5th December 2026 Lecture 

Trauma, Psychosis and the Racialised Body: A Psychoanalytic Perspective - Abi Canepa-Anson

To be held online from 10.00am to 12.00noon on Saturday 5th December 2026, by Zoom. Attendance is free of charge for all FPC members and will count as 2 hours CPD. The talk will not be recorded. To book a place please email admin@thefpc.org.uk 

This paper explores the relationship between unprocessed trauma and psychotic states of mind, arguing that psychosis can be understood not solely as a biological event but as a traumatic state in which the boundary between internal phantasy and external reality collapses under the weight of unbearable, often unspeakable, experience. Drawing on psychoanalytic theory, trauma literature, and the concept of intersectionality, the paper situates this argument specifically within the lived experience of black and brown people, migrants, and asylum seekers — groups whose realities of ongoing persecution, displacement, and racial violence are frequently interpreted through the wrong clinical lens. The paper considers the implications for therapeutic practice, including the centrality of epistemic trust, the somatic dimensions of trauma, and the particular significance of Black rage as a misunderstood clinical phenomenon.

Abi Canepa-Anson is a member of FPC and is a UKCP accredited psychodynamic psychotherapist, writer and artist. She is the author of Parenting the Adopted Child: Beyond Love and Intention (Amazon Publishing, 2025), which amplifies the often-silenced voices of adopted children and their families, and This is NOT a Safe Space - Creating Human Conditions in a World That Often Fails to Hear, which asks who psychotherapy has been built for, what it makes possible, and what it has struggled to see. The book speaks to clinicians, trainees and readers of every background who want to look honestly at both the promise and the limits of the work.

Her work explores how we understand psychological distress, inherit beliefs and identities, and make sense of ourselves within cultural and institutional frameworks. Bringing psychoanalytic thinking into conversation with lived experience, history and art, she asks what established explanations illuminate, and what they leave unseen.

Abi holds qualifications from the Westminster Pastoral Foundation, Birkbeck University of London and the University of Roehampton, with additional training from the Relate Institute, the Tavistock Institute and the Institute of Group Analysis. She runs a private practice offering individual and couple psychotherapy, group work and clinical supervision. She also works with organisations, offering talks, and is interested in collaborative projects in art and writing.