Spectres of Colonialism

Awareness that anti-sodomy laws in the global South are a remnant of British colonialism has generated a discourse of atonement for colonialism among a British political elite not typically known for such contrition. This chapter investigates why this has been the case through a parallel reading of British parliamentary debates on the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade, and on the state of global LGBT rights. Drawing on Melanie Klein’s notion of manic reparation, it demonstrates how elites have sublimated their shame around historic wrongs perpetrated by Britain into moral crusades purporting to remedy them. It then contrasts categorical expressions of atonement for the ‘sexual’ legacies of colonialism with a more ambivalent reckoning with its ‘racial’ legacies. Taking issue with the separation of these analytics, the chapter reveals how atonement for the colonial imposition of anti-sodomy laws abroad is enabled by a whitening of queer suffering at home.

Manic Reparation

The Canadian public has heard many apologies from various governments and church institutions over the last 20 years. In June 2008 Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized to First Nations for the federal government’s role in the residential school system. First Nations have also received apologies from the United Church of Canada (UCC) for its participation in these schools. Much of the work being done on the process of apology assesses the apology in order to judge if it is convincing and worthwhile.My work asks the question: are apologies effective in their attempt to make amends for past injustices, or are they examples of what Klein calls “manic reparation”?

Medicine and the Manic Defence

Objective: The aim of this paper is to explore the relevance of the concept of the manic defence to understanding the treatment behaviours of doctors, and psychiatrists in particular. Method: The manic defence and manic reparation are defined. Treatment approaches by doctors in physical and psychiatric medicine are examined within the perspective offered by these concepts. Results: Evidence for the operation of a manic defence can often be discerned in treatment approaches to psychological and psychosomatic disorders. Widespread reliance on the prescribing of antidepressant medication for depression provides an example. Conclusions: In the face of psychological and psychosomatic presentations, doctors may resort to reductionist aetiological formulations which promote active but reductionist treatments. Such approaches represent the enactment of a manic defence against depressive anxieties that might otherwise be experienced by patient and/or practitioner.