ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews some explicit links between how psychotherapists work in practice and a new approach to the emotional dimensions of politics. Developing a psychological take on politics that encompasses feelings and sensibilities is not just an issue for the educated, chattering classes or for New Agers. The evolution of a kind of political knowledge analogous to the therapeutic encounter would also reflect the fact that many people already possess a therapeutic attitude to the world. Many want to participate in nothing less than the resacralization of culture by becoming therapists of the world. Though a body-based analysis of political themes and problems will take place spontaneously, it is nevertheless possible to sketch out some stages or rather levels of a somatic analysis of the political. People who have never been analysts or therapists are often surprised to learn that clinical practice is a red-hot emotional activity.
