Andrew’s new book, A New Therapy for Politics?, will be published by Karnac this year. Here he trails some of the ideas that are developed in the book.
Politics in many Western countries has broken down. The early stages of the general election campaign reinforce this perception. Nobody would deny that we urgently need new ideas and approaches that go beyond the traditional ways we think about political activity. In response to the situation, a world-wide move to revitalise politics has emerged. Political theorists, ecologists, economists, sociologists and Russell Brand have all had their say. Perhaps it is now time to consider how psychotherapy might make its contribution to the transformation of politics for which so many people yearn. Some will find this notion provocative or even outrageous – until they recall where our politicians’ conventional thinking has led us.
The Evolution of Consciousness
I would like to think of my book, Carl Jung: Darwin of the Mind, as offering a useful primer for the non-specialist who wishes to gain a general understanding of Jung. I also have, however, another objective: that of placing Jungian thought within the context of contemporary evolutionary science.
On Psychoanalysis and the Politics of Representation
Thinking psychoanalytically about a phenomenon involves conceiving of it in a way that takes account of a dynamic unconscious, which can be understood differently within different psychoanalytic paradigms. It means reflecting on how we experience everything on an unconscious as well as on a conscious level, what Bion referred to as ‘bifocal vision’. When the object of reflection is social and cultural phenomena, unconscious representation of experience can be both individual and shared by several people in a social system, unit or subculture. Unconscious symbolisation and patterns of affect are always already marked by external others and by fantasies about these others. Human beings relate to others even when we are alone, as enemies, supporters, objects of desire, rivals and sympathisers. At the same time, unconscious fantasy has a capacity to transcend fixed patterns of identification, thereby challenging established social arrangements. Think of how in our dreams we can be young or old, big or small, or take various animal or human shapes; these rich identifications transcend fixed social categories and hegemonic ideas, thus carrying an emancipatory potential.
The Eve of Destruction: Germanwings flight 4U 9525 and Pilot Suicide
A popular but dated image of pilots probably derives from war movies showing scenes in which they wrestle with the controls of a damaged aircraft to avoid catastrophe. Modern aviation is far removed from what are now outdated Hollywood depictions of pilots. Wrestling at the controls to save the aircraft is hardly in a day’s work. Planes now fly via computers following the calm and well-rehearsed inputs from pilots. The recent Germanwings pilot suicide crash, however, highlights that there are a rare few pilots who do not wrestle with the flight controls to save their aircraft, but they may wrestle with very powerful and destructive forces within their minds.
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