Reflections on the Meaning and Experience of Public Space: A Critical Psychoanalytic Perspective

Abstract

In this paper, I reconsider the idea of public space (or “public sphere” as Jurgen Habermas calls it)1 from a critical psychoanalytic perspective.2 Public space is fundamental to political life. Consider the demonstrations of the Arab Spring and their taking up of public spaces, and reflect on the Occupy Wall Street movement that began in Lower Manhattan. In considering the phenomenon of public space, several questions are raised: What is the meaning and experience of public space? How do we feel about public space? What does it mean to enter and participate in public space? Why do some people move toward it? Why do others move away from it? And why do some, particularly government authorities and the military, move against public space? In analyzing the conception of public space so that we might consider these questions, I draw upon the dialectical school of Critical Theory and post-Kleinian object relations theories of Winnicott (1971), Ogden (1985; 1989; 1994), and Modell (1984; 1993). Critical Theory proffers a dialectical critique of society in the interest of social change. Contemporary (object relational) psychoanalytic theory contributes the concepts of private space and private self, which deepen our understanding and dialectical critique of public space. With that in mind this chapter explores the psychological, experiential, and unconscious roots of public space.