Privilege, shame and supremacy Dwight Turner explores a recent encounter with privilege in the therapy room itchell was a 35-year-old white When his partner had said he shouldn’t speak Understanding privilege man, born in London, with a to his daughter like that, he turned his anger on Although we may not recognise it as such, we five-year-old daughter from her. He told her he could say what he wanted all come into life with some sense of privilege. a previous relationship. He because he was the child’s father, and that she For example, Jensen1 considers whiteness a presented M in therapy following a physical (his partner) should shut up because she wasn’t form of privilege, and his work explores how altercation with his current partner of three even the child’s step-mother. He then went his race leads to the suppression of racial years, who was of African descent. It had led on to berate her for her cultural background, others in his community. While many writers to him spending a night in the cells of the local especially in comparison with his. tend to focus purely on white or class privilege, police station. When he came to see me, he While his behaviours undoubtedly raised it is actually intersectional: patriarchy, told me he felt mortified, not only about his serious issues about domestic violence and heteronormativity and ableism are all forms physical aggression towards his partner but physical and emotional abuse, my interest here of privilege, and an individual may benefit also by some of the things he had said to her is in Mitchell’s choice to come to me, a therapist from more than one form at the same time. and his daughter at the time. For example, at of colour, and how the issue of privilege and its Logie and Rwigema,2 for example, discuss the the height of the argument, his daughter had links to supremacy and narcissism became an privilege of whiteness and the marginalisation begun to cry, prompting Mitchell to shout at her. important aspect of our work together. of BME groups within the LGBTQ community, THERAPY TODAY 30 JUNE 2018 Privilege Much of this discussion, though, is taking Yet, throughout our work, there was one place within the field of psychology. Studies aspect that concerned me: his denial of any about privilege have been around for a while, responsibility for the impact of his words on but counselling and psychotherapy have his daughter – she too just had to listen to him, been suspiciously robust in resisting any or else. This was when my research took me in recognition of privilege as a precursor to the the direction of linking privilege to supremacy. oppression of the other. This means there has also been a failure to explore how privilege Privilege and supremacy unconsciously resides within psychotherapy The problem with linking privilege with trainings, where the vast majority of trainees supremacy is that, if we are all born into some are white, middle class, able bodied and degree of privilege, irrespective of who we are, heteronormative. Yet, given the heightened at what stage does this develop into a sense of relevance of otherness in the world today, superiority? There are many possible answers with movements from #me too to Black Lives here, and many involving uses and abuses of Matter challenging their varying experiences power, but one factor that is also important of privilege and abuse, there is a need to in answering this question is the role of explore this issue more widely. Psychotherapy childhood experience. In his book on boarding acts as a microcosm of interactions with the school survivors, Duffel4 considers the top- other, making it increasingly important to down nature of Western schooling, suggesting recognise the impact privilege can have on the that the archaic, yet still prevalent aim of various minorities who work as counsellors boarding schools is to produce generations and psychotherapists. And, if privilege of people to lead colonial Britain. So, out of is a constant, then it is wise to recognise a system where our leaders are moulded there is another layer as well that is socially emerged not only those who built the British constructed out of the societal, cultural, racial, empire but also those who provide the rules of gender and other identities we function within. and route towards privilege for the rest of the However, I strongly believe this multi- population. The problem here, though, is the layered aspect to privilege has an unconscious broken attachments that led to this formation component. In my work with Mitchell, he of superiority over the other. Schaverien’s recognised that he wanted to be with someone work5 succinctly explores how the pain of ‘less challenging’, which led him to choose separation from primary care-givers and a partner who was not of his culture. So, the often-oppressive nature of the boarding whenever he displayed his anger at his partner school system lead to the formation of a harsh, for speaking up for her step-daughter, what he sudden, false self, built for survival in a hostile was really saying was that she wasn’t allowed world environment. a voice, as his position as the child’s father Interestingly, Adler’s notion of the inferiority meant he had the right to do what he wanted complex is also relevant here.6 Although not – that he had a layer of patriarchal or cultural directly linked with broken attachments, the privilege over his partner. Unconscious idea that we envy that which we perceive the but Case and colleagues quite rightly argue privilege, therefore, is more than the overt other to have, thereby leaving us in a projected that privilege extends beyond the more model discussed above; it is also the unknown inferior position to them, begins to build a traditional understanding of white privilege scripts we hold within ourselves that say bridge to understanding just how such an to that of gender, sexuality, gender identity, we have the right to do things, to dominate ancient educational system as the boarding religion and social class.3 another, and also that we are better than them. school works to fashion such a sense of What this means is that, just as difference is intersectional, so too is the means of oppression of the other. For example, although I am a black heterosexual male, this does ‘Unconscious privilege... is also the unknown not mean I do not enjoy any privilege at all. My sexual orientation alone, in relation to scripts we hold within ourselves that say colleagues, students or others who might be LGBTQ, for example, means that I may we have the right to do things, to dominate inadvertently oppress, other or discriminate against those I see as clients. another, and also that we are better than them’ THERAPY TODAY 31 JUNE 2018 Privilege supremacy.7 This sense of superiority, however, THE PRIVILEGE WALK emerges out of a coping mechanism that Adler called the superiority complex – a complex that works to compensate for the unconscious The Privilege Walk is a group this bring into focus the close, envy and sense of inferiority that the client can exercise designed to help unconscious interrelationship no longer contain. Superiority, therefore, is a participants explore their own between privilege and difference psychological defence against shame. privilege. Participants line up across and how their own privilege might Supremacy by its very nature, therefore, a large room. The facilitator then impact or oppress the other in the involves the quest to be seen as more than asks them a series of around 35 therapeutic space. just average, and one means of achieving this questions and instructs them to You can find many examples of is by using our power to oppress others. For step forwards or backwards, the Privilege Walk on YouTube. some, thus, supremacy and privilege walk depending on their answers. There are also numerous online hand in hand, with a need for constant but Questions might include: ‘If you privilege tests that use similar unsustainable validation of worth. For others can show affection for your questions to provide a personalised though, these are distinctly different positions. romantic partner in public without assessment of the person’s privilege For example, for some born into privilege, the fear of ridicule or violence, take a status and can be used one-to-one urge for supremacy is tempered by a sense step forward’; ‘If you have ever situations or with students who find of humility and the absence of a need for been the only person of your race/ the walk too exposing. additional mirroring from the other. gender/sexual orientation in a Below are the results of a White privilege, heteronormative privilege classroom or workplace setting, privilege test I took for this article and the privileges embedded within take a step back’; ‘If you have ever on 29 March 2018. patriarchy and ableism are all part of the been bullied or made fun of, based notion of normality – that there is one right on something that you can’t Dr Dwight Turner way of being. So, for the supremacist who fails change, take a step back’; ‘If you You live with 38 out of 100 points of to recognise their own shame, the other – be were ever offered a job because of privilege. they of colour, female, less able bodied or of a your association with a friend or You’re not privileged at all. You different sexual orientation – is not only other family member, take a step forward.’ grew up with an intersectional, but also less than.