Dorothy Evans Holmes

Dorothy Evans Holmes (born 1943) is an American psychoanalytic thinker, psychoanalyst and psychotherapist. She is known for her work on racial and cultural trauma.

Early life and education Holmes was born in 1943 and was raised in Chicago, Illinois, United States. She has a twin sister called Doris. Holmes became Program Director of the Clinical Psychology PsyD Program at the George Washington University (GWU) in 1998, working at GWU until her retirement in 2011. She has criticised the reluctance of traditional psychoanalytic institutions and clinicians to address culturally imposed trauma and recognise the resultant harm. She also put forward the theory that "both analyst and analysand collude in avoiding dealing with race in the transference, because of its links to violent impulses and the deeply embedded cultural racism."

Holmes presented at the 2013 Black Psychoanalysts Speak Conference, and was featured in the documentary made about the conference, Black Psychoanalysts Speak (2014), directed by Basia Winograd. In 2017, Holmes worked as a training and supervising analyst with the Psychoanalytic Education Center of the Carolinas, who offer the Holmes Fellowship in her honour. Holmes served as Chairperson of the commission.

Holmes served on the editorial boards of The International Journal of Psychoanalysis and The Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association. She is also a Trustee on the Board of the Accreditation Council of Psychoanalytic Education.

Select publications

Holmes, Dorothy Evans. (1992. "Race and transference in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy". The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 73 (1), pp. 1–11. Holmes, Dorothy Evans. (1999). "Race and countertransference: Two “blind spots” in psychoanalytic perception." Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, 1 (4) pp. 319–332. Holmes, Dorothy Evans. (2006). "Success neurosis: what race and social class have to do with it" in Moodley, Roy and Palmer, Stephen (eds.) Race, Culture and Psychotherapy: Critical Perspectives in Multicultural Practice. London: Routledge. Holmes, Dorothy Evans. (2016). ""I knew that my mind could take me anywhere": psychoanalytic reflections on the dignity of African Americans living in a racist society" in Levine, Susan S. (ed.) Dignity Matters: Psychoanalytic and Psychosocial Perspectives. London: Routledge. Holmes, Dorothy Evans. (2016). "Culturally imposed trauma: The sleeping dog has awakened. Will psychoanalysis take heed?" Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 26 (6), pp. 641–654. Holmes, Dorothy Evans. (2016). "Come Hither, American Psychoanalysis: Our Complex Multicultural America Needs What We Have to Offer." Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 64 (3), pp. 568–586. Holmes, Dorothy Evans. (2017). "The fierce urgency of now: An appeal to organized psychoanalysis to take a strong stand on race." The American Psychoanalyst, 51 (1). pp. 1–9. Holmes, Dorothy Evans/ (2019). "Our Country ‘tis of We and Them: Psychoanalytic Perspectives on our Fractured American Identity" American Imago, 36, pp. 359–379. Holmes, Dorothy Evans/ (2021). ""I do not have a racist bone in my body": Psychoanalytic perspectives on what is lost and not mourned in our culture’s persistent racism." Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 69 (2), pp. 237–258.

Awards

Division 39 Diversity Award (2017)