inventive insight.” (Dr. Ian Parker, author of Psychoanalysis, Clinic, and Context: Subjectivity, History, and Autobiography.)

“Putting Freud and Said in the title of a book is not an easy task and might appear to be an oversight as both belong to two distinctly different fields of scholarship. However, Beshara’s book intentionally and methodically uses both to forge unique scholarly grounds. Freud’s theories on the unconscious are connected by Beshara to Said’s Latent Orientalism while extending what he terms contrapuntal psychoanalysis to a new horizon for liberation praxis in the field of critical psychology. Beshara’s theorization is intended as a tool to confront the rising tide of Islamophobia and racism. Indeed, his book contributes to deepening and theorizing the rapidly expanding Islamophobia Studies field. It is a must-read for everyone working to counter structural racism, discrimination, and xenophobia in contemporary society.” (Dr. Hatem Bazian, author of Annotations on Race, Colonialism, Islamophobia, Islam, and Palestine.)

Robert K. Beshara is Assistant Professor of Psychology and Humanities at Northern New Mexico College, USA and Director of the Critical Psychology certificate program at The Global Center for Advanced Studies, Ireland/USA. He is the author of Decolonial Psychoanalysis: Towards Critical Islamophobia Studies (2019), the editor of A Critical Introduction to Psychology (2019) and the founder of criticalpsychology.org, a free resource for scholars, activists, and practitioners.