TAKING THE U.S. PERSONALLY by Michael A. Diamond
Politics is about power — who has it and who doesn’t. Politics is also about ethics, fairness, justice, and governing assumptions about the state of nature…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.
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…
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…
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…
‘CAN YOU SEE ME?’ PSYCHOANALYSIS AND SOUL-BLINDNESS by Carlos Padrón
In the epigraph, Jimi Hendrix’s poetic alter-ego expresses skepticism in regard to being seen and heard. Does he pose a question: “Can you see me?”; a demand: “Can you see me!”; or perhaps a plea: “Can you see me…please”?…