Psychoanalysis in Action: A Collective Response to Political Crisis

Psychoanalysis is a practice that promotes inner movement, one that aims to convert a common disposition into action—into thought, dreaming, and language. So, what prompted hundreds of Israeli psychoanalysts over the last two years to leave their offices and take to the streets, not just as individuals but as a professional collective?

The “Psychoanalysis in Action” movement began as a spontaneous initiative by psychoanalysts from the Israel Psychoanalytic Society. It was a protest against what appeared to be a growing attack on the democratic principles upon which the State of Israel was founded. The movement started in response to a proposed judicial overhaul that threatened the Supreme Court and the separation of legislative and executive branches. After the October 7th attack, the protests continued as it became increasingly clear that the Israeli government’s interests ran counter to the ethical and moral values on which psychoanalysis is based.

We operate in this space as citizens and as analysts. As citizens, we joined mass protests, each in our own name. As analysts, we became the organizers of these protests, conveying a clear message not only on our own behalf as individuals, but also as professionals who are concerned about the fate of the society to which we belong. The division between the personal and the professional, and between the private and the civil, which was a privilege that had characterized more sane times, disappeared from the moment we reached the red line on all fronts.

The first “Psychoanalysis in Action” event was a major demonstration outside the Kishon detention center in response to the extended detention of four men who had fired flares at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home during a protest. There was no danger to the Prime Minister’s residence or its residents, who were not there at the time anyway. The speeches delivered at the event used a psychoanalytic lens to examine the arrests and the way the detainees were handled by the police and the prosecution.

Driven by a profound sense of urgency, the “Psychoanalysis in Action” team initiated a series of similar protests. These events were first dedicated to the immediate return of all Israeli hostages and later expanded to include a call for a complete cessation of the war, including an end to the killing and starvation in Gaza.

Held in front of the Knesset and in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, these events drew a large audience of mental health professionals and the general public. Numerous analysts from the Israel Psychoanalytic Society spoke, and some even participated by playing and singing protest songs. Following these gatherings, the Psychoanalytic Society issued a public statement calling for the return of the hostages. This statement declared: 

The abandonment of the hostages and the turning of our backs on their fate constitute an irreversible blow to our moral foundation and our sense of collective solidarity. Any public cooperation with this abandonment not only harms the hostages themselves but also inflicts a severe moral wound on Israeli society. This wound stems from finding ourselves unwillingly complicit in an act that contradicts the entire system of values we represent. We protest the recurring argument that releasing prisoners is too high a price to pay for the return of the hostages. While releasing prisoners does pose a real risk, this risk is only potential. Moreover, it is clear beyond any doubt that even if these specific prisoners are not released, the world will not be purged of those who seek evil, and if these are not released, others will rise to take their place. In contrast, the risk of leaving the hostages behind is crucial. The condition of the hostages returned in recent exchanges indicates beyond any doubt that they are in immediate mortal danger, that their time is running out, and that every additional hour could be their last. Not only will others not rise to take their place, but others will not rise to take ours. If we do not act now, we will have to live the rest of our lives with the knowledge that we have abandoned not only the hostages themselves but also the entire value system for which the state we live in was founded. Therefore, bringing the hostages home is not only the only way we can look them and their families in the eye, but also the only way we can, from now on, look ourselves in the eye.

Additionally, a separate statement from Israeli analysts was released, calling for an end to the killing and starvation in Gaza. This statement was circulated among psychoanalytic societies worldwide, with many of their members signing in solidarity with the Israeli analysts.

In addition to public demonstrations, the group launched an online initiative to rewrite the Passover Haggadah. It used traditional texts and a contemporary psychoanalytic interpretation to infuse new meaning into the discussion of freedom. The “Bring Them to a Safe Shore” initiative posted a short daily text by one of the Israeli analysts on social media, discussing the current situation and the urgency of bringing the hostages home and ending the war.

The speeches given at the protest events were notable for their creative use of diverse psychoanalytic concepts to help understand the unfolding events. A few examples from the many texts that were written and read aloud are included below.

Selected Quotes from “Psychoanalysis in Action”

Prof. Merav Roth:

Imagine a family with five children. One day, a violent and deranged neighbor kidnaps three of them. The two remaining children run to their parents, crying and screaming that their siblings have been taken. The parents calm them: “We’ll bring your brothers and sisters home.”

The next day, they wake up, and nothing has changed. The children are still not rescued. This goes on, day after day. The mad neighbor sends videos showing how he’s abusing and injuring them. The remaining children become hysterical, crying out to their parents. The parents promise again, “Of course we’ll bring them back—very soon.”

Then the neighbor murders one of the siblings. The children are shattered, terrified, begging their parents to rescue the other two immediately. Then the neighbor sends a message: he’s willing to release the siblings. The children run to their parents, full of hope, only to be told, “Now’s not the right time.”

Now imagine those children almost two years later, being told that just one of the siblings might return. “And what about the other one?” they scream. “In what kind of insane world do you bring back only one sibling and leave the other in the hands of a psychopathic, monstrous, murderous neighbor?”

You can understand why there is no way these children would not be mentally broken: from anxiety, depression, learned helplessness, hatred, vengeful fantasies, and a dissociative detachment that numbs all emotion and leaves them hollow. No human contract is being upheld. Every moral value has been looted. The treasury is empty. The soul is empty. There is shock and loss everywhere.

We are those children.

 

Dr. Ofra Cohen-Fried:

The Mediterranean—between Gaza and Tel Aviv—now rages, while brothers remain hostages in dark tunnels without windows, struggling to survive starvation and the terror of death, abandoned and deceived by a leadership whose duty is to bring them back to a safe haven. And across from them, Gaza’s children—whose homes and childhoods have also become heaps of broken glass—stretch out for an open hand, for a handful of food. The Mediterranean—between Gaza and Tel Aviv—must cease its rage, must again become a safe haven. A moral shore where no one is left behind. A shore where an open window serves as a compass and a conscience, a responsibility to return living brothers and the dead, to restore children to their childhood.

 

Prof. Dana Amir:

We stand here today because life matters.

Not only the lives of the hostages being tortured in the tunnels of Hamas; not only the lives of the hostages’ families whose time has been frozen for 681 days; but also the lives of the starving Gazan children who are being slaughtered in their homes on the other side of the border.

We stand here today to tell people of every age, on all sides of the fence of this accursed war, that their pain is not transparent, and their blood is not permissible.

We stand here today to say that our pain is not transparent either. Our blood is not permissible either.

No longer will you [the Israeli Government] use us as sleds on whose backs you ride down the slope to which you have dragged us; no longer will you wage on our backs, in our name, a war whose sole purpose is the ultimate destruction of all value, dignity, and all embodiments of goodness.

We stand here today to declare that we will oppose this in every way, with all our might. Not only because resistance is the right civic act, but also because this resistance is our last human hope, and to give it up would be to give up a life worth living.

 

Sandra Halevy:

In José Saramago’s book [Blindness], when everyone is blinded by a contagious epidemic, people have no names. People become doubles—doppelgangers—of each other. Therefore, we will continue to wave signs with the names and faces of the Israeli hostages and the children and people of Gaza. Each person will have a name. Therefore, we will continue to write together as a group, to fight for thinking, language, humanity, compassion, and action.

The Decision to Act

For psychoanalysts to leave their therapy rooms for the squares and streets and openly demonstrate political stances is not a common or self-evident occurrence. Despite the complexities involved, the understanding that the State of Israel is in a state of acute emergency, held captive by a government that is crossing more and more human and moral red lines—led to the decision to voice an unequivocal message.

This message uses the psychoanalytic understanding of the individual psyche and group dynamics to recruit partners in the growing resistance to government policy and its irreversible consequences on all sides of this radical conflict. Ultimately, it is an unequivocal call for a political solution and the victory of valuing life over the worship of death.