Learning about/from psychoanalysis

Dorothy Evans Holmes, “Reflections on Hollander’s ‘Hegemonic Mind’ and How to Treat It,”  ““Who is the sufferer and what is being suffered,” that huge majorities of us are suffering (p. 635). That is, a perfect storm of conditions in the world—the nearly worldwide social discombobulation, with millions having been torn from any sense of safety in or away from their homelands, the pervasiveness of seemingly unstoppable “isms” and their impoverishing effects on the mental and social lives of perpetrators and victims, and the fact of despairing and disillusioned masses who are vulnerable to the “alternative facts” and hateful rhetoric of despotic leaders all around the world—show us all that presently, suffering is the human condition”“If there is malaise I would proffer that it is a kind of defensive obliviousness that sequesters the ways in which mankind is identified with and ruthlessly pursues hegemonic motivations. I believe that psychoanalysts in that regard are no different from all other people”-yup“I believe attributing our suffering to social malaise may misguide the reader and undermine full understanding of the psychodynamics of hegemony, particularly how and why we are actors in its creation and perpetuation”“think of hegemony as something that results from an active process that is attractive to a great many people.”“Our awareness of the … unconscious can help us keep a third eye on the underlying leitmotif of our lives, lest they dominate our understanding of the world. … There are throngs of Americans who detest nothing more than the idea of someone getting something for free, especially if it might involve their tax dollars. Thus, during the recent [and now recurring] debate over health care … the attention of many was riveted on collecting and serving up instances of the tiny percentage of people who perhaps worked the system … to get free medical treatment—as though the shiftless few were the rule rather than the exception. Could not some of these hidebound individuals profit from considering the possibility that there might be a hefty element of selfishness and/or resentment embedded in their psychic hard-drives, and that these fractious feelings filter their understanding of the facts?”“those considerations help the therapist properly recognize despotic societal forces in the mind of the patient and what those forces require of the person’s identity and characteristic ways of living.”“. I reject the notion as inaccurate and unduly if understandably cynical. For me, the American Dream, as expressed in our founding principles, is still alive. It is, however, often weakened by other aspects of our American identity, namely, our baser tendencies, our capacity for ill will that sits always at the ready to overthrow our nobler selves”-the American dream is a lie because it’s only accessible to some; being unwilling to confront this reads in this article.