Psychoanalysis and the Working Through of a Vineyard's Slave History with Mark Solms, PhD (Cape Town)
Oct 20, 2024
auto_awesome
Mark Solms, a neuropsychologist and author, discusses his journey to reconcile his family's vineyard with its troubling history linked to apartheid in South Africa. He emphasizes the importance of oral histories shared by black farm workers, revealing their struggles and resilience. Solms explores themes of historical trauma, counter-transference in psychotherapy, and the complexities of trust between owners and workers. Through community engagement and healing, he advocates for transforming painful legacies into collaborative futures and renewed cultural pride.
The podcast emphasizes the transformative power of personal narratives, revealing the lived experiences of black farm workers under apartheid to foster empathy and understanding.
It highlights the complexities of addressing historical injustices, illustrating the need for trust building between farm owners and laborers before implementing reforms.
The exploration of the vineyard's history, including its connections to colonialism, became crucial for community healing and shifting towards a collaborative ownership model.
Deep dives
Engaging the Past: A Journey to Truth and Reconciliation
The episode illustrates the significance of addressing historical injustices through personal narratives and historiographical research. An oral history project was initiated to explore the lives of black farm workers who lived under apartheid, shifting away from a distant scholarly pursuit to one deeply intertwined with their contemporary experiences. The participants shared poignant stories highlighting the deep poverty and systemic inequalities they faced, revealing the human aspects of what these workers endured. This approach promoted empathy and understanding among the farm owner and workers, marking a departure from the impersonal studies of historical archives.
A Fragile Beginning: The Challenges of Ownership Transition
In taking ownership of a family vineyard in South Africa, the new owner faced immense expectations of reforming the labor environment for farm workers. Despite good intentions, initial interactions were fraught with fear and mistrust, leading to unanticipated resistance from workers who questioned the viability of the owner's reforms. This breakdown in communication highlighted the historical imbalance of power, revealing the complexities of transitioning from a legacy of oppression to collaborative ownership. The owner's realization that immediate changes had to be made before gaining real trust became a pivotal learning moment in the quest for equality.
Understanding the Historical Legacy: Digging Deep
A pivotal moment in the journey involved excavating both the land and its complex history to facilitate understanding of the ramifications of colonialism and apartheid. Collaborating with historians and archaeologists unveiled the painful stories tied to the land, revealing the connections to indigenous peoples and slavery. Unearthed artifacts offered concrete evidence of the deep-rooted injustices and generational trauma associated with the farm, allowing both the owner and workers to confront painful truths. This process became central to fostering solidarity and motivating collective healing within the community.
Creating a Sustainable Future: Land and Partnerships
The results of the exploration led to the formation of a partnership model where the farm workers would also benefit from land ownership alongside the owner. Although this vision required substantial financial investment, the owner took a mortgage and collaborated with the government to acquire additional land for the workers. The partnership aimed to empower the farm workers not only economically but also politically, fostering a sense of pride and dignity in their work. However, the long-term success of this model was contingent upon careful financial management and collaboration among all stakeholders.
Resurgence After Setbacks: Hope and New Beginnings
After facing considerable setbacks due to mismanagement and corruption, the farm's future looked bleak until a new investor stepped in to provide the necessary capital for restoration. This partnership reinvigorated the farm's operations, emphasizing the importance of sustainability and community ownership while integrating creativity through cultural projects like music and cuisine. The rejuvenation efforts underscored that change is not instantaneous but requires resilience and continuous commitment from all parties involved. Ultimately, it reinforced that the legacy of psychoanalysis can extend beyond therapy into practical applications that foster community and promote healing.
“The historian [of the vineyard] gave us regular feedback on what she was finding, and she also brought in oral historians to take our own life histories. There's also a psychoanalytical point to be made here - you can take refuge in this scholarly exercise, going into archives and finding out things that happened hundreds of years ago, you can all too easily remove yourself from that: ‘This is what happened long, long ago’. But all of us on this farm, we had all lived through Apartheid. The oral historians who wanted to participate, we met over many sessions in my living room and the oral historians asked each of us who volunteered to participate to tell our stories of our lives and it was a real revelation to me. Despite my abstract awareness, the actual concrete listening to people who I was getting to know as individuals, to hear one after another account of the grinding poverty of what it actually is like to be a poor black farm worker in South Africa under Apartheid."
Episode Description: Mark shares with us his original intent to make a "citizen-sized contribution to the reconstruction" of South Africa through redressing the inequalities that formed a basis of his family's vineyard. He describes going through a painful process of enlightenment where good intentions themselves were insufficient to honor the historical processes that lived inside the owner and the tenant farmers who have been on the land for generations. Psychoanalytically informed, he consulted a historian and archeologist to, along with the farmers, dig into both the land and the lives of all involved. This led to a rebalancing of the pride/shame dynamic that had existed in the owner/workers. When faced with the inevitable question, "Must I give the farm back?" Mark discusses what he felt was the difference between ‘self-interest’ and ‘selfish-interest’. He shares with us the efforts he took to enable the workers to become landowners, to become educated and also to become discoverers and messengers of their historically rich cuisine and music. He also details the ‘not so happy ending; of these efforts as his farm has struggled financially under the burden of these considerable costs and government corruption. Things have turned around of late and there is reason to be optimistic for the long-term flourishing of his vineyard and his “citizen sized” contribution to the well-being of those with whom he works.
Our Guest: Mark Solms, PhD is a member of the British Psychoanalytical Society and the American and South African Psychoanalytic Associations. He is Director of Neuropsychology at the Neuroscience Institute of the University of Cape Town. He is an Honorary Fellow of the American College of Psychiatrists. He has received numerous honors and awards, including the Sigourney Prize. He has published 350 scientific papers, and eight books, the latest being The Hidden Spring (Norton, 2021). He is the authorized editor and translator of the Revised Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (24 volumes) and the forthcoming Complete Neuroscientific Works of Sigmund Freud (4 volumes).
