Abstract
Lower caste demographics experience an infringed relationship with freedom itself. Through private interviews with nine American academic psychoanalysts, this author discovered consistent themes of silencing, exclusion and emotional toll. In this paper, abyssal positioning is applied to capture the differential experiences of academic freedom of expression. Because a purist psychoanalytic framing can be exclusive and narrowing, as was suggested by many of the participants, critical race theory, research from social psychology, and psychoanalytic constructs are interwoven to frame the unconscious motivations that keep these dynamics status quo. Radical examples of reparative and liberatory actions are offered.