Yesterday I had the privilege of sitting on a panel with some amazing social justice activists at Pacifica’s “Radical Edge: Depth Psychology for the 21st Century” Thanks to Lizzie Rodriguez. Pacifica Graduate Institute focuses on depth psychology and counseling so it caters to psychologists and therapists. Until Dr. Mary Watkins joined the faculty, Pacifica lacked economic and racial/ethnic diversity. So yesterday’s conference was part of the alumni programming series and the audience was mostly upper-class “white” (until we find another term that truly reflects the diversity of non-people of color) baby-boomers.
The conference’s theme focused on the collective trauma and fracturing of society that we all share including the rising cost of housing, immigration, homelessness, injustice in the criminal justice system, threats to progress made in nongendering the right to marriage and other civil liberties, and degradation of the environment.
The goal of my panel, all change-agents of color, was to share real solutions from the field. However in translating our practice, the themes of privilege, white supremacy, shame, and other dynamics kept coming up, including the use of the word “ally.”
Since then have been reflecting on the word ally. I guess it means something that is not a part of you but working in aligned goals toward a common end. I think it was developed to counter the “savior” narrative when dominant groups encroach and try to take over groups and movements seeking their own empowerment.
However I hope the idea of alliedship does not become so overused that it becomes an excuse to not act. That the internal and collective process to be undergone by “allies” of recognizing power differences and complicity is not lost. And that if I call myself an “ally” to groups that i am working with, that I recognize whatever privilege and power I am bringing to the conversation, leave my shame and guilt at the door, and own my own shit that I am still working through, so as not to cater my behavior and conversation through projections I am presenting on those I am allying with. In other words, being able to stay present in those spaces dominated by persons with lived-experience that I am seeking to support and resist the deep urge to switch the conversation back to myself and own needs.
Whatever time we are in is opening up psyche to painful realities and traumas that we have collectively disconnected with for some time. The fear, mistrust, wounds, are real. Trump is the pharmokoe of our society- the icon of all of our projections that we are too shameful to admit such as greed, narcissism, hunger for power and to be seen, and need of authoritarianism and hierarchical structures that mark place of where we fit into the world (even if our place is of victim or alienation- it still fits a space).
As we awaken, people are starting to feel for a second. We may cast off that feeling onto someone else, but psyche will remember the feeling and keep bringing us back to it. As such as people awaken, there is such great need for heart, for collective healing to take place, for conscious peace. We must begin to deconstruct the rigid borders of identity politics. We must lean into the fear of the unknown wanting to be birthed out of the collective goodness that we all hold so closely.
As Dr. David Ragland stated yesterday, we must create safe, expressive spaces for people to decolonize emotion and get in touch with their own trauma/pain (i.e. through storytelling). And, as we move through a cycle of healing (no quick fixes), we must be intentional in weaving together a new narrative that reflects the mosaic journeys of America today.
Alisa's thoughts on Beloved Communities 