by Luba Palter, MFT

I am writing this editorial before the results of the 2025 election are in. This post will come out on December 1st, weeks after the results and the aftermath of that announcement are out in the open for all to digest. Many of my patients, almost in tandem, stated, “Either way it will be a shit show.” But for now, in November, we all wait. 

December Luba will be privy to information that November Luba does not yet know. I imagine seeing my words in print in December will reflect the privilege of innocence and hope of the November Luba. This kind of split of two Lubas makes me think of my patients who refer to themselves as a “we.” When younger experiences are unbearable, they are split off into a different self that is tucked away until it is safe to come out. When feelings are so terrifying, they become a separate, often one-dimensional character that hides out in some corner of the mind ready to attack its host. Some have described experiences of someone or something scurrying through their bodies without showing its face, not unlike a ghost or a shadow that carries with it a distinct mood and weight. It leaves remanences of its presence without revealing oneself fully. 

Analyst Phillip Bromberg has written extensively about the concept of many selves (1994, 1995, 1996, 2001). What he means is that most people have many sides or parts to them that live inside one body harmoniously. Those parts come out under different circumstances and switch in and out depending on the need without much strife. In healthy development, those parts are linked between each other and there is a connection and communication amongst the parts. When trauma is present, the connection between the parts is severed. In fact, they are often born out of a need to disconnect one from an unbearable experience or feeling. The degree of the split varies. Each self has a distinct job to do and is unable to stay in contact with the others, hence the “we.” My patients do not experience themselves as multi-dimensional people with different aspects to their personalities but as hosts to uninvited guests with often demanding or competing needs and feelings. 

So while I await for the results of the election and its fallout, I think about the two Lubas. One of them, I have yet to meet. The other is filled with anxiety, hope, possibility, and naiveté. And yet, why do the two Lubas feel so distinct and separate? This reminds me how death and losses can shape a person: a pre-death and post-death self. This election feels so dividing, so polarizing, so damaging, so defining, so damning to this country that perhaps my psyche cannot grasp how the same person can live in the world pre-election and post-election. Whatever happens, whoever wins, it is incomprehensible to be here.