Psychoanalysis In the News
by Molly Merson, MFT
Mirror Stage President. Lacan's theory of the mirror stage is one useful way to think about the current U.S. president and the "impossible tragic drama" of ever being able to be the idealized version of ourselves that we see in the mirror.
From Bill Maher to Sigmund Freud: A Very Unfunny Look at the Politics of Hate. In written correspondence between Sigmund Freud and Albert Einstein, Freud suggests that aggression and violence cannot be repressed, but that the antidote to hate might lie in community and equity. The article lists three takeaways from these letters that could be useful in combating the way hate is manifest on a social and political level today.
Politicians Used Freudian Ideas to First Convince Americans They Needed Capitalism. San Francisco analyst Michael Donner offers insights into how capitalism and American politics benefited from Freudian theory, and how our unconscious drives and desires are influenced and soothed by propaganda and marketing.