Lost and found
Anderson J. Franklin, professor of counseling, developmental and educational psychology, David. S. Nelson Chair
Ph.D., City College of the City University of New York
Specialization: Ethnicity and mental health
Representative publication: From Brotherhood to Manhood: How Black Men Rescue Their Relationships and Dreams from the Invisibility Syndrome (John Wiley & Son, 2004)
My scholarly work focuses on understanding resilience and the psychological well being of African Americans, particularly men. Much of my writing as a clinician and psychotherapist utilizes my theory of the "invisibility syndrome," which attempts to explain psychological outcomes for persons experiencing misrepresentation by repeated encounters with stereotyped beliefs about them.
I have always been interested in how people remain resilient and positive about life when confronted with the misunderstandings and treatment that come from racism and discrimination. My study of Mississippi African-American male elders across their life spans helped me in the endeavor to define resilience. Under a CCNY/Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Partnership grant, I studied the influence of resilience upon African Americans' health beliefs and behaviors in colon cancer screening. During my years of clinical work, I collected videotapes of therapeutic support groups of black men. These provided a different context to study resilience and the struggle against invisibility so aptly represented in Ralph Ellison's classic novel Invisible Man.