ABSTRACT
Thinking Space was set up to develop the capacity of staff and trainees at the Tavistock Clinic to think about racism and other forms of hatred towards difference in ourselves and others. This chapter focuses on the emotional experiences that the talk aroused and some of the insights and learning that participants seemed to glean from the reflections and discussion that ensued. The experiences were a particular spur to the idea of creating the Thinking Space forum, as a space that could enable participants to engage constructively with the feelings and dynamics that tended to emerge around the subject of race and culture in a way that did not derail or stop thinking and learning. Thinking Space was set up because the psychotherapy profession turns a blind eye to its whiteness and its lack of diversity, and, when it does not, too often its approach is tokenistic.
