Psychoanalysis, Politics and Humanities from the Couch to the Street
A special issue of Humanities (ISSN 2076-0787).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 January 2027 | Viewed by 54
Special Issue Editor
Interests: psychoanalytic theory and practice; cultural politics; education; mental healthcare; psychosocial activism; sociocultural norms; civic life; culture wars
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This Special Issue of Humanities is devoted to the ways in which psychoanalytic theory, practice and applications impact political and cultural worlds beyond the consulting room. In these essays and interviews, more than a dozen prominent psychoanalytic thinkers and activists explore how socio-political concerns (e.g., in relation to class, race, gender, sexuality, governance, religion, war, social welfare, education, security, immigration and the environment) have been welcomed or resisted in psychoanalytic history, theory and practice—not only in the clinical dyad but also in a range of public and collective contexts—from classrooms to clinics, training institutes, political activism and the culture wars. Many of the contributors are psychoanalysts and have therefore undergone their own training analyses. Other contributors are non-clinicians who are either in analysis or have been analyzed in the past. Each of them has been asked to consider various contemporary forms of advocacy for and resistance to sociopolitical enhancements of psychoanalytic theory, practice, training and education. Among the questions they address are the following: How are sociopolitical concerns and commitments communicated, and do they contribute to or impede the therapeutic alliance? What sorts of psychic defenses are activated by material traditionally thought to distract from psychotherapeutic work on the “intrapsychic” and intimate familial/social spheres? How do new technologies—particularly AI-LLM assisted treatment and training—add or detract from the therapeutic and social commitments of psychoanalysis? How can the efficacy of as well as access to psychoanalytic psychotherapies be enhanced by greater openness to broader sociopolitical and cultural forces—including in the service of civic and cultural engagement, whether through broader-based treatment, education, cultural engagement, advocacy or activism?
Each contributor helps explore how individual psychotherapeutic achievements and relationships could be made to relate more meaningfully to sociopolitical and cultural life and how the institutional culture and politics of psychoanalysis itself might be transformed in the process.
Dr. Max Cavitch
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- psychoanalysis
- sociopolitical contents
- public humanities
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