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Becoming Raced - Psychic Consequences of  Transgenerational Racial Trauma 
Racism, and otherness, continues to be contentious for psychoanalysts to consider as a psychic phenomenon. Unlike aggression and sexuality, racism is held in silence and resistance, inhibiting exploration of this aspect of mind. By closely examining how and where the analyst/psychotherapist locates themselves racially and working through our resistance and countertransference to this type of exploration, this paper invites us to include these aspects of mind for our analytic use. This paper expands on how we become raced by exploring the transgenerational transmission of racial trauma, and its intra-psychic, structuralizing components. Using examples from the creative arts and clinical vignettes to demonstrate how being raced, as a universal phenomenon, is embodied and symbolized in mind, opens a therapeutic aperture for clinicians who may benefit from a psychoanalytic, intrapsychic perspective on this aspect of our shared humanity.

We hope you’ll join us! This event is an opportunity for our whole community to come together again to reflect and grow in conversation around race. We believe these discussions matter more than ever—and they’re better when we’re in it together. This co-sponsored event is a unique chance to learn side by side. Everyone is welcome, and everyone is needed.

As part of our commitment to supporting collective well-being, if 100 people register, we’ll donate 10% of the proceeds (after expenses) to the Therapy Fund Foundation, which increases access to mental health care for Black and Indigenous individuals. Your participation helps make a difference—let’s fill the room!

Presenter: Dionne R. Powell, M.D. is a Training and Supervising Psychoanalyst at Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (NY), and the Psychoanalytic Association of New York (PANY-NYU affiliated). She is an Adjunct Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at The New York Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia University in New York, and Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Assistant Attending Psychiatrist at The New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Weill Cornell Medical College in New York. Dr. Powell is Chair of the Education Committee (EC) at the Psychoanalytic Center of New York (PANY). Dr. Powell is Co-Chair of the Holmes Commission on Racial Equity in American Psychoanalysis, Vice-President of the American Association for Psychoanalytic Education, and North American Representative to the IPA Board.

Dr. Powell has written and presented extensively with recent contributions including:

• Race, African Americans and Psychoanalysis: Collective Silence in the Therapeutic Conversation (Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, JAPA, 2018, new author prize recipient)
• Chapter contributor A Case Analysis of an Academic Scientist in Her Early Thirties: Authorship and Stolen Ambitions, 2019, in Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Women and Their Experience of Desire, Ambition and Leadership, Arnold & Brody, eds.
• From the Sunken Place to the Shitty Place: The Film Get Out, Psychic Emancipation and Modern Race Relations from a Psychodynamic Clinical Perspective, The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 2020.
• Do Black Lives Matter: The Psychic Resistance to Change. Jahrbuch der Psychoanalyse, 2021.
• Race Matters in Psychoanalytic Education. Psychoanalysis.today. Issue 14: Race, Caste, Class, Faith. July 16, 2021.
• Section editor and Chapter contributor on racial and ethnic diversity for the 2nd edition of Glen Gabbard's Textbook of Psychotherapeutic Treatments, 2022.
• Holmes Commission on Racial Equity in American Psychoanalysis, Final Report released on June 19th, 2023:  https://tinyurl.com/HolmesCommissionFinalReport or at https://apsa.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Holmes-Report-Press-Release_Final2.pdf?ver).
• Becoming Raced-Psychic Consequences of Transgenerational Racial Trauma, International Journal of Psychoanalysis, in press, 2025.

Dr. Powell is the recipient of the following recent awards: 

• 2024: Payne Whitney Award. In recognition of individuals who have demonstrated exemplary leadership and commitment to advance the field of psychiatry for the betterment of the communities we serve. Presented New York-Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medicine, December 18, 2024. New York, NY.
• 2023: The Schein Lecture, Plenary Address. The American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training. Beyond Cultural Competence: Contemporary Psychiatry in a Raced Society. March 3rd, 2023. San Diego, CA.
• 2022: British Psychoanalytic Association Scientific Meeting: The Debbie Bellman Memorial Lecture Saturday July 2nd, 2022. London, UK.
• 2021 Candidate’s Council of the American Psychoanalytic Association, (APsaA). Master Teacher of the Year Award, February 28th, 2021.
• Inaugural recipient of the Margaret Morgan Lawrence Lecture on March 1st, 2022, sponsored by the Association of Psychoanalytic Medicine, APM at Columbia University. New York, NY
• Solomon Carter Fuller Award and Lecture. American Psychiatric Association (APA) Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA from May 21-25, 2022.

Learning Objectives:  At the completion of this presentation participants will

1. Demonstrate a greater awareness of transgenerational racial trauma and its formation in mind.
2. Understand how this form of trauma affects the clinical situation, especially the clinicians’ approach.
3. Learn how to work clinically with transgenerational trauma.

ACCME Accreditation Statement: This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of American Psychoanalytic Association, hosted by Seattle Psychanalytic Society and Institute & partner institutes, Alliance, Center for Object Relations, and Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

AMA Credit Designation Statement: The American Psychoanalytic Association designates this live activity for a maximum of 3 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Disclosure Statement: The APsA CE Committee has reviewed the materials for accredited continuing education and has determined that this activity is not related to the product line of ineligible companies and therefore, the activity meets the exception outlined in Standard 3: ACCME's identification, mitigation and disclosure of relevant financial relationship. This activity does not have any known commercial support.

This presentation meets the requirements of WAC 246-924-240 (Definition of Category of Creditable CPE). This program has been approved for 3 CEUs by the NASW Washington State Chapter. Licensed Social Workers, Marriage and Family Therapists and Mental Health Counselors are eligible. Provider number is #1975-144.