Thinking critically in the midst of the maelstrom: can psychoanalysis help us stay sane in an insane world?

Abstract

This special section of Psychotherapy and Politics International contains an online discussion from October 2006 titled ‘Thinking critically in the midst of the maelstrom: can psychoanalysis help us stay sane in an insane world?’ This discussion, which took place on PsyBC (http://www.psybc.com/) revolved around two target articles by Neil Altman and Nancy Hollander on psychoanalytic understandings of the contemporary crisis in the US. This introduction discusses a few of the issues that emerged during the wide-ranging discussions. Among these issues are: whether war is inevitable; the interaction of psychodynamics and social processes in maintaining the dominant ideology and social structures; the psychodynamics of bystanders in maintaining social problems; and the complicity of many, even most, citizens in the advanced countries in various ongoing forms of oppression. A theme running through the discussion concerns the role of the citizen in a democracy and the need to increase the individual and social ability to remain aware of unpleasant social realities.