New York Psychiatrist Hates White People

Among the many challenges that have befallen me in the course of writing this blog has been this one: how to know what happens in the offices of individual therapists.

Given that the field has many different schools, one is inexorably led to the conclusion that the individual therapist is by far the most important factor. Many experienced therapists deviate from their training, in order to help their patients. Many of the best are capable of engaging with their patients, though, as we saw in a report about a highly touted New York therapist by name of Esther Perel, some of those who are purported to be the best cannot do so.

This being the case I have occasionally reverted to a study of advice columns. At the very least they offer up the conventional wisdom about what does or does not count as therapeutically correct. In the past I referenced a New York Magazine column called Ask Polly. I have ceased commenting on it, not only because it was awful, but because it has migrated away from the magazine and into Substack. Subscribing to vacuous writing is beyond me.

Today, thanks to the highly estimable Bari Weiss, also a Substack journalist, we have a glimpse at the higher realm of the New York psychiatric and psychoanalytic world. (via Maggie's Farm) The individual in question, Dr. Aruna Khilanani, trained in New York at NYU, Cornell and Columbia. She has what appears to be an impressive resume. She was invited by the Yale University Medical School Child Study Center to deliver a lecture during their Grand Rounds. In medical schools Grand Rounds are lectures offered to the staff by experts.

So, presumably, Dr. Khilanani sits at the top of the field. Or, at least, close to it. So, one is more than shocked to read some of the comments she made in her Yale Grand Rounds-- for their unabashed hatred of white people. One feels obliged to mention that Dr. Khilanani is not African-American. Nevertheless she considers herself a person of color.

Happily for us, the Weiss Substack report includes an interview with Dr. Khilanani, conducted by Katie Herzog. I will begin with the interview before sharing some of her full throated hatred of white people. For the record, this story has been reported by the New York Post and the Daily Mail. As you might guess, the mainstream media has up to now ignored it.

We are unfortunately not surprised to see that the usual swill, the kind you would expect to read in Ask Polly, about getting in touch with your feelings, has found its way into the mind of Dr. Khilanani.

She tells Herzog that conservatives are psychologically healthier, more worthy of her friendship, because they are in closer touch with their anger and hatred.

They are more in touch with their anger and negative feelings. They can articulate it. They can say it, they’re not covering it up or like “Oh my god, I’m amazing, I love all people.” There's not all this liberal fluff of goodness. Conservatives can go there. They can say things that are uncomfortable that I think liberals would shirk at or move away from or deny.

I would feel more comfortable hanging out with Ann Coulter than a lot of liberals because she’s unlikely to do anything. She’s in contact with her anger and her hatred, and I think that needs to be worked through, don't get me wrong, for the country to heal, but she's actually in contact with those feelings that a lot of people can't say out loud and that's a safer space. Now do I agree with her? No. But liberals have no access to that at all. The thought is forbidden.

She explains to Herzog that she studied critical theory at the University of Chicago and that she believes that white people are suffering from unprocessed guilt. Apparently, since they are angry and hateful all the time, they are processing that. One feels compelled to mention that the BLM riots that engulfed the country last year did not tell me that people of color were failing to express their own anger and hatred. About that Dr. Khilanani has nothing to say.

She does opine, strangely, about white people not eating bread:

White people have an intense level of guilt. I have never seen a level of guilt that I see among white people. I mean, white people don't eat bread. Think about that. There have been wars all over the world over grains and bread and only here, white people are depriving themselves. Think about that shit.

Presumably, white people feel guilty for colonialism and therefore they do not eat bread. I am sure that you are happy to be enlightened on these matters, from someone who stands at the summit of the New York mental health world.

One suspects that the good doctor seems to believe that she has something of a professional responsibility to show how healthy she is, mentally speaking. And this requires her to show off, to make a public spectacle of her hatred for white people. Not only does this show us that she shares a rather limited and contorted view of therapy, but that she lives in a culture where it is acceptable to hate white people. 

A few words from her talk:

This is the cost of talking to white people at all. The cost of your own life, as they suck you dry. There are no good apples out there. White people make my blood boil. Around five years ago, I took some actions. I systematically white-ghosted most of my white friends. And got rid of the couple white BIPOCs that snuck in my crew too. I stopped watching the news. Once I started, I couldn’t stop. I have less than one percent left. It was also a public service. I had fantasies of unloading a revolver into the head of any white person that got in my way, burying their body, and wiping my bloody hands as I walked away relatively guiltless with a bounce in my step. Like I did the world a fucking favor.

Herzog asks about the following passage:

White people love talking about race right now. You cannot get them to shut the fuck up. It makes them feel good. And, they also imagine it makes us feel good to see their true enlightenment. Talking about racism is a form of self-congratulatory masturbation. White people exchange pleasantries, without really addressing racism. It serves no purpose in connecting other than to jerk themselves off.

Dr. Khilanini adds that she is fed up trying to talk with white people about race:

We are asking a demented, violent predator who thinks they are a saint or a superhero, to accept responsibility. They have five holes in their brain. It’s not going to happen. It’s like banging your head against a brick wall. Not a good idea.

Being of a somewhat racist temperament herself, Dr. Khilanini believes that all white people, the people she despises, the people she shuns, are fundamentally racist, by virtue of being white. Presumably, this does not apply to Ann Coulter, because Ann Coulter is in touch with her race hatred-- as is Dr. Khilanini.

She adds this remark:

We need to remember that directly talking about race to white people is useless, because they are at the wrong level of conversation. Addressing racism assumes that white people can see and process what we are talking about. They can’t. That’s why they sound demented. They don’t even know they have a mask on. White people think it’s their actual face. We need to get to know the mask. 

So, she is in touch with her own feelings of hatred. And yet, she also believes that white people, conservatives excepted, cannot understand anything, because they sound demented.

Does she sound sane? Does she sound rational and sensible? One suspects that she is making a grandiose public display of her anger because she thinks that it is the mentally healthy thing to do.

Otherwise, she has become a living, breathing caricature.

And one also suspects that she is trying to pick up some consulting business, as have people like Robin DiAngelo and Ibram X. Kendi. She must have noticed that people who give every impression of lacking a functioning intelligence are lauded and hired at exorbitant fees, and she is trying to jump on the train.

If not, we are seeing a mind going completely to waste.