Ordinary Unhappiness

Subscribe to get access to the full episode, the episode reading list, and all premium episodes! www.patreon.com/OrdinaryUnhappinessIn a perfect pairing with our ongoing series on Lacan, we come in from the cold and go underground by watching Theodore Flicker’s neglected classic, “The President’s Analyst” (1967). James Coburn stars as a psychoanalyst drafted to serve as the president’s shrink, and who swiftly goes from starstruck to depleted to a fugitive on the run. This satiric romp hit a nerve with the FBI, was censored in post-production, and quickly disappeared from theaters. A loving sendup of psychoanalysis, an acid-addled dramatization of Cold War anxieties, and just a gonzo all-around-good time, the film gives us plenty to talk about, from the paranoic structure of knowledge to the Big Other of surveillance to unorthodox cures for “hostility” to J. Edgar Hoover’s secret flirtations with self-analysis and more. Beverly Gage’s biography of J. Edgar Hoover is G-MAN: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century. You can listen to Barry McGuire’s “Inner-Manipulations” (featured in the film) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU7F_u9L5X8Have 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:  Linktree: https://linktr.ee/OrdinaryUnhappiness Twitter: @UnhappinessPod Instagram: @OrdinaryUnhappiness Patreon: patreon.com/OrdinaryUnhappiness Theme song: Formal Chicken - Gnossienne No. 1 https://open.spotify.com/album/2MIIYnbyLqriV3vrpUTxxO Provided by Fruits Music

The podcast dives into Lacan's mirror stage and the concept of identification, exploring the complexities of assuming an image in the mirror. It also discusses the desire for knowledge, the role of mirrors in our lives, and the limitations of human knowledge. The chapter descriptions cover topics such as difficult texts, lack, desire, the concept of the Gestalt, the double in psychoanalysis, and the announcement of upcoming episodes.

Subscribe to get access to the full episode, the episode reading list, and all premium episodes! www.patreon.com/OrdinaryUnhappinessIn the latest installment of the Standard Edition, we valiantly soldier through more of the Fliess Extracts section of SE Volume 1 with novelist and literary critic Christine Smallwood. We discuss the Freud-Fliess sibling dynamic; a case study of a recently married singer suffering from anxiety that reminds us of “Dora” in multiple ways, including Freud’s interrogation-style approach to her treatment; why Freud’s women patients keep fleeing analysis; the notion of a symptom as fundamentally a structure of compromise; an early discussion of the idea of “defence”; and Freud’s dream about his dead father. Also: Patrick unexpectedly breaks into an aria. Christine cites Juliet Mitchell’s book Fratriarchy: The Sibling Trauma and the Law of the Mother: https://bookshop.org/p/books/fratriarchy-the-sibling-trauma-and-the-law-of-the-mother-juliet-mitchell/18705733Christine’s new book on Chantal Akerman’s La Captive will be out in March, and in the meantime, here is an excerpt (about Akerman and Proust) in The New York Review of Books: https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2024/02/08/time-unregained-la-captive-chantal-akerman/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:  Linktree: https://linktr.ee/OrdinaryUnhappiness Twitter: @UnhappinessPod Instagram: @OrdinaryUnhappiness Patreon: patreon.com/OrdinaryUnhappiness Theme song: Formal Chicken - Gnossienne No. 1 https://open.spotify.com/album/2MIIYnbyLqriV3vrpUTxxO Provided by Fruits Music

Explore the challenges of interpreting Lacan's work and the rewards of studying his concepts. Delve into the experience of reading and creating meaning through texts and poetry. Understand the complexity and interdisciplinary nature of Lacanian philosophy. Discover the significance of Lacan in psychoanalysis and his controversial interventions in therapy sessions. Dive into Lacan's connections with other thinkers and his contrasting attitude towards the art world. Examine the concept of the 'I' as a function and its dynamic production in psychoanalytic experience. Explore the challenges of translating Lacan's 'The Mirror Stage' essay and the significance of titles. Analyze gestures and paranoia in Lacanian theory. Learn about the mirror stage in child development and the significance of self-recognition in a mirror.

Subscribe to get access to the full episode, the episode reading list, and all premium episodes! www.patreon.com/OrdinaryUnhappinessWe set out to discuss the Eras tour film but got drawn into the broader cultural phenomenon that is Taylor Swift. Along the way, we talk about the concepts of cathexis and the Big Other; our own embarrassing childhood attachments to music; how the Eras tour is like Nietzsche’s eternal return; Swift’s self-narration about her relationship to praise, food, and body image in Miss Americana; and Abby’s unexpectedly strong negative investment in the Travis-Taylor relationship. Texts we discussed:Taffy Brodesser-Akner, “My Delirious Trip to the Heart of Swiftiedom,"https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/12/magazine/taylor-swift-eras-tour.htmlSam Lansky, “2023 Person of the Year: Taylor Swift,”https://time.com/6342806/person-of-the-year-2023-taylor-swift/Richard Rodriguez, Hunger of MemoryChristopher Bollas, Being a Character: Psychoanalysis and Self ExperienceHave 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: Linktree: https://linktr.ee/OrdinaryUnhappiness Twitter: @UnhappinessPod Instagram: @OrdinaryUnhappiness Patreon: patreon.com/OrdinaryUnhappiness Theme song: Formal Chicken - Gnossienne No. 1 https://open.spotify.com/album/2MIIYnbyLqriV3vrpUTxxO Provided by Fruits Music

This unlocked Patreon episode of Ordinary Unhappiness discusses the film Barbie, exploring gender politics, playfulness, dreams, and feminist utopian literature. The hosts question the portrayal of Ken, analyze Barbie as a reaction formation to evolving gender consciousness, and examine the lack of social issues in Barbie's world. They also discuss the complexities of playing with Barbies, explore a feminist utopian society, and express disappointment in the film's lack of exploration of aging and intergenerational relationships.

Subscribe to get access to the full episode, the episode reading list, and all premium episodes! www.patreon.com/OrdinaryUnhappinessWe reflect on an (overdetermined) nine-month anniversary for Ordinary Unhappiness, including conversations with guests and reading recommendations – and then we take your calls! The mailbag includes a question about the libidinal dimensions of leftist political organizing, why people feel driven to do it, and if they’d be happier if they were less engaged; a question about growing up in and then leaving a tight-knit religious community, and how much genuine psychic change any of us can experience when it comes to ingrained patterns of relating to the self and others. Texts we discussed and recommended:New Parapraxis (Issue 3, The Wish): https://www.parapraxismagazine.com/magazineHannah Zeavin, “What’s Behind the Freud Resurgence?” in The Chronicle of Higher Education: https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-old-mans-back-againAlex Colston, “This War Is Causing Mass Trauma. How We Respond Matters,” in The Nation: https://www.thenation.com/article/society/gaza-trauma-israel/, written in response to Mohammed R. Mhawish’s All We Want in Gaza Is to Live https://www.thenation.com/article/world/gaza-dispatch-survival/ Lydia Polgreen, “Born This Way? Born Which Way?” in The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/01/opinion/politics/life-without-regret.html Moira Donegan, “Radical Attention” (on Judith Herman) in Bookforum: https://www.bookforum.com/print/3001/pioneering-therapist-judith-herman-s-studies-of-trauma-and-justice-25213Interview with Mariame Kaba, “Hope is a Discipline,” available as audio or transcript here: https://towardfreedom.org/story/archives/activism/hope-is-a-discipline/George E. Vaillaint’s The Wisdom of the Ego, available at Bookshop.orgHave 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: Linktree: https://linktr.ee/OrdinaryUnhappiness Twitter: @UnhappinessPod Instagram: @OrdinaryUnhappiness Patreon: patreon.com/OrdinaryUnhappiness Theme song: Formal Chicken - Gnossienne No. 1 https://open.spotify.com/album/2MIIYnbyLqriV3vrpUTxxO Provided by Fruits Music

Abby and Patrick welcome psychoanalyst and clinical social worker Brian Ngo-Smith, President of the American Association for Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work (AAPCSW). Focusing on his paper “This Couch Has Bed Bugs: On the Homelessness of Psychoanalysis and the Psychoanalysis of Homelessness,” they talk about psychotherapy with unhoused clients and tensions between the priorities of psychoanalysis versus social work, the desire to help, and our society’s hatred of dependence. Turning to D.W. Winnicott’s ideas about hate in countertransference, they explore how unacknowledged hatred by caregivers for their patients manifests not only interpersonally but also in institutional behaviors and broader social policy. They also discuss Brian’s recent work on the eros of care, including a paper entitled “Porosity and Preoccupation: Queer Thoughts on Psychoanalytic Care,” which he will deliver as the Gertrude and Ernst Ticho Memorial Lecture at the National Meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Association in New York this February. Articles discussed include:D.W. Winnicott’s classic essay, “Hate in the Counter-Transference,” available here: Thttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3330380/pdf/348.pdfBrian Ngo-Smith, “This Couch Has Bed Bugs: On the Homelessness of Psychoanalysis and the Psychoanalysis of Homelessness,” Clinical Social Work Journal 46:1, March 2018.Brian Ngo-Smith, “Porosity and Preoccupation: Queer Thoughts on Psychoanalytic Care,” to be delivered at the 2024 National Meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Association in New York on February 10th from 2-4pm. Brian’s website is here: www.ngosmiththerapy.comHave 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:Linktree: https://linktr.ee/OrdinaryUnhappiness Twitter: @UnhappinessPod Instagram: @OrdinaryUnhappiness Patreon: patreon.com/OrdinaryUnhappiness Theme song: Formal Chicken - Gnossienne No. 1 https://open.spotify.com/album/2MIIYnbyLqriV3vrpUTxxO Provided by Fruits Music

Novelist and literary critic Christine Smallwood discusses Freud's Fliess Extracts, diving into fragments, libido, projection, anxiety, melancholia, and a case study on a paranoiac young woman. Explore Freud's evolving thoughts on hysteria and the fragmentary nature of his texts.

Abby and Patrick welcome philosopher Kate Manne, author of Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny (2017), Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women (2020), and the forthcoming Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia (2024). They discuss our moral emotions – shame, contempt, disgust, abjection – and what they signal; the ideological ranking of bodies into specific hierarchies, the contingencies of when and how fatness has been valued, and the historical links between contemporary fatphobia and anti-Blackness; how discourse around fatness involves logics of scapegoating, victim-blaming, the mystifications of capitalism, anxieties about pleasure, and fantasies of self-mastery; fat activism and the insights of disability studies; and the necessity of undoing fatphobia as a crucial part of meaningful social change and solidarity.Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia comes out January 9, 2024 and is available for pre-order here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/unshrinking-how-to-face-fatphobia-kate-manne/19993688Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny is here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/down-girl-the-logic-of-misogyny-kate-manne/18742539Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women is here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/entitled-how-male-privilege-hurts-women-kate-manne/16881547Kate’s Substack, “More to Hate,” is here: https://katemanne.substack.com/Other texts cited include: Julia Kristeva, Powers of HorrorKate Harding, “How Do You Fuck a Fat Woman?” (available in Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Power and a World Without Rape, eds Friedman and Valenti)Kate’s book tour dates include:Book launch in Ithaca, NY at Buffalo Street Books on Jan 9thCambridge, MA at Harvard Bookstore on Jan 22thMontclair, NJ at Montclair Public Library on Jan 24thBrooklyn, NY at Community Books on Jan 26thWashington, DC at Politics and Prose on Jan 27thHave 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: Linktree: https://linktr.ee/OrdinaryUnhappiness Twitter: @UnhappinessPod Instagram: @OrdinaryUnhappiness Patreon: patreon.com/OrdinaryUnhappiness Theme song: Formal Chicken - Gnossienne No. 1 https://open.spotify.com/album/2MIIYnbyLqriV3vrpUTxxO Provided by Fruits Music