Post by Admin on Jul 5, 2021 17:30:28 GMT
"Meaning and Melancholia" with Christopher Bollas
news.prairiepublic.org/post/meaning-and-melancholia-christopher-bollas
Another terrific, eye-opening interview with Christopher Bollas on the relevance of psychoanalytic thinking to contemporary political discussions:
"Societies dream - they dream through the interests that show up in the media as trends and 'hot topics' in people’s minds, from football to political situations, to floods and natural catastrophes, to celebrity news - why certain things are picked up in a particular society and not of interest to another society. So journalists are actually mediums for the realisation of social dreaming.
Some societies are grandiose and militarised, while there are other cultures where the 'manic' sides of the self are exalted. Each form of society has an impact on us as individuals - as members of those societies. So, for example, we’ve increasingly had to become more 'transmissive' selves - we transmit (news, information, data) - we have little time to analyse, which is also why psycho-analysis is intrinsically a subversive and radical activity, in allowing us time and space to think, and talk, and really process.
America has a huge drug problem - and its not the opioids problem, it’s prescriptive medications - the medications against depression, against anxieties, which don't allow us to think about things which we need to think about, and to talk.
We still call ourselves the ‘greatest nation of earth’. That is nonsense. That is absolute rubbish - we’re not the greatest nation on earth … but we believe we are. These are myths, that generate forms of blindness, and anaesthetise us against looking more deeply at really what is happening to us."
news.prairiepublic.org/post/meaning-and-melancholia-christopher-bollas
Another terrific, eye-opening interview with Christopher Bollas on the relevance of psychoanalytic thinking to contemporary political discussions:
"Societies dream - they dream through the interests that show up in the media as trends and 'hot topics' in people’s minds, from football to political situations, to floods and natural catastrophes, to celebrity news - why certain things are picked up in a particular society and not of interest to another society. So journalists are actually mediums for the realisation of social dreaming.
Some societies are grandiose and militarised, while there are other cultures where the 'manic' sides of the self are exalted. Each form of society has an impact on us as individuals - as members of those societies. So, for example, we’ve increasingly had to become more 'transmissive' selves - we transmit (news, information, data) - we have little time to analyse, which is also why psycho-analysis is intrinsically a subversive and radical activity, in allowing us time and space to think, and talk, and really process.
America has a huge drug problem - and its not the opioids problem, it’s prescriptive medications - the medications against depression, against anxieties, which don't allow us to think about things which we need to think about, and to talk.
We still call ourselves the ‘greatest nation of earth’. That is nonsense. That is absolute rubbish - we’re not the greatest nation on earth … but we believe we are. These are myths, that generate forms of blindness, and anaesthetise us against looking more deeply at really what is happening to us."