Disturbing positions: The crisis and potentials of sociopolitical emotions.

Abstract

This article considers the special challenges and opportunities of psychoanalytic work amidst sociopolitical crises. Therapists may find themselves sharing the specific concerns animating the patient, especially amidst political turmoil, as we have recently seen in the U.S. This dislocates several aspects of the conventional setting: Asymmetry, the therapist's expertise, and the usual focus on the individual-dyadic situation. Exploring these particular issues is part of the contemporary movement toward a socially oriented psychoanalysis.