Search

"This appeal to disavow the link between social forces and personal life reflects not only a defense against psychic overwhelm but the ethic of individualism as well that is at the heart of our social surround" (635)"My aim in this paper is to challenge the tendency within psychoanalysis to separate the social and the individual, the public and the private, the clinical and the political" (636)"prevailing psychoanalytic theories overly focus on the family in the etiology of psychic conflict and its affective and defensive dynamics at the expense of the historical and sociopolitical specific

Subjectivation“The process that creates the subject is called subjectivation. This term captures the paradox of its impact. While it enables individuals to acquire a coherent self-image that covers over the original state of decenteredness characteristic of early life, it also creates subjects who uncritically identify with the social order’s repressive and constraining asymmetrical power relations and the ideologies that rationalize them (Althusser, 1984; Guralnik & Simeon, 2010).

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).

Malaise implies an overtaken state, leaving obscure who is doing the overtaking. I think it is more accurate to think of hegemony as something that results from an active process that is attractive to a great many people. (652)--> what to do about ill will?For me, the “deception” and the “hiding” are clues to an underlying motivation that guides and shapes economic policies and other structures in support of hegemony.So, how do I propose naming that motivation, more foundational even than the hegemonic one already described?

Holmes (2017) responded to Hollander’s (2017) article on hegemony and trauma. Underlying Holmes' argument was that Hollander framed her argument in terms of passivity. She took aim at Hollander’s use of “malaise.” Instead, Holmes reminded readers that hegemony is constantly reinforced and reenacted. Those who suffer from hegemonic power, also participated and actively supported systems of power. Holmes' piece blurred the narrow categories of Hollander's piece. Participants and supporters could also be victims of sociopolitical oppression.

"[Hollander] further characterizes this current state as "Times of Social Malaise" (p. 635). I found myself in a disagreement with that rendering of our times. 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 hegemnoic motivations.

Recalling the struggle between eros and death: “my view is that sociopolitical constructs (e.g., neoliberalism) and practices (the “isms”) are by-products of the ill-will factor” (653)Launching an inquiry into confronting our carceral inclinations: The discovery of one’s own underlying ill will is a very difficult aspect of psychoanalysis..

"So, how do I propose naming that motivation, more foundational even than the hegemonic one already described?

Hollander (1992) traced the psychological and mental warfare of Argentinian dictatorship on the majority of its citizens in the 1960s and 70s. Through documenting the various forms of psychological trauma inflicted on the people, Hollander underlined the importance of thinking about sociopolitical conditions when evaluating the psyche. The family was not the only contributor of trauma to adults. Society and political conditions clearly impacted the psyche of people.

“Freud (1937) proposed that certain conflicts could not be treated in an otherwise successful analysis because those conflicts were ensconced inaccessibly in the patient’s “psychical underworld” (p. 231). If it were possible to unearth them, it would be unethical to do so because “fresh suffering” (p. 232) would be imposed on the patient. To wit, Freud warned, “we should let sleeping dogs lie” (p.