Foregrounding Masculinities in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy

Abstract

Against the backdrop of contemporary debates around constructions of masculinities, and explorations concerning how gender figures in psychotherapeutic process, personal reflections are presented by a male psychoanalytic therapist practicing in South Africa. A reflexive, contextual, and historicized conversation is offered, highlighting the precariousness of masculine identities, and their melancholic response to contextual dislocation within a society in transition and in relation to the decline of patriarchal authority. The observations offered emphasize the importance of maintaining a self-reflective stance in order to grapple with normative gender biases and stereotypic assumptions and to reduce the probability of gendered enactments in clinical practice.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I acknowledge and express gratitude to Gillian Eagle and Barnaby B. Barratt for their insight and considered comment in the preparation of this manuscript.

Notes

² One should not assume dislocated masculinities in South Africa to be exclusive to Whiteness. Research conducted by Sideris (2013), for example, attributes high rates of intimate partner abuse within certain Black rural communities to the vulnerabilities experienced by men in the frustrated tensions between recent gender equality legislation and consequently, the social empowerment of women, and the deeply patriarchal values of their traditional culture.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Thomas Burkhalter

Thomas Burkhalter, M.Ed., is a member of the South African Psychoanalysis Initiative and works as a psychotherapist in private practice. He has a master’s degree in Educational Psychology and is currently engaged in doctoral research in the Department of Psychology at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.