by June Lin-Arlow, AMFT 

This month we are coming up on a year of sheltering in place. March 2020 feels like forever ago, and also I scratch my head and wonder, “where did the time go?” I didn't even make any sourdough! It was a year of patience, waiting, and getting to know our relationship with not knowing. Many of us contended with our values and what was important to us: what we’re keeping and what we’re letting go of. 

In this issue of Impulse, we are standing in the generative and often messy space between “how did we get here?” and “how do we move forward?” In Potential Space, Amber Trotter writes about the importance of acknowledging trauma in understanding how our social realities became so polarized on a national scale. President of NCSPP, Todd Rising, shares our organization’s efforts to grapple with issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

I’m also excited to announce a change that we are making in Impulse to the column formerly known as “Psychoanalysis in the News” penned by Molly Merson. We are renaming the column to “Psychoanalysis in Society,” and it will highlight recent perspectives on social issues that are psychoanalytic but not necessarily directly referencing the world of psychoanalysis, which can be insular. We will include viewpoints from sociology, critical theory, and diverse voices not typically heard in the dominant discourse. We hope these articles will challenge us and influence our own thinking to move towards equity and inclusion.