WHAT HAPPENED TO THE DEMOCRATS? by Carolyn Ellman
What happened to the party of the working class? When did the Democratic party become a party that neglects the poor? When did politicians stop fighting for economic equality…
ESTRANGEMENT EFFECT by Aneta Stojnić
As a young candidate transferring from the field of performing arts and theory into psychoanalysis, I am struck by their provocative resonances. In addition to theoretical connections, I have noticed between psychoanalysis and performing arts/performance studies…
PSYCHOANALYSIS’ FOURTH WALL by Isaac Tylim
The “fourth wall” is a technical device used by actors. It works in the following way: Actors choose a spot in the back of the theater, internalize it, and move on with the action, bypassing the potential interference of….
THE ELEPHANT (WALK) IN THE ROOM by Joseph A. Cancelmo
There has been a curious omission in the public debate following Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee on allegations of sexual assault…
PSYCHIC SPACE by Phyllis Beren and Sheldon Bach
When our yoga teacher first taught us to visualize the space between two joints in our body and then to breathe into that space to open it up, we followed her instructions avidly…
A THERAPIST LOOKS AT A DIVIDED COUNTRY by Dorothea Crites
I’m in a dissociated state. Other people might say I’m numb, robotic, going through the motions, “not all there.” But I’m a psychotherapist, so I recognize this sense…
COUNTRY EX-ANIMA: VENEZUELA by Roberto Echeto
The news about Venezuela is as alarming as it is strange. Each day brings a new mix of tragedy and absurdity. Venezuela is no longer a country…
HUNGER, A VISUAL ESSAY by Federico Parra
A girl scavenges for food in the streets of Caracas. From 2014 to 2017, a visual essay about the starvation crisis in Venezuela by the photojournalist Federico Parra.
G TRAIN by Gabriel Heller
I got on an M train, thinking it was an F train, I wasn’t paying attention, and rode it out to Williamsburg by mistake. I looked up from the story I was reading about two mathematicians, one of them losing his mind, where am I…
MIGRANT by Lorenzo Figallo Calzadilla
Dreams, words, ideas, memories, contradictions—all of it is wrapped together in your feelings. The moment of leaving nears. The departure is certain…
TWITTER DEE TWITTER DUM by William W. Harris
Trump. I am discombobulated because of Trump. I binge watch TV – not Fox, MSNBC. He has infected everything: my dreams, my conscious, my unconscious, dinners with my family, my work.
CHILDREN ON THE BORDER by Phyllis Beren
As I thought about the horror of separating young children from their families at the U.S. border, what came to mind was the London bombings during World War II…
CHUNHYANG: #METOO IN THE PENTATONIC SCALE by Ittai Shapira and Laureen Park
A young woman from Namwon known for her virtue captured the unwanted attention of the newly installed magistrate who was arrogant, cruel, and narcissistic…
WHAT IS AT PLAY by Margaret Fulton
When I was asked to write a piece for this newsletter on the subject of play, work/life balance or the analyst at play, I began gathering materials as I usually do in my writing process, and then I wait and see what thoughts begin to germinate…
PLAYING WITH GUNS by Stefanie Hofer
At first, their silence made me wonder if I had overreacted to the presence of toy guns at the church event due to my experience with gun violence. My husband, Jamie Bishop, was murdered during the Virginia Tech massacre on April 16, 2007, the deadliest school shooting in US history.
NOTES ON BECOMING AN ACTIVIST by Ann Kaplan
On October 14, 2017, I moderated an event called “Duty to Warn” in New York City. The event was one of several held nationally on that day. The topic was on the psychological fitness of Donald Trump to hold the office of president of the United States. The proximate reason…
SCULPTING GRIEF by Natalie Korytnyk Forrester
I wish I knew exactly what drew me in. I do recall what I brought: a bullet and my late husband’s dried wedding boutonniere. Melissa Ichiuji, the workshop teacher, was afraid the bullet could explode easily. I reassured her it wouldn’t. I just never imagined something solid could explode without impact.
FOUND IN TRANSLATION: A KOREAN THERAPIST TRAINS IN AMERICA by Young-Ran Kim
For a while after I came to the U.S. in August 2016, I continued to have dreams which seemed to show that although I had physically moved to the U.S., my mind still needed time to catch up to that move. In those dreams, I missed my flight to New York because I arrived late to the airport, or I didn’t get ready to leave for…
HOW MUCH CAN YOU BEAR? THE CASE OF OSIP MANDELSTAM by Richard B. Grose
The publication of Diane Seuss’s poem, “Still Life with Dictator”, in this issue of ROOM made me think of another poem about another dictator which appeared in circumstances very different from these. I refer to the poem on Stalin…
DUTY TO SPEAK by Betty Teng
The folks in the images appearing with this essay hold the traumas of racism, immigration, natural disaster and genocide. I show these faces because they reflect experiences of trauma so many of us Americans contain, directly or intergenerationally. I point to these images also to reflect on the ongoing fact that Donald Trump and his supporters’ aggressive words, policies and actions
against these already vulnerable people — against what is vulnerable in us all — has been traumatizing or re traumatizing for far too many.