Race, Politics, and Spiritual Crisis: A Response to Commentaries

ABSTRACT

Commentaries by Lynne Layton and June Lee Kwon (this issue) take very different approaches to Whiteness. Layton’s concern with how neoliberalism shapes the inner life is both an alternate and additive contribution to the imperative to include the external surround in clinical work. I argue that race must be seen on its own ground. The entitlement embedded in Whiteness and the skewed values of our meritocratic hierarchy work together to keep White people emotionally vulnerable even as we cling to and benefit from these rewards. Kwon’s deeply subjective response evokes a more personal and emotional reply. As she suggests, those of us who are White have to find ways to embrace our identity and community even as we critique it.

This article responds to:

Commentary on Beverly Burch, “Engaging the Whitewashed Countertransference: Race Unexpectedly Appears for Therapy”

Thank You for Having Me

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Beverly Burch

Beverly Burch, Ph.D., is on the Faculty and Board of The Psychotherapy Institute in Berkeley, CA. She has published books on gender and sexuality as well as three books of poetry.