ABSTRACT
This narrative tells how my early family life imbued me with the personal characteristics
of a psychoanalytic self. Early life and recurring conflicts, both internal and community-based, are retraced for their impact on my psychoanalytic identity. I tell how I came to see the necessity of psychoanalytic thinking for framing and finding answers to suffering, especially in relation to race, social class, and gender. This chapter also expresses my deeply heartfelt gratitude for the many powerful people—family, mentors, teachers, supervisors, and my own analysts—who, all along the way, have helped me to become my authentic psychoanalytic self.
