Liberation, not representation: Empty diversity efforts as colonial stabilization (and what we should [start to] do about it)

ABSTRACTThe paper argues that in this “zero-gravity moment” we should resist the urge to rely solely on what is described as non-structural, and therefore, “empty” diversity efforts that focus only on representational politics. The concept of Diversity Ideology is explored and used to explicate why diversification efforts in psychoanalytic training programs and organizations are constitutively poised to fail.KEYWORDS: Colonialitydiversediversityideologypsychoanalysiswhiteness Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationNotes on contributorsLara SheehiLara Sheehi, PsyD (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology at the George Washington University’s Professional Psychology Program where she is the founding faculty director of the Psychoanalysis and the Arab World Lab. Lara’s work takes up decolonial and anti-oppressive approaches to psychoanalysis, with a focus on liberation struggles in the Global South. She is co-author with Stephen Sheehi of Psychoanalysis Under Occupation: Practicing Resistance in Palestine (Routledge, 2022) which won the Middle East Monitor’s 2022 Palestine Book Award for Best Academic Book. Lara is the President of the Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology (APA, Division 39), the Chair of the Teachers’ Academy of the American Psychoanalytic Association, and co-editor of Studies in Gender and Sexuality and Counterspace in Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society. Lara is also a contributing editor to the Psychosocial Foundation’s Parapraxis Magazine and on the advisory board for the USA-Palestine Mental Health Network and Psychoanalysis for Pride.