Ordinary Unhappiness 13: The Journalist and the Analyst: On Janet Malcolm feat. Sam Adler-Bell
Podcast Origins
- Sam Adler-Bell co-hosts the "Know Your Enemy" podcast with Matthew Sitman, focusing on the political right.
- Patrick Blanchfield credits Adler-Bell for inspiring "Ordinary Unhappiness" and praises their intellectual vulnerability.
Contrasting Backgrounds
- "Know Your Enemy" explores the American political right, driven by co-hosts' contrasting backgrounds.
- Sitman's conservative upbringing and Adler-Bell's liberal background fuel productive dialogues.
Conservative Freudianism's Decline
- The decline of sophisticated right-wing Freudian thinkers may be linked to broader anti-intellectualism.
- Figures like Patrick Deneen and Rod Dreher still engage with some Freudian themes, albeit differently.
Abby and Patrick welcome journalist and critic Sam Adler-Bell, co-host of Dissent magazine’s Know Your Enemy podcast. They talk about how Sam came to study conservative thought from a leftist perspective and what role psychoanalysis plays in that project; discuss the libidinal satisfactions of conservative politics; and speculate about the contemporary absence of sophisticated right-wing psychoanalytic thinkers. Then they turn to a favorite writer, journalist Janet Malcolm, author of Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession and The Journalist and the Murderer. They talk about parallels between the role of the analyst and that of the journalist; interiors and interiority; secrets, thefts, and betrayals; the so-called “Freud wars”; and the internal politics of psychoanalytic institutions. Finally, they examine Malcolm’s famous claim that the task of the journalist is “morally indefensible” and its implications for the work of the analyst.
You can read Sam’s essay on Janet Malcolm here:
https://newrepublic.com/article/170930/janet-malcolm-dangerous-method
His essay on John Le Carré here:
https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-father-of-all-secrets-adler-bell
Sam on Succession and repetition compulsion is here:
https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/succession-season-three/
Know Your Enemy is available on all your favorite podcast platforms and their Patreon
The essay that Sam quotes, “Analysis Interminable: On Janet Malcolm,” by Hannah Gold
Janet Malcolm’s books under discussion:
Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession
The Journalist and the Murderer
Have you noticed that Freud is back? Got questions about psychoanalysis? Or maybe you’ve traversed the fantasy and lived to tell the tale? Leave us a voicemail! 484 775-0107
A podcast about psychoanalysis, politics, pop culture, and the ways we suffer now. New episodes on Saturdays. Follow us on social media:
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Theme song:
Formal Chicken - Gnossienne No. 1
https://open.spotify.com/album/2MIIYnbyLqriV3vrpUTxxO
Provided by Fruits Music