Introduction | Participants | Summaries | Full-Reports | Q & A | Resources
Stephen Kurtz, M.S.W.
Third speaker at
Creation of a Self: Color and Trauma in the Life of a Child

Clinical tales have a unique power to illuminate the felt experience of patient's whose treatment is described. When combined with an understanding of social context and of the treatment's influence on the emotional life of the clinician, the tale can take on a poignant urgency. Mr. Kurtz presented such a tale in his provocative comments.

"I Went Into Analysis"

Mr. Kurtz’s presentation engaged the question of identity and the links between public and private identities. Before turning to his rich clinical work he began by citing an Ed Bradley-Harry Belafonte interview from the TV show 60-Minutes. The Belafonte story chronicled the performer’s rise to stardom in the 50s, a popularity that crossed racial lines in a way no African-American had done before. In that interview, there was a moving moment when Belafonte recalled the traumatic experience of being denied the right to use a restroom by a state trooper during a tour in the South. The policeman’s threat not to “spill a drop” came at the height of Belafonte’s popularity. When asked how he had responded to the incident, Belafonte responded, unexpectedly, “I went into analysis.”

According to Mr. Kurtz, this story is a good place to engage the question of identity and of the links between public and private identities. He suggested that at the heart of the surprise engendered by Belafonte’s answer is the unfortunate assumption that an individual’s membership in an oppressed group forms the core of that individual’s identity. Mainstream surprise at Belafonte’s answer comes from a “nothing-but ...” attitude, as though the trauma of that moment was nothing but cultural racism that should be attacked only in macro-cultural terms. Surprise at Belafonte’s response is a way of denying him his own uniquely human development.

For Mr. Kurtz, psychoanalysis is largely about "little kids" &emdash; not the treatment they receive today in schools and families and camps, but the kinds of childhood suffering we carry with us throughout our lives that make adult life painful.

"There is no better way to become a good parent than to remember the truth of one's own childhood."

--Stephen Kurtz

Mr. Kurtz suggested that in the midst of acceptance and success as a performer, as a result of his experience with the state trooper, Belafonte found himself once again a child, reminded of his childhood feelings of rejection. It was these feelings, and the sense of unloveability they produced, that sent Belafonte to analysis. It is in analysis that an intimacy can be created that reduces the weight of social constructs like race and creates the matrix for a new-found sense of worth. At least, Mr. Kurtz stated, this has been his experience working in Harlem since 1985.

Extraordinary People, Oppressive Clinic

Mr. Kurtz discussed beginning his clinical work in Harlem in a hospital-based clinic in the South Bronx. While the clinic’s spirit and culture were oppressive, the patients were often extraordinary people he enjoyed working with for 2-1/2 years. Mr. Kurtz described having had the opportunity through this work to learn what lies hidden in inner city communities: imagination, intelligence and other gifts prevented from thriving due to physical and spiritual suffering.

Later Mr. Kurtz again had a chance to work in this community. In 1985 he began working as a consultant psychotherapist at a small Harlem school. Among his first observations was the discovery the parents were wary of him. Previous dehumanizing experiences with social services had clearly left their mark. At the same time he also encountered children who were in need of more individual attention than their overburdened teachers and families could provide -- and the children were eager to spend time with him. He noted that while children of every social stratum are in trouble, the specific problems of this specific Harlem community, including poverty, fragmented families, drugs, AIDS and jail, should not be overlooked. Nor should the openness with which these children responded to genuine offers of help be overlooked.

The Harlem Family Institute was started to provide what was missing. In addition to everything else, poor children differ from rich children in that they do not have the same the opportunities for therapy that are available to the children of wealthier families. As Mr. Kurtz stated, it is for this reason that the Harlem Family Institute was started. In 1991 he started the Institute with the specific aims both of meeting the psychotherapeutic needs of these children who otherwise would have been economically denied access to that care and of offering clinical opportunity to candidates at several Harlem schools.

Dr. Kurtz went on to discuss how his work with the children, their parents, and the candidates constitutes the experiential base from which his thoughts on identity are built. Going back to the Belafonte example, he recalled that at that time there were wide cultural and ethnic contrasts from block to block in Harlem. Today black and Hispanic people are the only populations left, divided by neighborhoods and hostile to one another. However, Dr. Kurtz noted, these are the hostilities of two oppressed peoples, similarly exiled from the larger society and racism is everywhere.

He proposed that, at least for small children, because racism is everywhere, it is no where in particular. Mr. Kurtz discussed that in his 13 years in Harlem, only one child has reported experiencing racism and he has wondered whether this is because he himself is white. However, he reported that children's’ mothers and black therapists, based on conversation, pictures and free associative play, have confirmed that younger black children in Harlem do not seem to be concerned with race. One race is all many of them know. Mr. Kurtz suggested that when these children grow up and move beyond Harlem, this changes. He discussed that even the academically gifted and ambitious who find open doors at ivy league college and professional institutions are not be protected from racism. For example, even the academically gifted child moving into the larger world will likely experience such everyday forms of racism as not being picked up by cabs, and from blacks they will have to deal with expectations that they will support black causes and marry among their own.

Unseen Racism and Organized Psychoanalysis

Turning to the professional world, explicit, conscious racism is rare. Nevertheless, as Mr. Kurtz discussed, institutional psychoanalysis is part of the broader world and as such is not, and cannot, be free from prejudice. There is a ubiquitous, background sort of racism, no one is immune to this. For example, Mr. Kurtz suggested that the abandoned criteria of the APsaA that psychoanalysts be medical doctors is an example of a background racism within psychoanalysis, as is the issue of what constitutes an analysis. He discussed that at some point the criteria became having the ability to be seen 3-5 times a week.

Mr. Kurtz discussed that this has ramifications for patient’s from areas like Harlem since poor, public assistance patients can not afford this, and also are less likely to leave the neighborhood to take advantage of low cost therapy in other neighborhoods. In this way, he stated, an entire population becomes written off as unanalyzable &emdash; not because they are but because of how psychoanalysts define their work.

Mr. Kurtz offered two potential remedies. First, he suggested that the process of becoming an analyst be streamlined to allow people of color better access. Second, he proposed that the criteria for what counts as an analysis be revised. Rather than sessions per week or use of the couch or not, Mr. Kurtz suggested that the question, "To what depths can the process go?" be the criteria.

To What Depths Can the Process Go?
Denise's Story

Mr. Kurtz presented the case of Denise to illustrate what he means by “deep." Noting that he was engaging in the "basic lie of case presentations" -- presenting as a cohesive narrative that which emerged in bits-and-pieces over a period of years -- he presented the story of Denise.

The story started when Denise, the mother of four sons, was concerned about her ability to care for her youngest son Sean, the only one of the four who remained with her. She grieved the loss of the others and believed Sean represented her last chance to succeed as a mother. She came to the pre-school to setup a plan for Sean and the pre-school teacher suggested she speak to Mr. Kurtz. She did and he describes meeting her in his warm, cozy office in the ground floor of a brownstone. Even the furniture reflected his egalitarian adaptability, there were two identical comfortable chairs and he would sit in whatever one was not used by the person coming to see him. Concerning Denise, he said that they "took to each other instantly, how does one explain such a thing."

Denise’s history was full of drug addiction and poverty. It began with her maternal grandparents dispersing their 9 children throughout the extended family for care. Denise's mother landed in NYC and after much abuse became addicted to heroin at age 17. She had Denise soon after and at 4 years of age, Denise's heroin-addicted mother placed her in foster care and never retrieved her or her older sister. The terror and grief which Denise felt at being left in the shelter remained the central heartache of her life. She describes the actual physical feeling of terror and grief in the pit of her stomach as she was left at the shelter.

During her 13 years in foster care, Denise was subjected to repeated gross physical and sexual abuse by the two older children and the father of the foster household. By 17 was herself a heroin addict and had a son. The son was given up for adoption at birth and is reported to be doing well.

Prior to the birth of her third son (William) at age 32, Denise had previously given up her second son, her life changed in two significant ways. She got into a methadone program. Eventually she stopped the methadone and has been clean since then. Second, she had a conversion experience. Her love of God, prayer, and church became at the center of her life. Nevertheless, she was unable to parent William in his teenage years. After he was shot by a bullet meant for someone else, she placed him in foster care to try to keep him out of trouble. William has had a rough time of it, having been arrested twice, and his future is precarious. Mr. Kurtz reports having met William and was struck by the deep sadness he projects.

With her youngest son Sean, Denise was worried and wanted to learn how to be a good mother to him. During the treatment, as she remembered the pain of her own childhood and learned how to cope with it, her capacity to be a mother to her youngest son grew and little by little her confidence grew.

"Love, Freud said, is the curative element in psychoanalysis. Since today we are at last prepared to recognize the mutuality of this wonderfully peculiar relationship, we may say that love is curative for the analyst as well."

--Stephen Kurtz

To What Depths Can the Process Go?
Kurtz's Story

Mr. Kurtz noted that the story of Denise is not just her story; it is his as well. He discussed that during the treatment, developing and refining territory first explored by Ferenczi, the line between friendship and therapy blurred, something that he believes was essential to the effectiveness of the treatment. During the course of their 8 years together, Mr. Kurtz reported personal milestones with his own family as well as professional accomplishments, such as starting the Institute and assuming more responsibility than ever imagined. Sharing much of these personal experiences with Denise during the treatment, he found himself engaged with a rare intelligence and a consistent nonjudgmental empathy.

Her spiritual life deepened, and he reported his did as well although in a very different way. Growing to admire her the freedom of her religious expression he recognized how much he keeps those things private. "Nothing is off-limits," they talk about race, class, religious belief, and even the radical differences between them in wealth and opportunity. This led to the development of mutual respect and understanding -- and even love -- with Denise becoming a central figure in his life. He described his growing admiration for her courage and heroism in her striving to be a better parent. Not content to merely leave it there, Mr. Kurtz described a courageous incident when Denise allowed herself to be confronted by the full force of William's rage knowing he had to do that to get on with his life. It was an heroic act of parenting.

He acknowledged how Denise came to embody an ideal of authenticity and it is this that he loves in her, not an idealized perfection, but her realness and her full humanness -- her willingness to go on and grown and realize the potential in front of her. Mr. Kurtz closed by citing Freud’s belief that love is the curative element in psychoanalysis. He suggested that today’s recognition of the mutuality in the analytic relationship makes it possible to say that love may be curative for the analyst as well.

Back Button
 
Copyright, 1998, The American Psychoanalytic Foundation. All Rights Reserved.
Site also made possible by the
Committee on Public Information of the
American Psychoanalytic Association

Site design and implementation by the Web Developmental Team of The Psychoanalytic Connection, Inc.