Transfigurations: Ornamentalism and A Decolonial Theory of Magic

How might one begin to heal the transgenerational wounds of colonization in psychoanalysis or psychotherapy? Legacies of coloniality-structures of power, labor, and subjugation-continue to cause psychic harm, particularly at the intersections of gendered and racialized bodies. In the Euro-American imagination, the flesh of the feminine Asiatic body in particular becomes the site for all manner of constructions, including but not limited to inorganic objectification: commodities to be possessed, repulsed, or destroyed. This article seeks to apply Anne Anlin Cheng's concept of ornamentalism to create a path toward healing the pain of colonial objectification by complicating the categories of human and object themselves. It does so by proposing a decolonial theory of magic that allows for transfiguration to occur, illustrating these concepts with a clinical vignette of a transfeminine Asian American therapist and a transfeminine Asian American patient.