In today’s conversation, psychotherapist and psychoanalyst Susie Orbach discusses with us the relationships between psychoanalysis and politics. She points out the problem, in efforts to bring psychoanalytic insights into political discourse, of using technical terms which are esoteric. She stresses the need to transcend the doctrinal disputes and rivalries which can cloud the psychoanalytic world (where, as she notes, there is sometimes little tolerance of difference), but are of little interest to wider audiences. Orbach rejects the idea that psychoanalytic therapy must involve a ‘detachment’ of the therapist from real-world issues, and argues instead that clinical work has to be be based on engagement. Intrinsic to that, however, is a spirit of open-minded curiosity about all aspects of the client’s life.
The conversation moves on to consider the variety of ways in which analysts and therapists can also be political activists. Orbach, whose first book ‘Fat is a Feminist Issue’ was in 1978 an important early bridge between feminism and psychoanalytically-influenced psychotherapy, offers some interesting historical reflections on the influences each way between psychoanalysis and feminism generally. She suggests that it is useful to see the psychoanalytic contribution to politics as a whole being centred on emotions, and their relationship to ideas, and also reminds us that there are direct practical possibilities for intervention, as seen in some international examples of clinical work amongst disadvantaged communities. We end with some observations on how the socio-economic contexts within which psychoanalysis has developed, and its present base in cosmopolitan cultures, have shaped the political attitudes of psychoanalysts, though not always in the same way.
[Unfortunately, a technical issue had delayed the start of recording this conversation, and led to it being shorter than the average metapolitics episode. We hope to have the chance to continue discussion with Susie on these and other issues on a future occasion.]
