Frantz Fanon

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Lore & Background

Frantz Fanon was born on 20 July 1925 in Fort-de-France, Martinique, into a middle-class family. His father, Félix Casimir Fanon, worked as a customs officer; his mother, Eléanore Médélice, of Afro-Caribbean and Alsatian descent, was a shopkeeper. He was the third of four sons in a family of eight children. During World War II, after the Vichy regime took control of Martinique, Fanon fled in January 1943 during his brother's wedding, traveling to the British colony of Dominica to link up with Allied sympathizers. He returned after a local uprising overthrew the regime, enlisted in the 5th Antillean Marching Battalion of the Free French Forces, and shipped out from Fort-de-France in March 1944. After arriving in Casablanca, he was shocked by racial discrimination in the FFL. He was transferred to Béjaïa, Algeria, where he witnessed antisemitism and Islamophobia among the pieds-noirs. In August 1944, he participated in Operation Dragoon, the Allied invasion of German-occupied Provence. He was seriously wounded by shrapnel in Doubs near Montbéliard, hospitalized for two months, and awarded a Croix de Guerre by Colonel Raoul Salan. He fought in the Battle of Alsace, but was later removed from his unit along with other black troops under de Gaulle's policy. Disillusioned, he wrote to his brother Joby: "I've been deceived, and I am paying for my mistakes... I'm sick of it all." After discharge in fall 1945, he returned to Martinique, completed his baccalauréat in philosophy at Lycée Schœlcher, and campaigned for Aimé Césaire. He returned to France in 1946 to study medicine at the University of Lyon, also studying literature, drama, and philosophy. He qualified as a psychiatrist in 1951 and did a residency at Saint-Alban-sur-Limagnole under François Tosquelles, who emphasized the role of culture in psychopathology. In 1952, he married Josie, an 18-year-old high school student. His first book, Black Skin, White Masks (1952), analyzed the negative psychological effects of colonial subjugation on black people. It was originally a rejected doctoral dissertation titled Essay on the Disalienation of the Black. Left-wing philosopher Francis Jeanson gave the book its title and wrote its epilogue. After his residency, Fanon practiced psychiatry at Pontorson for a year, then from 1953 in Algeria as chef de service at the Blida-Joinville Psychiatric Hospital. He developed sociotherapy to connect with patients' cultural backgrounds. Following the outbreak of the Algerian revolution in November 1954, he joined the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) after making contact with Pierre Chaulet in 1955. He treated both French soldiers who carried out torture and Algerian torture victims. He made extensive trips across Algeria, especially in Kabylia, to study cultural and psychological life, and used these trips for clandestine activities, including visits to the ski resort of Chrea, which hid an FLN base. In November 1956, he submitted his "Letter of Resignation to the Resident Minister" and was deported in January 1957.

Reader's Guide

Frantz Fanon formulated a model for community psychology, believing that many mental health patients would have an improved prognosis if they were integrated into their family and community instead of being treated with institutionalized care. He also helped found the field of institutional psychotherapy while working at Saint-Alban under François Tosquelles and Jean Oury. In Black Skin, White Masks, Fanon described the unfair treatment of black people in France and how they were disapproved of by white people. He argued that racism and dehumanization directed toward black people caused feelings of inferiority among black people, preventing them from fully assimilating into white society and into full personhood. Even if they spoke French, obtained an education, and followed social customs associated with white people, they would still never be regarded as French or a Man; instead, black people are defined as "Black Man" rather than "Man." Jansen and Osterhammel characterize Fanon as "the most influential anticolonial thinker of his time." For more than five decades, the life and works of Fanon have inspired national liberation movements and other freedom and political movements in Sri Lanka, South Africa, and the United States.

Did You Know?

• Fanon was an avid football player in Martinique and later organized football matches for patients and staff at the Blida-Joinville psychiatric hospital in Algeria.
• He was awarded a Croix de Guerre by Colonel Raoul Salan for his service in the Free French Forces during World War II.
• Fanon wrote three plays during his time at the University of Lyon, of which two survive.
• His first book, Black Skin, White Masks, was originally a rejected doctoral dissertation titled Essay on the Disalienation of the Black.
• Fanon made clandestine trips to the ski resort of Chrea, which hid an FLN base, while studying the cultural and psychological life of Algerians.