Skip to main content
Log in

Malcolm X’s Conversions: The Interplay of Political and Religious Subjectivities

  • Published:
Pastoral Psychology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In this article, I offer a way of thinking about the interplay of political and religious subjectivities in persons’ conversion experiences or faith journeys. More particularly, I contend that a person’s political and religious experiences interact such that political experiences and ideas shape the person’s religious values and beliefs, and vice versa. Malcolm X’s story is used to illustrate this interplay of subjectivities vis-à-vis the varied changes or conversions in his life. The major point here is that the richness and depth of change in Malcolm X’s life (and other figures) are better grasped when we take into account the dynamic intersection of the political and religious.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Arendt, H. (1958). The human condition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aron, L. (1996). A meeting of minds: Mutuality in psychoanalysis. Hillsdale: Analytic.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bambrough, R. (1963). The philosophy of Aristotle. New York: Penguin Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beebe, B., & Lachmann, F. (2002). Infant research and adult treatment. Hillsdale: Analytic.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beebe, B., Knoblauch, S., Rustin, J., & Sorter, D. (2003). Symposium on intersubjectivity in infant research and its implications for adult treatment, Part I. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 13, 743–841.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Benhabib, S. (1992). Situating the self. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bromberg, P. (1998). Standing in spaces: Essays on clinical process, trauma, and dissociation. Hillsdale: Analytic.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buber, M. (1958). I and thou. New York: Charles Scribner.

    Google Scholar 

  • Colapietro, V. (1989). Peirce’s approach to the self. Albany: SUNY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coontz, S. (1988). The social origins of private life. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • D’Entreves, M. (1994). The political philosophy of Hannah Arendt. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fonagy, P., & Target, M. (1997). Attachment and reflective function: their role in self-organization. Development and Psychopathology, 9, 679–700.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Frie, R. (1997). Subjectivity and intersubjectivity in modern philosophy and psychoanalysis. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gandhi, M. (1993). The story of my experiment with truth. New York: Beacon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haley, A. (1964). The autobiography of Malcolm X. New York: Ballantine Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heidegger, M. (1971). On the way to language. San Francisco: Harper Collins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hesse, E., & Main, M. (2000). Disorganized infant, child, and adult attachment. Journal of the American Association of Psychoanalysis, 48, 1097–1126.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hooks, B. (2000). Where we stand: Class matters. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoopes, J. (ed). (1991). Peirce on signs: Writings on semiotic by Charles Sanders Peirce. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kertzer, D. (1988). Ritual, politics, and power. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • LaMothe, R. (in press). The taboo of politics in pastoral counseling. The Journal of Pastoral Care and Counseling.

  • Macmurray, J. (1957). The self as agent. London: Humanities Press International.

    Google Scholar 

  • Macmurray, J. (1961). Person in relation. London: Humanities Press International.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mounier, E. (1952). Personalism. London: Routledge & Kagan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Muller, J. (1996). Beyond the psychoanalytic dyad. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peirce, C. (1998). The essential Pierce: Selected philosophical writings, 1893–1913. Edited by the Peirce Edition Project. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

  • Sroufe, A. (1995). Emotional development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stern, D. N. (1985). The interpersonal world of the infant. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, C. (1989). Sources of the self. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Young, M. (1990). Justice and the politics of difference. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ryan Williams LaMothe.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

LaMothe, R.W. Malcolm X’s Conversions: The Interplay of Political and Religious Subjectivities. Pastoral Psychol 60, 523–536 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-009-0256-0

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-009-0256-0

Keywords

Navigation