Imperial Legacies. A Public Sphere Event
Book ticketsOrganised by:
British Psychoanalytical Society (incorporating the Institute of Psychoanalysis)
Description
PSYCHOANALYSIS AND COLONIAL PHANTASIES IN THE 21ST CENTURY
30 November 2024
An online Conference sponsored by Free Associations Journal and organized by David Morgan and Kurt Jacobsen
PSYCHOANALYSIS AND THE PUBLIC SPHERE 2024 – Imperialist Legacies
SCHEDULE
Conference theme
potenti.
Saturday 30 November,
Welcoming remarks 10:00-10:15 AMDavid Morgan and Kurt Jacobsen
10:15-11:40AM Panel 1
Cracks in The Eurocentric Frame
Armien Abraham. Lene Auestad, David Morgan, and Derek Summerfield Chair: Barry Richards
Morning break 11:40-12PM
12PM-1:25PM Panel 2
Colonialist Phantasies and the Middle East
Diana Bass, Les Levidow, Sabby Sagall, and Paul Werner
Chair: Michael Chanan
AFTERNOON LUNCH BREAK 1:25-2PM
2.00-3.25PM Panel 3
Colonialism in New Guises
Steve Bronner, Derek Hook, Samir Gandesha, and Sally Swartz
Chair: Kurt Jacobsen
BREAK 3:25-3:30PM
3:30-5 PM Roundtable:
Imperialist Mindsets
Neil McLaughlin, Susie Orbach, Michael Rustin and Eli Zaretsky
Chair: Lisa Appignanesi
5:00-5:15 PM Closing Remarks
Introduction to Colonial Legacies: Public Sphere Conference
David Morgan
Welcome to today’s Public Sphere Conference, continuing the legacy of Professor Bob Young, along with Professors Michael Rustin and Barry Richards, now expanded by Kurt Jacobsen and myself.
These conferences have been at the forefront of challenging entrenched systems of power and exclusion, creating a space to critically engage with the historical and ongoing impacts of colonialism. Inspired by the groundbreaking work of thinkers like Frantz Fanon, Edward Said, and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, we come together today to explore how colonial legacies continue to shape our world and how we can begin to dismantle them.
Colonialism didn’t just grab land—it took control of identities, rewrote histories, and shaped how people saw themselves. And while independence was achieved in many places, the systems colonialism created didn’t just disappear. They’re woven into today’s global economy, culture, and politics.
Take Monty Python’s famous “What did the Romans ever do for us?” skit—it’s a brilliant joke, but it also shows how colonial apologism hides in plain sight. The idea that infrastructure, like railways and roads, somehow justifies colonial oppression is embedded in how we think about history. This conference is about cutting through those myths, challenging the narratives, and finding new paths forward.
Distinguishing Colonialism from Settler Colonialism
One key aspect I want to add to today’s discussion is the distinction between colonialism and settler colonialism, as it fundamentally shapes the dynamics of oppression and resistance. British colonialism in places like India or Africa was often designed to justify the super-exploitation of people, land, and resources, as seen in apartheid South Africa. Settler colonialism, on the other hand, operates differently.
Settler colonial projects—like those in North America, Nazi Germany, or apartheid Israel—focus on the creation of “surplus populations” slated for removal rather than integration or long-term exploitation. For example, while British colonialism often sought to convert indigenous populations to Christianity, settler colonialism’s strategies can outright reject assimilation. In historic Palestine, Palestinian citizens of Israel are unable to convert to Judaism, reflecting the distinct dynamics of exclusion and elimination.
As Ghassan Hage and Patrick Wolfe remind us, these different forms of colonialism give rise to different forms of racism. The racism of super-exploitation rationalizes domination and control, while the racism of elimination is rooted in the desire to erase populations entirely. Both are violent, but they operate with different logics and legacies.
This intent to erase can become deeply normalised in public and private discourses. Where the annihilation of a whole group of people can be assimilated as the cost of war.
Such thinking creates a dangerous “no-go zone,” even among good colleagues where the recognition of cultural destruction—and the space for internal reflection—is wiped out. For instance the silence around the annihilation of women and children as the necessary cost of pursuing Hamas. As a friend said they voted for Hamas implying they deserve it. This protected space of denial becomes inaccessible to reasoning or dialogue, reinforcing patterns of erasure that allow such acts to be justified or ignored.
The Big Questions We’re Tackling Today
How did colonialism use religion to control beliefs (Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, 1986)? What happens when indigenous languages and traditions are erased (Said, 1978)? How did racial hierarchies outlive independence (Fanon, 1963)? And can we really call railways a “gift” when they were built for exploitation, not empowerment (Loomba, 1998)?
These aren’t just academic questions—they’re realities still shaping the world we live in.
Religion as Control: Colonising the Soul
Colonialism wasn’t just about land—it was about taking over people’s souls. Christianity was imposed as the “one true way,” while indigenous spiritual practices were demonised, outlawed, or erased entirely (Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, 1986). Missionaries acted as moral guides, but they were also tools of colonial power, aligning faith with political dominance.
In settler colonial contexts, however, the dynamic shifts. Religion isn’t a tool of assimilation but exclusion. As mentioned earlier, in some societies under settler colonial rule, conversion to the dominant faith is impossible, reinforcing the boundaries between colonizer and colonized.
Cultural Suppression: Rewriting Identity
Colonialism wasn’t just about taking resources—it was about erasing entire cultures. Indigenous languages were banned, traditions outlawed, and histories rewritten to glorify the colonisers while erasing the voices of the colonised (Said, 1978).
Settler colonialism, however, often seeks to eliminate the very existence of those cultures entirely, rather than assimilate them. Traditional practices are not just appropriated or suppressed; they are treated as obstacles to the colonizer’s goal of total dominance over land and identity.
This erasure is not merely historical—it has been internalised in global discourses, reshaping the way societies perceive violence and oppression. As a result, entire cultures and their histories are not only physically eliminated but also conceptually erased in public consciousness.
Where Do We Go from Here?
Colonialism isn’t just history—it’s alive in the systems we navigate every day. This conference isn’t just about understanding what happened; it’s about challenging the legacies that remain and creating something better.
By distinguishing between colonialism and settler colonialism, and understanding the racism of super-exploitation versus the racism of elimination, we can better address the legacies that linger. That means reclaiming erased histories, dismantling hierarchies, and making space for voices silenced for too long.
How can psychoanalytic approaches help us to
grasp and dispel unsuspected or denied but potent effects of inherited colonial habits of thought, experiences and practices in a formally post-colonial world? Every nation with history of imperial conquest – including , but not only, the European and US cases – arguably remains insidiously affected by the carryover of ideological assumptions from the heyday of colonialism (sometime a just a generation or two ago). The colonial apparatus also necessarily used differing tools of domination inward on its own citizens as well as on ‘native’ populations abroad. Fanon notwithstanding, psychoanalysis itself was implicated at times in the service of colonial goals.
This conference intends to employ psychoanalytic methods to scour the oftimes overwhelming effects left behind in the wake of decolonialisation as well as to scrutinize the historical record of benefits and shortcomings of psychoanalysis itself as a solvent of coloniser conceits. Dark legacies are still stark and headline-grabbing. What more can psychoanalysis contribute to a frank and empowering comprehension of the dark dynamics of coloniser and colonised generations after the political achievements of independence?
We bring together psychoanalysts, historians, philosophers and cultural theorists to debate the crucial issues. We strive as ever to operate in the critical spirit of journal founder and conference cofounder Robert Maxwell Young (1935-2019).
“Duis a vehicu
