Political Psychoanalysis for the Anthropocene Age

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.

"Ryan LaMothe ranks among the most penetrating, wide-ranging and illuminating interpreters of the onset of the Anthropocene age. No one surpasses him for crafting an acute and balanced analysis of the many political, ethical and moral issues that this turbulent new era entails. His sharp psychoanalytic insights make this an especially valuable contribution to our understanding of the unfolding crisis." - Kurt Jacobsen and David Morgan, co-editors of Free Associations."In his at once expansive and finely detailed exposé 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)

• Acknowledgements IntroductionPART IChapter 1 Developing a Psychoanalytic Political Philosophy: The Emergence of Political Selves and Environmentally Destructive Illusions Chapter 2 A Psychoanalytic Political Philosophy of DwellingChapter 3 Psychoanalysis, Sovereignty, and Political ViolenceChapter 4 Psychoanalysis and Systemic Obstacles to Climate Action: Capitalism, Nationalism, and the New Imperialism Chapter 5 Psychoanalysis, Political Change, and the Issue of Hope PART IIChapter 6 Socrates, Tiresias, and Freud: Reimagining Psychoanalysis and the Public SquareChapter 7 Psychoanalytic Education and Therapy in the Anthropocene AgeReferences