A TEAR IN THE FABRIC by Delia Battin
William Blake was outraged by the idea of a bird in a cage, it being a violation of the natural order. One can only imagine what he would think…
OUTSIDE OF HISTORY by C. Jama Adams
Engaging with marginalized social histories and recognizing the psychic consequences these histories hold for the treatment dyad poses a challenge for psychoanalysis…
BURIED NECK DEEP by Lama Z. Khouri
Lately, a dream I had twelve years ago has been coming back to me. I dreamt that my four-year-old son (he’s sixteen now) was buried neck deep in the middle of a neighborhood and surrounded by modest houses…
AFTER THE LYNCHING MUSEUM by Elizabeth Trawick
“Nigger take this! Take it, I tell ya!” Howard yells at the black carhop. It is 1951 in Macon, Georgia. I am eight years old. My brother, Toby, is six. We are in the back seat of a 1948 Ford. I am cringing. I do not know what Toby…
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…
PROGRESS NOTES by Hattie Myers
Room never knows where the next submission will come from. With every essay, poem, photograph, image of art, piece of music, or description of activism…
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.
THE ANNIVERSARY by Hattie Myers
Anniversaries exist as a demand to remember and, as such, they have a great deal in common with the work of psychoanalysis. Looking back from the vantage of ROOM’s first anniversary, it is amazing to recall that ROOM might not have happened at all but for a fortuitous accident.
GROWING ROOM by Hattie Myers
It feels impossible to begin this introduction to Room 9.17 without mentioning the attack in Charlottesville even though, by the time you read this, that horrific August weekend will likely be occluded by whatever will have happened next. ROOM is not a blog. It is not a tweet. It is not a newsletter at one with the news. ROOM is a re-occurring place of reflection…
THE BRAND by Jeri Isaacson
The day in April that Ivanka Trump appeared on the dais with Angela Merkel at the Women’s Summit in Berlin, I was in my office. I was listening to a vibrant and astute young woman in her twenties as she confessed, a little sheepishly, that her new shirt had “trendy” sleeves…
Letters to Room by Samera Nasereddin and Leni Winn
We are grateful to both Leni and Samera for letting us share their words publically and for giving us the idea of having a ‘Letters to ROOM’ section. The creation of ROOM is an unfolding process between the editorial team and the community…
UNDERSTANDING, CHARLOTTESVILLE by Jared Russell
For the previous issue of ROOM, I contributed a piece that argued against the idealization of tolerance, diversity and understanding that I see so many in the psychoanalytic community currently engaged in. I’m aware that some readers…
IN THE LAND OF MAKE BELIEVE: THE NEW TRUTH THAT GETS RID OF LOSS by Coline Covington
A patient in her early thirties recently admitted that she hadn’t voted, yet again…
MAKING ROOM by Hattie Myers
From 1934 -1945, the Rundbriefe was a top secret newsletter that circulated among a small group of socially and politically committed refugee psychoanalysts. Otto Fenichel, its founder and one of Freud’s most eminent followers, urged this small group of analysts not to isolate themselves…
A TOAST
Sheldon Bach is a Training and Supervising Analyst and on faculty at IPTAR, He has written five books on psychoanalysis, most recently “Chimeras and Other Writings: Selected Papers of Sheldon Bach” (IP Books, 2016).
UNDERSTANDING, DEMOCRACY by Jared Russell
I try to rise up each time the pits of Trump fears and anger draw me down. Many people speak of the tangle of old fears…
ADDICTED TO WATCHING OUR PRESIDENT? by Richard B. Grose
Since the election of T as president many people who can see nothing positive in him whatsoever, either as human being or politician…
ROOM WITH A VIEW by Hattie Myers
In the weeks after 9/11 the IPTAR Clinical Center received a grant to fly in mental health professionals from Ireland, the Middle East, and South America to talk about the experience
of doing psychoanalysis in the midst of existential terror. Hundreds of therapists practicing in New York came…
WHERE DO THEY KEEP THE WHITE PEOPLE? by Jane Lazarre
I try to rise up each time the pits of Trump fears and anger draw me down. Many people speak of the tangle of old fears…
THE THEFT OUTRIGHT* by Eugene Mahon
Eugene Mahon is a Training and Supervising psychoanalyst at Columbia Psychoanalytic. His forthcoming volume of poetry BONE SHOP OF THE HEART is in press with IPBooks.
SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE NEW ‘NEW NORMAL’ by Joseph Cancelmo
Sitting down to write these words on Inauguration Day felt like the exact right thing to be doing. For this is another inaugural — of ROOM. Perhaps we can even…
A VIEW OF THE ELECTION FROM THE OUTPOSTS OF OLD AGE by Janet Fisher
An eighty-four year old woman who has been in therapy for years for chronic anxiety has a satisfying and still thriving career, a solid marriage…
THINKABLE / UNTHINKABLE by Gila Ashtor
When I got ready to see patients on the morning of November 9th, I wanted to wear a hoodie to work. My army green hoodie is something I reserve for errands and weekends, but that post-election morning…