Black and White: Applying Derrida to Contradictory Experiences in an Art Therapy Group for Victims of Torture

Abstract

This article applies the thinking of Jacques Derrida to contradictions raised in an art therapy group for victims of torture, in which the therapist was white and the group members black. It draws parallels between the hierarchical binaries of talk/art and white/black, understanding these pairs as both stemming from a mind/body binary. The paper explores whether Derrida’s deconstruction of the talk/art binary might facilitate the deconstruction of the white/black and colonizer/colonized binaries, with the purpose of preventing us repeating patterns of domination as well as in keeping us open to the ‘other’.

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