THE INVISIBLE MAN

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  • “I am an invisible man. No I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allen Poe: Nor am I one of your Hollywood movie ectoplasms.I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids- and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, simply because people refuse to see me . . . I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves or figments of their imagination, indeed, everything and anything except me . . . I remember that I'm invisible and walk softly so as not awake the sleeping ones. Sometimes it is best not to awaken them; there are few things in the world as dangerous as sleepwalkers.”

  • Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

Slavery, overt/covert racism, negative stereotyping, and ongoing oppression can create a deep sense of cultural mistrust, beliefs that one’s worth and abilities are overshadowed by stereotypes, and sensitivity to subtle acts of racism. These are elements of “invisibility syndrome.”[1]

“The invisibility syndrome evolves when persons feel that they live in a racialized or depersonalized context in which who they are as a genuine person, including their individual talents and unique abilities, is overshadowed by stereotyped attitudes and prejudice that others hold about them.”[2]

People that experience invisibility syndrome often have a daily experience of feeling like that are being discriminated against, often in very subtle acts that are perceived as racially motivated. The “invisibility” is that one’s true being is not perceived, only one’s skin color, and all ideas attached to it are. The energy required to deal with these interactions can be exhausting, and reinforce propositions such as “black people have to work twice as hard as white people to get ahead.” It interferes with goal development, sense of accomplishment, and motivation for success and relationship. At worst it can lead to depression, a distortion of how one exists in the world, and intense anger. These subtle incidents of racism are “microaggressions.”[3] Sometimes the person doing the microaggression is unaware that the act is offensive or perceived as racist, or is unconscious of the act itself. An example of a microaggression is when someone is put in a position to be the “spokesperson” for all members of his or her group. The invisibility syndrome may be as damaging to people's physical health as their mental health. Some research suggests that racism is a stressor contributing to hypertension.

[1] Invisibility Syndrome and Racial Identity Development in Psychotherapy and Counseling African American Men. Anderson J. Franklin. The Counseling Psychologist 1999; 27; 761; Invisibility Syndrome: A Clinical Model of the Effects of Racism on African-American Males. Anderson J. Franklin, Ph.D., and Nancy Boyd-Franklin, Ph.D. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry (70(1), 2000.

[2] Racisim and Invisibility, Anderson J. Franklin, Ph.D., Nancy Boyd-Franklin, and Shalonda Kelly. Journal of Emotional Abuse, Vol. 6, Issue 2-3, 2006.

[3] Racial Microaggressions in Everyday Life: Implications for Clinical Practice. Sue, D., et al. American Psychologist, 62(4), 271-286, (2007).