Overview

A Political Psychoanalysis for the Anthropocene Age presents an evaluation of the politics of climate change and considers how psychoanalysis can contribute to this discourse. Presented in two parts, the book first uses a psychoanalytic approach to interrogate political-economic realities and their impact on shaping Western political selves in the Anthropocene age. Ryan LaMothe identifies core illusions of the Western psyche and how they shape behavior and relations, as well as how they are implicated in various emotional responses to climate change like eco-mourning and eco-denial. Topics such as political dwelling, sovereignty, political violence and change, climate obstacles such as capitalism, nationalism, and imperialism, and the problem of hope are explored using psychoanalytic and philosophical perspectives. LaMothe then considers the role of psychoanalysis in the public-political realm, as well as how a psychoanalytic political perspective invites reforming the education and practice of psychoanalysis. A Political Psychoanalysis for the Anthropocene Age will be thought-provoking reading for psychoanalysts and psychotherapists, as well as anyone interested in the politics of climate change.

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9781032193618

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In his at once expansive and finely detailed expose of the illusions that are killing us and destroying our planet, Ryan La Mothe puts psychoanalysis, philosophy, and political science on the couch and arrives at a revolutionary understanding of a new psychoanalytic political theory. Radical to its Aristotelian roots and with all the Urgency of Now, La Mothe's carefully argued masterpiece of interdisciplinary scholarship is more than a riveting read. It is essential to our survival as a species. - Hattie Myers PhD -- Training and Supervising Psychoanalyst at the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (IPTAR), Editor in Chief of ROOM: A Sketchbook for Analytic Action. LaMothe makes a compelling case for the fierce urgency of bringing political philosophy into heated, constructive conversation with psychoanalysis. Crossing these and other boundaries, he shows, can allow us to begin to understand and address the multiple catastrophes of the Anthropocene. Philosophers, psychoanalytically minded practitioners, and anyone prepared for a bracing investigation ranging from theories of capitalism to theories of care, among other areas, will benefit from this interdisciplinary book. Our psychic stability and the stability of our planet make thinkers like LaMothe required reading. - Susan Kassouf, PhD, Licensed Psychoanalyst (National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis)

Author Information

Ryan LaMothe is a professor of pastoral care and counseling at Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology, USA. Over the last three decades, he has published books and articles in the areas of psychology of religion, psychoanalysis, pastoral counseling, and political theology and philosophy. He is Past President of the Society for Pastoral Theology and has served on several editorial boards.

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