Draft:Derek Hook

Derek W. Hook is a Professor of Clinical Psychology at Duquense University, Extraordinary Professor of Psychology at the University of Pretoria in South Africa, and a practitioner of psychoanalysis. Hook is well known for his work in the field of Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis, post-colonial theory focusing on the work of Franz Fanon,  critical theory, and the psychology of racism. Hook has been hailed as "a distinguished and internationally recognized scholar, who uses Lacanian Psychoanalysis to study pressing social issues" and whose "work exhibits his talents as a critical thinker, his humility, his ethical sensitivity, and his openness to further dialog."

He has published many heavily cited book, articles and book chapters, including important text books on critical psychology and developmental psychology,  and the first comprehensive text on social psychological approaches to communication. He is also one of the founding editors of the Subjectivity, a Palgrave Macmillan Journal.

Life and Career
Derek Hook was born in Harare, Zimbabwe in 1972. He received his PhD in Psychology from the University of the Witwatersrand in 2001, and a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from Birkbeck College, University of London in 2014.

Hook has taught Lacanian clinical and social theory around the world, in South Africa at University of the Witwatersrand and University of Pretoria, in the United Kingdom at Birkbeck College at the University of London and London School of Economics, and in he United States at Duquesne University.

At Duquesne University, Hook teaches clinical psychology, phenomenology, psychoanalysis, discourse analysis, psychology of art, and human science psychology. He supervises clinical trainees at the schools Clinical Psychology PhD program, renowned for its human science and phenomenological approaches.

Apart from his position at Duquesne University, Hook also serves as an Extraordinary Professor of Psychology at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. He teaches a summer course on Lacanian Psychoanalysis within the Department of Psychosocial Studies at Birkbeck College, University of London. He was granted an International Social Research Foundation grant in 2015 and has twice received the Loogman Grant from the Center for African Studies at Duquesne University, focusing on research related to anti-apartheid figure Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe. Additionally, he was honored with the McAnulty College Award for Excellence in Scholarship (2017 & 2022) and Excellence in Teaching (2022).

He lives in Pittsburgh, PA with his wife and two children.

Scholarly Works
Derek Hook has made substantial scholarly contributions to the psychoanalysis of racism, and his applied psychoanalytic and socio-political research examines the psychical modalities of race and racism, focusing on American and South African contexts. He has developed this work in recent articles related to death-bound subjectivity and Fanon's zone of non-being, petrified life, white anxiety, temporality in the work of Fanon, the death-drive, and racializing embodiment.

Hook co-edits the Palgrave Lacan Series with Calum Neill, and is one of three editors (along with Stijn Vanheule and Calum Neill) of the 3-volume Routledge series Reading Lacan's Écrits. His edited collection, Lie on Your Wounds: The Prison Correspondence of Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe was published in 2019. His monographs Foucault, Psychology and the Analytics of Power was published in 2010 and Six Moments in Lacan was published in 2017. He has recently co-authored the book Lacan and Race with Sheldon George and Fanon, Phenomenology and Psychology with Leswin Laubscher and Miraj Desai. In African Spectrum, Danielle Faye Tran wrote that Hook's work "is an essential read for students of all levels who wish to gain a more detailed understanding of the criticism and theories surrounding the discussion of racism and social psychology in post-Apartheid states." The second edition of his book, A Critical Psychology of the Post-Colonial: The Mind of Apartheid is forthcoming.

Since 2020 Hook has hosted a YouTube channel where he teaches psychoanalysis and critical theory to a wide audience and interviews theorists and clinicians. As of June 2024, he has had nearly half a million views. Hook is known for his infectious enthusiasm for psychoanalysis and is loved by his students. He is also known for his ability to teach difficult theoretical concepts and for making the work of Lacan more approachable. Referring to Hooks work, Stijn Vanheule notes that it is "erudite, entertaining, and it bypasses the twin trappings of dogmatism and theoretical jargon."

Books

 * 2024 Darkest Before Dawn: Writings, Testimonies and Correspondence of Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, with Leswin Laubscher
 * 2017 Six Moments in Lacan
 * 2014 Steve Biko: Voice of Liberation
 * 2013 (Post)apartheid Conditions
 * 2011 A Critical Psychology of the Postcolonial: The Mind of Apartheid
 * 2007 Foucault, Psychology and the Analytics of Power

Edited collections

 * Neill, C. & Vanheule, S. and Hook, D. (Eds.) (2024). Reading Lacan’s Ecrits, Vol. 4: From ‘Overture’ to ‘Presentation on Psychical Causality’. Routledge.
 * Guerra, A., Hook, D. & Lima, R. (Eds.) (2023). Psicanálise e Herança Colonial. N-1 edições.
 * Hook, D. & Vanheule, S. (Eds.) (2023). Lacan on Depression and Melancholia. Routledge.
 * Hook, D. Neill, C. & Vanheule, S. (Eds.) (2022). Reading Lacan’s Ecrits, Vol. 3: From ‘Logical Time’ to ‘Response to Jean Hyppolite’. Routledge.
 * George, S. & Hook, D. (Eds.) (2021). Lacan & Race: Racism, Identity & Psychoanalytic Theory. Routledge.
 * Laubscher, L., Hook, D. & Desai, M. (Eds.) (2021). Fanon, Phenomenology and Psychology. Routledge.
 * Hook, D. Neill, C. & Vanheule, S. (Eds.) (2019). Reading Lacan’s Ecrits, Vol. 2: From ‘The Freudian Thing’ to ‘Remarks on Lagache’. Routledge.
 * Hook, D. (Ed.) (2019). Lie on Your Wounds: Selected Prison Letters of Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe. Wits University Press.
 * Vanheule, S., Hook, D. & Neill, C. (Eds.) (2019). Reading Lacan’s Ecrits, Vol. 1:: From ‘Signification of the Phallus’ to ‘Metaphor of the Subject’. Routledge.
 * D. Hook, B. Franks & M. Bauer. (Eds.). A Psicologia Social Da Comunicaçâo. Editora Vozes.
 * Stevens, G., Duncan, N. & Hook, D. (Eds.) (2013). Race, Memory and the Apartheid Archive. Palgrave.
 * Hook, D., Franks, B. & Bauer, M. (Eds.) (2011). Social Psychology of Communication. Palgrave.
 * Hook, D. (2004) (Ed.) Critical Psychology. University of Cape Town Press.
 * Ratele, K. & Hook, D. (Eds.) (2004). Self, Community & Psychology. University of Cape Town Press.
 * Hook, D., Eagle, G. (Eds). (2002). Psychopathology and Social Prejudice. University of Cape Town Press.
 * Hook, D., Watts, J. & Cockcroft, K. (Eds). (2002). Developmental Psychology. University of Cape Town Press.
 * Terre Blanche, M., Bhavnani, K. & Hook, D. (Eds). (1999). Body Politics: Power, Knowledge and the Body in the Social Sciences.  Histories of the Present Press.

Articles
Click here for a list of articles by Derek Hook.