Analysis of the Obama Portraits as Means to Re-Find Our Embodied Racial Selves in Psychoanalysis

During the last 8 years in American history, faith in the American narrative of equality has been shaken.Footnote11 The myth of American equality has waxed and waned across history, as has legal protections to help ensure that equality. The past 8 years, defined by “The Trump Era” has resulted in common tropes that White Americans are the ones being discriminated against, and thus attempting to erase evidence of racial discrimination. We continue to wrestle with an epidemic of violence against innocent people, and this violence is regularly against racial minorities. Preceding this time, America elected her first Black president, Barack Obama, and this brought forth an ethos of hopefulness in the ongoing struggle toward freedom for all. Against these shifting currents, Obama’s legacy was symbolized by the unveiling of his presidential portraits. The positive reception across the country to the National Portrait Gallery’s Obama Presidential Portraits has been unprecedented. In this paper, I will explore this recent cultural event as a springboard to frame an exploration of the history of “collective silence” around racism in psychoanalysis.