Welcome to our Spring 2023 issue. In this issue, we all reflected on the Silent (body) in Psychoanalysis. The body that is invisible to others; the body that is invisible to ourselves; the body that carries what was unsaid/unknown; the body that is forgotten/oppressed/colonized socially; the body that is silenced or remains silent; the body from the past or the body we imagine in the future; the cultural body, the body invested with untold history; the body that carries marks from lived experiences; the body that is made to submit; the body that doesn’t submit; the body that resists; the body of silent illnesses; the body and its untold secrets; the body that tells us stories.
De Toffoli (2011) beautifully describes how “I and you happen at the same time as emergence of the body, lived as an experience of oneself as the subject is mirrored in the other” (De Tofolli, 2019, p. 597) The author explains that every affect is a subjective state connected to the body (De Tofolli, 2019, p. 598). In this way, mind and body are intrinsically related as two manifestations of the same phenomena (inner and outer surface of experience). Beyond the psychic space, I find necessary to highlight the body as existing in the social sphere and as such collectively marked.
Our bodily experience is embodied in the inner space of our sensorial being while necessarily interconnected with the social through the gaze of the (m)other and its held connectedness with the symbolic order of our ancestors. As we reflect on the body in psychoanalysis, we necessarily encounter each other in the collective space where subjectivity exists, in an ongoing tension between the social and the psyche. Our body in its intersubjective corporeification suffers the pain of the world, expresses and internalizes the other/foreigner within itself. I invite the reader to play with those questions while interacting with the paintings, poems, pictures and essays that we collected.
On another hand, Critica is going through exciting times. Our team is growing as we embark on new projects – Critica online and Critica Conversations, both coming in the Fall. Our online publication fol-lows the steps of Room, Caliban and Bergasse 19, hoping to, with them, disrupt and expand, reflec-ting the vibrant contemporary world of psy-choanalytic thinking and practice. Stay tuned.
I would like to introduce you all to our new team. Elijah Allen is our new graphic designer. Elijah is very interested in inspiring people to open up to new perspectives while being curious about design. Beyond designing Critica’s issues, he is also developing our new website to be launched in the Fall. We also have three new committee members. Emily Anstreich is a PsyD. student at the Wright Institute and currently writes a newsletter titled PsychoPolitics where she explores political issues from a psychological lens. Rachael (Rae) Perlman is also a doctoral candidate at the Wright Institute and a doctoral intern at the University of Nebraska. Luba Palter, MFT is the current editor of NCSPP’s Impulse, and serves on NCSPP’s board. She is interested in the intersection of psychoana-lytic ideas, the arts and social justice. We are very excited to have them onboard as we embark on our new adventures.
Critica is the work of many hands, minds and hearts. It would never have been possible without our wonderful Committee members, our generous contributors and our readers. For that, I am always deeply grateful.
References
De Toffoli, C. (2011). The Living Body in the Psychoanalytic Experience. Psychoanal. Q., 80(3):595-618.
