The psychopathology of domination: colonial trauma in the thought of Frantz Fanon and Grada Kilomba

Abstract

This text explores the psychic consequences of domination through the analyses of Frantz Fanon and Grada Kilomba and the concept of colonial trauma. The aim is to highlight some historical and social aspects that help to understand how the structure of domination, mediated by colonial violence, resulted in psychopathologies in the colonized and how this violent effect is addressed by psychoanalysis. Through the analysis of domination and its harmful effects, Fanon demonstrates how experiences of oppression, dehumanization, and physical violence, inherent to the process of domination of territories and groups of people, generate deep traumas that manifest in various forms of psychological suffering. Furthermore, the text emphasizes that the colonial violence promoted in the process of domination is not limited to the past, in which domination practices generated immediate effects, but continues to produce lasting impacts in postcolonial societies, insofar as the very tools of domination keep updating their forms of power maintenance and, therefore, reproducing new forms of violence against non-hegemonic groups. To understand, then, the psychosomatic effects of domination, it is necessary to grasp the power relations that have been perpetuated over time and that are constantly updated to sustain a logic of domination that results, among other consequences, in the illness of people belonging to minoritized groups. This article does not intend to exhaust the subject, but rather to highlight some central issues that may serve as a starting point for future elaborations.