Papers by Era A Loewenstein, Ph.D.
Psychoanalytic Quarterly, Oct 1, 1994
Empl ay ing Lacan's conception of desire, this paper explores the distinction between self and su... more Empl ay ing Lacan's conception of desire, this paper explores the distinction between self and subjectivity as it emerges in the psy choanalytic situation. Challenging the notion of the self as a sin gular, coherent, and bounded entity, I demonstrate, through a review of Dora's case, that the "Freudian subject" is a cast of characters, a loose net of contextual, contradictory, and shifting identifications enveloping not a discrete core, but its very absence. Knowledge of men sometimes seems easier to those who allow themselves to be caught up in the snare of personal identity. But they thus shut the door on the knowledge of man. LEVI-STRAUSS (1962, p. 249) An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Spring Meeting of Division 39, American Psychological Association, Chicago, 1991. I would like to dedicate this article to the memory of Dr. Nathan Adler, a teacher, a mentor, and a friend whose wisdom and wit I greatly miss. Many thanks also to Dr. Max Loewenstein for his editorial help.
Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 2023
The impetus to explore the nature of fascistic and populist states of mind was the surprising ele... more The impetus to explore the nature of fascistic and populist states of mind was the surprising election of Donald Trump. Along with many fellow Americans, I also woke during the early hours of Wednesday, November 9th, 2016, the morning after the US election, to the shocking news that Donald J. Trump was elected to be the President of the United States. Upon hearing this news, I felt disoriented. Like numerous election pundits, journalists, and colleagues, I also expected Hillary Clinton to win this election. In previous months, I, along with many American urban voters, paid little attention to the election campaign of the candidate Trump, viewing him as a rather marginal and buffoonish character who is unlikely to be taken seriously by voters. Trapped in my own social and psychic reality, regretfully, I neglected to register the external reality, that is, the deep division in contemporary American society. I was also unaware, at the time, of the universal seductive power of authoritarianism, seduction that has led to a global antidemocratic swing. I still remember, as if it happened yesterday, the heavy feelings and the disbelief I experienced that morning. It was as though the previous night there was a coup, and my adoptive country has been taken over, hijacked overnight, by unknown and ominous forces. The idea of inviting various psychoanalytic authors to contribute to an issue exploring fascistic and populist states of mind began to germinate in my mind during the summer of 2020, toward the end of the Trump presidency. As several authors in this issue have observed, fascistic and populist states of mind contain a manic element. Fascistic and populist political regimes, likewise, often ascend as quickly as they later disappear. It took me a couple of years to reach a state of mind in which I could begin to understand what was transpiring in the US and earlier that year, during Brexit in the UK. Throughout the initial years, especially from 2016 to 2018, the rapid changes felt like a constant bombardment of concrete beta elements that were obstructing the capacity to think clearly. Remember the first week after the inauguration when Mr. Trump, surrounded by his entourage, signed ceremonially, one executive order after the other at a frenzied speed? Donald Trump signed 15 executive orders within the first week of his administration. This time it was not the Jews or the Roma people who needed to be banned, as in Nazi Germany of the 1930s. This time it was the Muslims who were unwanted. Very soon after the Muslims it was the turn of the Mexicans. Then came the turn of the Dreamers. Later some 50,000 Hondurans, whose Temporary Protected Status (TPS) allowed them to live in the United States after Hurricane Mitch ravaged their country in 1998 were stripped of their TPS status. The US political landscape has indeed been changing since 2016 at a frenzied pace, a pace that made it hard to follow, integrate, think, and comprehend the meaning of the rise of proto-fascistic states in the political and social landscapes. Our country has become increasingly deeply split between Red and Blue America. This split has been widening, leading, according to Marc Fisher, a Washington Post senior editor, to a broad range of voices including Republican and Democratic politicians, historians who study civil strife, and extremists on both ends of the spectrum, to accept the idea that civil war in the US is either imminent or even necessary (Fisher, 2022). Before describing the various contributions to this issue, I would like to address what we mean when we talk about "a state of mind." A state of mind, whether it is democratic, perverse, narcissistic, addictive, fascistic, or populist, is a psychological state that includes a set of characteristic affects, several dominant anxieties and defenses that are mobilized to deal with these anxieties. A "state of mind" also contains a number of predominant unconscious fantasies.
Psychoanalytic Inquiry , 2023
Elaborating on Adorno’s observation that fascist propaganda is psychoanalysis
in reverse the auth... more Elaborating on Adorno’s observation that fascist propaganda is psychoanalysis
in reverse the author demonstrates that psychoanalytic praxis and
ethics are diametrically opposed to fascist propaganda and to fascistic
states of mind. The article demonstrates how Fascist states of mind rely
on inventing enemies and on using massive projective identification to
lodge hated aspects of the Self in these enemies who are then attacked
and destroyed. The inclination to rush into action instead of reflection, the
proclivity to create false certainty and remove any traces of doubt in
fascistic states is examined. The attack on truth and complex thinking in
these malignant states is also explored. Using Trump’s rhetoric and the
rhetorical devices employed by American ultra-right-wing agitators during
the Roosevelt administration, the author demonstrates that the very practice
of psychoanalysis can be viewed as a form of a steady, thoughtful and
a peaceful resistance to the destructive seduction of fascistic states of mind.
Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 2023
The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 1994
Empl ay ing Lacan's conception of desire, this paper explores the distinction between self and su... more Empl ay ing Lacan's conception of desire, this paper explores the distinction between self and subjectivity as it emerges in the psy choanalytic situation. Challenging the notion of the self as a sin gular, coherent, and bounded entity, I demonstrate, through a review of Dora's case, that the "Freudian subject" is a cast of characters, a loose net of contextual, contradictory, and shifting identifications enveloping not a discrete core, but its very absence. Knowledge of men sometimes seems easier to those who allow themselves to be caught up in the snare of personal identity. But they thus shut the door on the knowledge of man. LEVI-STRAUSS (1962, p. 249) An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Spring Meeting of Division 39, American Psychological Association, Chicago, 1991. I would like to dedicate this article to the memory of Dr. Nathan Adler, a teacher, a mentor, and a friend whose wisdom and wit I greatly miss. Many thanks also to Dr. Max Loewenstein for his editorial help.
Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 2017
In a number of dystopian novels that I explore, including Orwell's (1949) 1984 and Huxley's (1932... more In a number of dystopian novels that I explore, including Orwell's (1949) 1984 and Huxley's (1932) Brave New World, I identify themes of soul murder, destruction of differences, murder of reality, and attacks on the parental couple as a generative twosome. In my view, dystopian fiction captures, thus, many facets of the perverse sadomasochistic core. I demonstrate that the leaders of dystopian societies are fueled by a desire to debase and eventually eliminate the feeding mother, the Oedipal father, and the creative parental couple by becoming god-like creators of a new and idealized fecal universe. Although dystopian narratives tend to locate the catastrophe in a future social disaster, they represent a psychological breakdown that has already occurred in the past and is, therefore, present in the individual's internal world. The dystopian narrative enables this internal catastrophe to be projected into a future plot and a cast of characters that stand for both victims and perpetrators in the internal object world. I offer a psychoanalytic perspective, which can help our understanding of the increasing popularity of dystopian fiction among the young adult readership. Power is inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is tearing human minds into pieces and putting them together in new shapes of your own choosing. Do you begin to see then what kind of world we are creating? It is exactly opposite of the hedonistic Utopias that the old reformer imagined. A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world will be progress towards more pain. [Orwell, 1949, p. 238] "Let's face it, writing is hell" was William Styron's, author of Sophie's Choice, reply to his two interviewers' question, "Do you enjoy writing?" (Matthiessen and Plimpton, 1954). Writing about dystopian narratives can be especially hellish, as it entails enduring not only the ordinary suffering that accompanies the writing process itself, but also the painful, albeit necessary, immersion in dystopian narratives to understand their nature. Immersing oneself in dystopian narratives is painful because these stories do not merely describe uncanny and nightmarish human conditions; they frequently also induce distressing emotions in their readers. By obliging the reader to witness, without relief, sadistic psychotic-like attacks on the protagonists' physical and emotional integrity, dystopian writers, like Aldous Huxley (1932), George Orwell (1949), Kazuo Ishiguro (2005) and Suzanne Collins (2008), compel us to experience, in a visceral way, challenging feelings of overstimulation, helplessness, horror, despair and even disgust. Dystopian literature and films are often considered to be a wake-up call designed to shake us out of our complacency and compel us to look at, and acknowledge, a certain dangerous or even disastrous direction that our society is taking. Gottlieb (2001), for example, in her study of Western and Eastern dystopian literature, suggested that classic dystopian fiction like Brave New World (Huxley 1932), 1984 (Orwell, 1949), and We (Zamiatin, 1920) warns us that once we allow a totalitarian state to take over, there will be no way back. The aim of dystopian narratives, in this perspective, is to alert us to the possibility of future cultural, political, scientific, technological, or
Psychoanalytic Psychology, 1993
A close examination of Naso's (1992) commentary on my article (Loewenstein, 1992) reveals contrad... more A close examination of Naso's (1992) commentary on my article (Loewenstein, 1992) reveals contradictions which point to its author's lack of a clear philosophical commitment. While Naso's statements appear to be informed by a relativistic perspective his argument is constrained by an unarticulated positivistic viewpoint. Naso's criticism of my style, which he describes as metaphoric and evocative, is examined. Contrary to Naso's claim, scientific style does not possess a privileged access to psychoanalytic life history. Moreover, the meanings and affective valences of historical events are not fixed and static, as Naso implies, but contextual and dynamic. I am pleased to have an opportunity to engage with Naso (1992) in a dialogue about the narrative dimension of psychoanalytic life histories, but I find his commentary on my article (Loewenstein, 1992) fraught with contradictions, which stem, I believe, from his epistemological confusion and ambivalence. Initially, Naso appears to be versed in the intellectual revolution brought on by relativism. A more careful reading of his commentary reveals, however, that his thinking is still markedly constrained by his unarticulated, but nevertheless omnipresent, positivistic perspective. In his response, as I would like shortly to demonstrate, Naso is engaged in a process of doing and undoing. He makes statements that are informed by a relativistic viewpoint, but then negates these insights with contradictory, positivistic assertions. His critique thus lacks a clear philosophical commitment. Requests for reprints should be sent to Era A. Loewenstein,
Psychoanalytic Psychology, 1992
It does not, then, come as a great surprise that one of the more pointed This document is copyrig... more It does not, then, come as a great surprise that one of the more pointed This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
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Papers by Era A Loewenstein, Ph.D.
in reverse the author demonstrates that psychoanalytic praxis and
ethics are diametrically opposed to fascist propaganda and to fascistic
states of mind. The article demonstrates how Fascist states of mind rely
on inventing enemies and on using massive projective identification to
lodge hated aspects of the Self in these enemies who are then attacked
and destroyed. The inclination to rush into action instead of reflection, the
proclivity to create false certainty and remove any traces of doubt in
fascistic states is examined. The attack on truth and complex thinking in
these malignant states is also explored. Using Trump’s rhetoric and the
rhetorical devices employed by American ultra-right-wing agitators during
the Roosevelt administration, the author demonstrates that the very practice
of psychoanalysis can be viewed as a form of a steady, thoughtful and
a peaceful resistance to the destructive seduction of fascistic states of mind.
in reverse the author demonstrates that psychoanalytic praxis and
ethics are diametrically opposed to fascist propaganda and to fascistic
states of mind. The article demonstrates how Fascist states of mind rely
on inventing enemies and on using massive projective identification to
lodge hated aspects of the Self in these enemies who are then attacked
and destroyed. The inclination to rush into action instead of reflection, the
proclivity to create false certainty and remove any traces of doubt in
fascistic states is examined. The attack on truth and complex thinking in
these malignant states is also explored. Using Trump’s rhetoric and the
rhetorical devices employed by American ultra-right-wing agitators during
the Roosevelt administration, the author demonstrates that the very practice
of psychoanalysis can be viewed as a form of a steady, thoughtful and
a peaceful resistance to the destructive seduction of fascistic states of mind.