David M. Goodman

The McDonaldization of psychotherapy: Processed foods, processed therapies, and economic class

Questions pertaining to “empirically supported treatments” (ESTs) frequently address concerns about “measurement” and “evidence,” but rarely frame the conversation in terms of differences in the linguistic possibilities represented in each treatment orientation and how the availability and marketing of therapeutic languages are parsed out along class lines. Moving the conversation “beyond ESTs,” the author addresses how language positions persons into a particular relationship with their experience—a way of understanding their suffering and identity—and the significance of understanding therapeutic orientations as representing an epistemological pluralism rather than existing merely on an evaluative axis related to evidence and effectiveness. Next, the intersection between language, experience, and class access to treatment orientations and discourses is considered. It is argued that the emphasis on evidence-based modalities and symptom-reduction models impacts the experiential possibilities of persons in important and often disguised ways and this has a particular bearing on persons with fewer economic resources who have access to a narrow range of therapeutic and epistemological possibilities. Linguistic options are circumscribed and pre-decided. Lastly, the author illustrates the segregations and hierarchies of therapeutic approaches available at different class designations and the marketing of evidence-based epistemologies through the cultural allure and capital of “science.” The author concludes with expressed concerns regarding present epistemological narrowness in the mental health delivery system and proposes that additional dimensions be explored in the “evidence-based” discussions.

The “Heroic I” A Levinasian Critique of Western Narcissism

In modern thought and Western society, the self is lived “for-itself,” caught up in a way of being wherein the ego pursues its own longevity and seeks to be the hero of its own story. We argue, inspired by the thought of Emmanuel Levinas, that this “heroic I” is a configuration of selfhood that is closed to the Other. We suggest that this self-reflexive ego is continually propagated by modern trends in psychology. Employing Levinas’ critique of egology in contemporary philosophical systems, we maintain that this version of the self, first, inherently impairs individual and societal recognition of the Other, and second, lacks an awareness of the ethical demand of the Other. In addition, we conclude by considering the implications of Levinas’ thought on the formation of a non-egological psychology wherein clients are assisted in recovering sensitivity to alterity and exposure to the demands made upon us by the Other.

“We’re all mad”: Simon Critchley interview

This article is an edited transcript of an interview with Simon Critchley conducted by David Goodman and Donna Orange at the New School in New York City on 24th February 2017. The focus of the interview was on the intersections between psychoanalysis and politics in Critchley’s work. Specific attention was given to Critchley’s scholarship regarding Emmanuel Levinas, the persistence of the autonomy orthodoxy, and his understanding of sublimation and a superego II, along with careful consideration of how humor, among other things, may be utilized with regard to ethical political action and motivation.

Dialogues at the Edge

William James lived at the boundaries and did his best work there. In 1890, James published his magnum opus, The Principles of Psychology, a foundational work in which he makes clear distinctions about the kinds of assumptions each discipline takes for granted and then subjects these assumptions to critical examination. For many years, this was a widely used text that uniquely blended his personal reflections with his ideas on physiology, philosophy, and psychology. Throughout the book and his career, James extravagantly crossed the boundaries of multiple disciplines. This volume is comprised of a series of in-depth interviews with ten North American scholars and clinical practitioners who have similarly spent their lengthy careers working at the interdisciplinary edges of mainstream psychological discourse.

Honoring the Sensate Bond Between Disparate Subjectivities in Psychotherapy

Ideas of empathy and genuineness are accepted by practitioners of psychotherapy as a basis for whatever else we do. In taking these ideas almost for granted, there can be a risk of overlooking key phenomenological dimensions of the subjective process to which they correspond. Levinas’ exposition of the multilayered dimensions of proximity between disparate subjectivities safeguards us against substituting understanding for the kind of embodiment he calls “for-the-other” (Levinas, 1974/1998, p. 79). In working through his description, we attempt to reveal the subjective tendencies already operating within us implicitly—tendencies that expose us to the other to the point of the impossibility of turning away. In more fully inhabiting this powerful dimension of our subjectivity, we enter into a proximity with our patients that has the power to nourish the psychological hunger that fuels their emotional pain. In the final pages of this article, we offer some thoughts, including a clinical example, of the tangi...

Editors’ introduction to special issue on psychology and the other: The historical-political in psychoanalysis’ ethical turn

After a brief description of the ethical turn and its historical-political dimension within psychoanalysis, this article will introduce the special issue’s four papers and two responses, all of which were presented at the 2013 Psychology and the Other Conference. These articles represent substantive additions to the burgeoning literature highlighting the intersections of ethical phenomenology, hermeneutics, psychoanalysis and political life. They provide innovative conceptions of the intergenerational transmission of historical and political practices and the shape and nature of ethical subjectivity and its relationship to the unconscious, and offer new modes for understanding political subversion.

The Ghetto Intern: Culture and Memory

AbstractMany philosophers have argued that psychological time is a fundamental, inherent quality of consciousness that provides continuity and sequence to mental events—enabling memory. And, since memory is consciousness, psychological time enables the individual intentionality of consciousness. Levinas (1961), on the other hand, argues that an individual’s past, in the most original sense, is the past of other. The irreducible alterity of one’s past sets the stage for the other who co-determines the meaning of the past. This paper is about the exploration cultural memory within the context of a Caucasian doctoral student entering into an African-American community during an internship, who finds that cultural memories are remarkably more complicated than the propositional description of historic events. The paper further explores how cultural memory is not a record of “what happened” but a sociolinguistic creative meaning making process. Histories can be contested. Memory, on the other hand, never adheres to the strict true or false dichotomy. Memory is like searching for the Divine, it cannot be found, only revealed in mysterious and small details. Memory, is the intruding of the infinite, creating as an effect the idea of a finite (August, 2011), they are not “representations” of the past nor are they a kind of mnemonic system of subjectivism to mediate all of consciousness.

Violent Religions Monologue or Dialogue

Religion has been the handmaiden of warriors. Constantine charged into battle with a cross emblazoned on his shield. The Crusades, the Inquisition, the Thirty Years War (1618–1648), and, in our time, the Gulf wars were all justified using religion. Hence, a book addressing the destructive power of religion is welcome, especially a book that examines this relationship in the context of three major world religions: Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. Do these religions encourage violence? All of them have texts in their sacred scriptures that appear to condone violence. Yet each also has a commitment to peaceful coexistence: Allah signifies peace, Jesus enjoins his followers to love their enemies, and Yahweh seeks shalom among all nations. So how is it that texts of terror override texts of peace? The authors in the four volumes address these and a range of other questions. This review