CRITICA

In the last few years we faced the fear of dying due to the Covid virus. We lived in a state of uncertainty. We changed our clinical practice from the office to Zoom. Everything changed very fast. For instance, most of the clinicians who were in my building  moved away. I have not seen or heard from them. They disappeared. I think this disappearance was the fears both internally and external to Covid and the aftermath.

A few years later, in 2024, the world gradually started to change. There was less fear of Covid and there was an element of  hope that we could return to normal state. But with the election in late 2024, a new phenomenon started to take place. The Republicans won the election and quickly began to impose restrictions and new ordinances.  At first people felt anxious but not fearful. A few weeks later many people were fired, many contracts were abolished. Undocumented immigrants were arrested, creating a state of panic.  

In the months before the election, many magazines and books predicted that The United States of America was adopting a new policy to intimidate people with more stringent laws. People began to fantasize about moving to other countries.

Currently there is collective panic that has paralyzed many people. Patients in therapy began to regress and not be able to understand the internal from the external. Their sense of reality had been altered. Being an immigrant myself, I began to remember my past when I left Italy. Now at 78, an analyst with a long career in the field, I started to experience minor panic and fears and old memories. The most disturbing memories were the stories told by family who lived during the fascism of the German regime. In Naples there was a German military base where many Italians worked. Fortunately none of my family were killed. However, the traumas of the war persisted in my family for years. Looking back, most of my family suffered from depression or some form of disassociation. They were functional but something was missing.  

Thinking about the past and what took place I started to wonder what has happened today to democracy and the concept of freedom––why these conceptual ideas are disappearing. I think it is difficult to give a clear and precise answer.  The best attempt is the new book by historian  Timothy Snyder (2024) called “On Freedom.” What takes place when one loses the freedom to speak and what happens when one country takes over the life of another?

In Europe under The Third Reich, there was no freedom of speech and people who spoke against the regime were killed. We learned from history that Hitler had plans to eliminate all the Jews and minorities. Many concentration camps were constructed to systematically kill the whole Jewish population. The idea of freedom, liberty and democracy disappeared. The idea of destruction took its place. Jozsef Debreczeni, an Hungarian journalist, wrote a book in 1966 that was just translated in English in 2023. The book explores in detail the violence, the brutality and the inhumanity of concentration camps. Primo Levi’s first book “If This Is a Man” discusses the violence that took place in a concentration camp. One could ask whether we are going to witness again what happened in the past or if we should take some position to stop all forms of violence. 

I was very relieved when I received a letter from the president of the International Psychoanalytic Association. Reading the letter, I became more hopeful about our current political situation. This is an important letter that should be read by any person involved in mental health. The letter supports our ethical standard and our clinical work. 

I will quote a brief part of the letter:
The IPA does not condone silencing. We have long benefited from the sage words of Hanna Segal (1987): “Silence is the real crime”. But I use the word “silencing” cautiously since it has become politicized. It has been used to describe the reluctance of colleagues within IPA Societies to discuss differing points of view about geopolitical matters – and now about gender identity. The tragedy for our profession would be that an either-or orientation – a taking of sides – could dominate our conversations when it comes to patients, for example trans patients. They themselves are not a matter of debate. They just exist. When it comes to gender non-conforming or trans persons, there is no side to be taken. 

This letter stressed the concept of democracy and freedom, a letter that gives us the power to think and oppose injustices.  

I did find another quotation by Hanna Segal (1977) that comes from her paper “A psychoanalytical approach to aesthetics.” Unbeknownst to her, this quotation was used as a rallying call for the World Trade Center Mural Project. The project was set up following the terrorist attack of September 11th 2001 with the aim of creating a mural, 70 feet high, on the Equitable Building in New York as a symbol that life could survive destruction:

It is when the world within us is destroyed, when it is dead and loveless, when our loved ones are in fragments, and we ourselves in helpless despair – it is then that we must recreate our world anew, reassemble the pieces, infuse life into dead fragments, re- create life. 

To recreate life we need courage, strength and a community that opposes injustice. Without a community we are alone and unable to think. We need a space to think, to become alive. I believe that PINC is the place to start to regain our freedom and liberty. ●

Works Cited

Segal, H. (1977). The work of Hanna Segal: A Kleinian approach to clinical practice. Jason Aronson, Incorporated.

Luca Di Donna, Ph.D., Co – chair Critica. Member of Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California. Personal and training analyst at PINC. Member of IPA,  Associate  member of Italian Psychoanalytic Society.  Involved in psychoanalytic publishing for forty years.