https://doi.org/10.4081/rp.2021.495
The Embodiment of "Us and Them": Fascist Experience in a Traumatized World
Submitted: November 12, 2020
Accepted: March 7, 2021
Published: August 26, 2021
Accepted: March 7, 2021
Abstract Views: 3975
PDF (Italiano): 223
PDF: 258
PDF: 258
Publisher's note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
Authors
This paper represents an attempt to demonstrate that "us vs them," the binary that lies at the heart of fascist experience, is embodied. The authors suggest that fascist experience is not merely political but that it infiltrates many aspects of our personal and professional lives. To accomplish their aims the authors focus on two inextricably intertwined strands of psychoanalytic theorizing: traumatic experience and human embodiment. Clinical vignettes illustrating the challenges faced by analysts in working with patients who support a fascist-leaning leader are provided. The paper concludes by suggesting that the emphasis on argument and dialogue in relational psychoanalysis counters the seductions of fascist experience.
Aron, L. (1996). A Meeting of Minds. Hillsdale, NJ: Analytic Press.
Baumann, Z. (2008). Liquid Times: Living in an Age of Uncertainty. Cambridge: Polity.
Brandchaft, B. (2007). Systems of Pathological Accommodation and Change in Analysis. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 24(4), 667-687.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/0736-9735.24.4.667
Brothers, D. (2008). Toward a Psychology of Uncertainty: Trauma-Centered Psychoanalysis. New York, NY: Analytic Press.
Fromm, E. (1941/1969). Escape from Freedom. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Co.
Hollander, N.C. (2017). Who is the Sufferer and What is Being Suffered? Subjectivity in Tines of Social Malaise. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 27(6), 635-650.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10481885.2017.1379318
Knausgaard, K. O. (2011). My Struggle - Book Six. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Kohut, H. (1969-70). On leadership. In P. H. Ornstein (Ed.), The Search for the Self: Selected Writings of Heinz Kohut: 1978-1981, (pp. 103-128) vol. 3, (1978). New York, NY: International Universities Press.
Kohut, H. (1971). The Analysis of the Self: A Systematic Approach to the Psychoanalytic Treatement of Narcissistic Personality Disorders. New York, NY: International Universities Press.
Kohut, H. (1977). The Restoration of the Self. New York, NY: International Universities Press.
Kohut, H. (1985). Self Psychology and the Humanities, New York, NY: Norton.
Mitchell, S. A. (1984). The Problem of the Will. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 20, 257-265.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00107530.1984.10745735
Orange, D. M. (2011). The Suffering Stranger: Hermeneutics for Everyday Clinical Practice. London and New York, NY: Routledge Taylor & Frances.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203863633
Oz, A. (2019). Dear Zealots: Letters from a Divided Land. Boston and New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Reich, W. (1933/1942). The Mass Psychology of Fascism. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Sletvold J. (2014), The Embodied Analyst - From Freud and Reich to Relationality. London and New York, NY: Routledge Taylor & Frances.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315832791
Sletvold, J. (2016). The analyst"s body: A relational perspective from the body. Psychoanalytic Perspectives, 13, 186-200.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1551806X.2016.1156433
Stanley, J. (2018). How Fascism Works: the Politics of Us and Them. New York, NY: Random House.
Winnicott, D. (1965). The Maturational Process and the Facilitating Environment: Studies in the Theory of Emotional Development, New York, NY: International Universities Press.
How to Cite
Sletvold, J., & Brothers, D. (2021). The Embodiment of "Us and Them": Fascist Experience in a Traumatized World. Ricerca Psicoanalitica, 32(2). https://doi.org/10.4081/rp.2021.495
PAGEPress has chosen to apply the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) to all manuscripts to be published.
Similar Articles
- Cesare Albasi, Alioscia Boschiroli, Daniele Paradiso, A relational psychoanalytic perspective on trauma, dissociation, and their relationship to psychopathology and borderline organisation , Ricerca Psicoanalitica: Vol. 33 No. s1 (2022): Italy and its relational proposals
- Roberto Cutajar, The relational experience in the psychoanalytic situation , Ricerca Psicoanalitica: Vol. 33 No. s1 (2022): Italy and its relational proposals
- Martina Mancuso, Giovanna Di Giacomo, Which configuration? , Ricerca Psicoanalitica: Vol. 35 No. 2 (2024)
- Gabriele Lenti, The dynamic recursive hologram for a topos of the relational in psychoanalysis , Ricerca Psicoanalitica: Vol. 33 No. 3 (2022)
- Paolo Milanesi, Death, anxiety and metaphysical experience , Ricerca Psicoanalitica: Vol. 34 No. 1 (2023)
- Pietro Roberto Goisis, Psychoanalysis is a relationship. Cinema is a relationship. What is tennis? Commentary on the film Challengers , Ricerca Psicoanalitica: Vol. 35 No. 2 (2024)
- Salvatore Zito, Comment to: How deep is evil. Complexities and opportunities in the clinic with MSNA: a case study , Ricerca Psicoanalitica: Vol. 33 No. 3 (2022)
- Rosa Giuliana Benetti, Giorgio Cavicchioli, Tiziana Scalvini, The intersubjective approach in psychoanalytical work , Ricerca Psicoanalitica: Vol. 33 No. s1 (2022): Italy and its relational proposals
- Valentina Feroleto, A complex look at the phenomenon of violence in intimate relationships: gender specificity and methodological implications , Ricerca Psicoanalitica: Vol. 34 No. 1 (2023)
- Marco Conci, Stephen Mitchell in Italy, 1988-1996 , Ricerca Psicoanalitica: Vol. 33 No. s1 (2022): Italy and its relational proposals
You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.