Thread by @CroakeyNews

Next, I'll be tweeting from concurrent session about Frantz Fanon, psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, political philosopher. Follow @coopesdetat for tweets from the Presidential symposium and #RANZCP2022 for more discussions from the Congress.

https://twitter.com/ralf_ilchef/status/1524356111939211264?s=20&t=ndwf2v0jD1ougM8Z12p_nA

@coopesdetat Frantz Fanon symposium presenters are: Stan Grant, A/Prof Steven Knoblauch @nyuniversity, Dr Daud Saeed @PREMHA3, A/Prof Sally Swartz @UCT_news & Dr Kathomi Gatwiri @ Southern Cross University #RANZCP2022

Fanon grew up on French-colonised Caribbean island of Martinique, with African heritage, enabling him to gain an insight into the impacts of race and colonialism #RANZCP2022

Black people are locked in blackness, and white people are locked in whiteness - Fanon wrote in his book 'Black Skin, White Masks' #RANZCP2022

At the time of Fanon, writings of Freud paid little attention to colonialism. Colonialism provided both an inferiority complex and an dependency complex #RANZCP2022

Fanon contested some original workings on colonisation saying it is highly integrated with violence, not just inferiority and dependency #RANZCP2022

In closing 'Black Skin, White Masks', Fanon writes "Oh my body, always make me a man who questions", echoing Stan Grant's earlier keynote. #RANZCP2022

Fanon's 'The wretched of the Earth' is a critique of colonisation. He is often criticised for his position on violence. #RANZCP2022

A/Prof Sally Swartz from Cape Town University is up next in the Fanon symposium. Swartz says 'Fanon's writing is a call to action against oppressive regimes & the experience of being diminished in the eyes of the "other"' #RANZCP2022

Colonial governments may depart, but left behind are the impacts of being treated as "less than able"- A/Prof Swartz. #RANZCP2022

A/Prof Swartz discusses Fanon the psychiatrist & the powerful bridge between his political ideas and his psychiatry practice. He used everything he could to ease suffering. #RANZCP2022

Fanon was deeply interested in the connection between neural and psychology psychiatry - A/Prof Swartz #RANZCP2022

Talk therapy is routine and essential, according to Fanon - A/Prof Swartz #RANZCP2022

One of Fanon's achievements was the establishment of day clinics, a haven during the day and a connection to community - A/Prof Swartz #RANZCP2022

"Nowadays we are more likely to shut patients out of hospitals than lock them in" - A/Prof Swartz #RANZCP2022

On the issue of culture and it's place in treatment of psychiatry patients - all treatments are better received when delivered by people we trust - A/Prof Swartz #RANZCP2022

When attitudes and judgements belong to a majority, they are seemed as natural. When not, they are considered as marked or "other", who are expected to fit into "natural" - A/Prof Swartz #RANZCP2022

Fanon's challenge to us is to think culturally but avoid "otherness". Context is important in therapy - A/Prof Swartz #RANZCP2022

A/Prof Steven Knoblauch from @nyuniversity is now joining us live from New York to share a brief clinical vignette #RANZCP2022

A patient enters session in a different manner than usual, and goes on to describe pressures finding a new apartment with partner - A/Prof Knoblauch #RANZCP2022

The pressures the pt describes are not typical pressures when house-hunting (affordability, size etc). He likes the apartment but does not feel comfortable in the new neighborhood in which he feels he sticks out as black in a non-Black neighborhood - A/Prof Knoblauch #RANZCP2022

A/Prof Knoblauch acknowledges his limitations in never recognising the patient's experience in feeling different or in a place of "otherness" #RANZCP2022

A/Prof Knoblauch - significance of skin colour shapes a person's sense of place and hierarchical place of value #RANZCP2022

A/Prof Knoblauch emphasises the importance of recognising embodied representations of racial trauma #RANZCP2022

Dr Kathomi Gatwiri @ SCU Australia joins the panel to discuss the importance of racial identity in psychiatry practice #RANZCP2022

How are people being harmed by white supremacy?
Fanon plays a significant role in this conversation and helps to inform psychiatry practice - Dr Gatwiri #RANZCP2022

The fact that we are still having these conversations where black people are seen as racialised subjects, means we are not yet in the place that Fanon talked about where we are referred to as "human being", according to Dr Gatwiri #RANZCP2022

Considering cultural and social context is critical for treating patients in psychiatry - Dr Saeed #RANZCP2022

Person in the audience discusses benefits of #NarrativeTherapy - "They're not just there as a depressed person, they're there as a whole person"- #RANZCP2022

Stan Grant emphasises the power of story-telling in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island culture. He said that seeing a psychiatrist was very important in his recovery, but absolutely nothing was as important as "standing on my land." #RANZCP2022

Dr Gatwiri says it is important for clinicians to become aware of their own cultural & racial humility - be uncomfortable and acknowledge you are not going to understand the lived experience of being black. #RANZCP2022

While cognitive insights are important, key issue as a clinician is emotionally connecting with patient, one of Fanon's learnings - A/Prof Knoblauch #RANZCP2022.

A fascinating session about racism, colonialism & mental health. Closing comments from the panelists....Dr Saeed ends with a quote by Fanon "your solution sir, don't push me too far, don't force me to tell you what to do" #RANZCP2022

A/Prof Knoblauch-"if we approach others as a source of learning rather than us as the source of expertise than I think a lot will actually follow. But, we have to build a sense of trust by realising that there is so much to learn from the person right in front of us" #RANZCP2022

Dr Gatwiri- ends with the quote by Desmond Tutu, "I am, because, we are & because you are, therefore, I am." We are only made human by humanising other people. #RANZCP2022