Voices from ROOM: A Podcast for Analytic Action

This week, Aneta and Isaac talk with Ryan LaMothe about psychoanalysis and care in the age of the Anthropocene. LaMothe dissects the false binary between hope and despair and introduces Anarchic Care as a radical new form of psychoanalytic engagement. In the face of climate change, LaMothe details the need for analysts to take their work beyond the clinical and into the actively political as we confront a transforming Earth. "When it comes to climate change, there are various hopes and a good deal of wishful thinking at play. Both are problematic, yet hoping is at least as dangerous as idle wishing for a magical engineering fix to the problems we face." - Ryan LaMothe, "Hope in the Anthropocene Age," ROOM 2.22

This week, Aneta and Isaac talk with Roa Harb about food as a measurement of both distance and intimacy. Dr. Harb discusses how, through writing, she discovered that shared meals with her family in Lebanon were expressions of tenderness and suffocating control. Dr. Harb's work unmasks the role of the unconscious in memory, revulsion within desire, and survival through trauma. "My mother starts asking weeks in advance for our favorite foods so that she can core, stuff, mince, chop, and knead her way into neatly packed pans, ready to be thrown into the oven at a moment’s notice. On too many occasions, I’ve objected to this cheerful affirmation of the assumption that as expats we must be living in a state of food deprivation, possibly surviving on caloric stores between one visit and the next—to no avail." - Roa Harb, "Feeding" ROOM 10.22

This week, Aneta and Isaac talk with Keiko Lane about the intersections of queer survival, the social valence of disease, and what it means to embody the earned rage, sorrow, and hope in a complex psychological world. Coming to clinical practice after years of political organizing and advocacy, Lane illuminates how care creates the proximities essential to both therapy and protest.

This week, Isaac and Aneta talk with Joseph Cancelmo about the after-effects of collective trauma and the numbing worlds of "new normals." Cancelmo dissects both the contemporary dissociations found in working and living "remotely," as well as the productive identifications we can find within narrative, even, (and perhaps especially) within fiction. "This developmental need to bond has suffered from the binary structure of maleness and femaleness. We now know such dichotomies to be psychologically inaccurate to the experience of most if not all men and women." - Joe Cancelmo, "The Elephant (Walk) in the Room," ROOM 10.18

This week, Isaac and Aneta talk with Dr. Kerry Malawista about the healing power of writing and psychoanalysis. Dr. Malawista illuminates the social and political impact of The Things They Carry Project, a series of writing workshops she developed during the COVID-19 pandemic to help participants process trauma and promote resilience through writing. This project is further detailed in Malawista's book, The Things They Wrote, published by ROOM in 2023.

This week, Aneta and Isaac talk with Dr. Eugene Mahon about the magic of metaphors in action, play as a point of entry, and the place where psychoanalysis and poetry meet."Serious daring surely comes from serious thought, which brings us back to psychoanalytic thinking and its multiple determinants. To arrive at serious daring as quickly as possible would seem to be the essence of psychoanalytically informed action." Eugene Mahon, "Playing for Real" ROOM 2.19

This week, Isaac and Aneta speak with Dr. Isaac Tylim about the political refuge psychoanalysis offers in Argentina and the U.S. and the collapse of the psychoanalytic 'fourth wall.' Tylim deciphers the demands of external and internal realities in the clinical setting and illuminates how writing can be a form of mourning. 

This week, Isaac and Aneta talk with Dr. Michael A. Diamond about how to radically reshape organizations by embracing contradictions, using history to challenge narrative structures, and recognizing transferential experiences that exist between members and leaders."Reparative politics refers to the holding of tensions between opposing parties, producing a third intersubjective space where imaginative compromise and policymaking are plausible. In theory, this collective act of restitution might eventually lead to a third narrative and a renewed democratic center in which the legitimacy of political opposition returns to the American body politic." - Michael A. Diamond, "The Fissure" ROOM 2.20New episodes will be released twice a month on Thursdays. Listen and Subscribe today!

Dr. Vamik Volkan, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry, is celebrated for his insights on chosen traumas and peace-building. Joined by Molly Castelloe, they discuss their film, 'Blind Trust,' which explores leadership and followership during crises. They delve into the healing power of poetry for refugees, emphasizing personal stories in overcoming trauma. The conversation also covers ethnic conflict and identity, linking historical trauma to political challenges, and the transformative role of creativity in addressing mental health and racism among marginalized youth.

This week, Isaac and Aneta talk with Lara Sheehi about living in a state of suspended grief, bringing a decolonial, revolutionary, liberatory perspective to psychoanalytic work, emigrating to the United States, and more.