Name/Title
Tornar-se NegroDescription
A poignant, intense and current work - but long forgotten -, Becoming Black became a landmark in Brazil by discussing the psychological effects of racism on the identity of black people. With a new preface by Maria Lúcia da Silva, in addition to the preface by Jurandir Freire Costa to the original edition, this volume also includes previously unpublished texts by Neusa Santos Souza.
Originally published in 1983, Becoming Black was a pioneer in connecting psychoanalysis with the racial issue. In an innovative and powerful way, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Neusa Santos Souza dedicated an academic study to the emotional lives of black men and women, justified by the absolute absence of a discourse on this level elaborated by black people about themselves.
Based on her own experience of being black in a society of white hegemony, Neusa analyzes a series of testimonies given to her, highlighting in them the brutal consequences of racism and the internalization of the white standard as the only path to social mobility for black people. These are life stories of ten characters who define themselves and talk about strategies for ascension, whose emotional cost is the subjection, denial and erasure of their identities, their culture and their bodies.
A brilliant intellectual, Neusa Santos Souza left an immense contribution to the black movement and psychoanalytic practice. Republishing Becoming Black is to rekindle her legacy, to keep her memory alive.