ABSTRACT
This chapter considers psychoanalysis in relation to the public-political sphere, arguing that analytically informed therapists can integrate the vocation of therapy and the vocation of politics. To bridge these disciplines depends, in part, on developing a psychoanalytic political philosophy, which has been the focus of Part I of this book. I begin by claiming that from the earliest origins of the polis, there have been critics, gadflies, and prophets who identified faulty social-political premises, railed against injustices, and sought to awaken the populace and leaders from soporific self-deceptions. The well-being of the polis depended and depends on, in part, those who took up this political vocation, sometimes at their own peril. This sets the stage for arguing that psychoanalytic therapies and institutes are, whether or not they are aware of it, inextricably tied to social, political, and economic realities. This implies an ethical demand to engage political realities—using just means—especially in situations where injustices are occurring and when societies are facing existential crises, such as the climate emergency. From here, using the psychoanalytic political philosophy of the previous chapters, I indicate that this political vocation of analytically informed therapists can take many forms. Included in this discussion is my depiction of some political virtues and analytic skills that attend this vocation.
