Discussion of Dr. Gita Zarnegar’s and Dr. Gabriel Trop’s Panel Presentations: A Dynamic View of Selfhood, Affect and Political Context, 2019 IAPSP Conference

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article discusses two papers presented at a panel at the 2019 IAPSP conference, “A Dynamic View of Selfhood, Affect and Political Context,” one by Dr. Gita Zarnegar and one by Dr. Gabriel Trop. The papers address the application of dynamic systems theory to political context in psychoanalytic treatment. Dr. Phillip Cushman’s hermeneutic approach to the political in psychoanalytic theory and practice is also discussed. His emphasis describes how the stance of the psychoanalyst can have profound implications for the emergence of political thematizing in the therapeutic setting. Dr. Zarnegar uses her own personal history as an immigrant to the United States to introduce two concepts, phantom selfhood and phantomization. Phantom selfhood is an adaptive process where old connections emerge in the presence of integrating the positive novelty of a new culture. Phantomization describes a maladaptive pattern of persistent longing for remnants of the lost culture. Dr. G. Trop describes the ethos and values held by a therapist from a non-linear dynamic systems vantage point, which are changeability, disruption, experimentation, particularization and exposure. Both authors caution about the potential dangers of the inherent asymmetry of the psychoanalytic situation in influencing and advancing specific political vantage points in the therapeutic setting. This discussion will compare and contrast some elements of their perspectives with those of Dr. Cushman’s.