Interview with a Vampire: The Case and Conceptualization of Louis de Pointe du Lac

Counseling psychology emphasizes multicultural competence and the exploration of cultural identity, acculturation, and worldview. Considering intersectionality and minority stress in identity development, particularly for clients with multiple minoritized identities, are essential because of societal systems of oppression for marginalized groups. Through analyzing a character whose identity was shaped by the time he was born into, as well as the long-standing impact of his “otherness,” his transformation does not magically fix or free him from the sociocultural environment he exists within, nor the systems of oppression present. Vampirism in the context of this story is a mechanism used as an allegorical attempt at escaping from isolation, marginalization, and oppression, while still imposing its own biopsychosocial effects on the character and affecting his identity development.

Learning Objectives:

1. Participants will be able to recognize the difference between minority stress theory and intersectionality theory.

2. Participants will be able to identify how attempting to follow the values of White Supremacy and survive the constraints of it, can harm the individual.

3. Participants will be able to recognize how systems of oppression can make it difficult for an individual to thrive when they carry marginalized identities that can and cannot be hidden.

4. Participants will be able to interpret how an individual can engage in resilience, redemption sequences, and self-empowerment; despite systems of oppression.