Inoperative Love and Social Well-Being in the Face of Oppression: A Psychoanalytic-Agambenian Developmental Perspective and Its Implications for Psychoanalytic Therapy.

The author depicts, relying on several of Giorgio Agamben's philosophical concepts as well as a psychoanalytic developmental perspective, the origins and features of inoperative love and spaces, especially as they pertain to oppressive situations wherein social, political, and economic apparatuses undermine the psychosocial well-being of individuals, families, and communities. In addition, the author conceptualizes psychoanalytic therapy as an inoperative space wherein patients actualize their capacity for impotentiality and experience singularity and rapport.

Psychoanalysis, Trauma, and Giorgio Agamben.

The author uses the work of Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben to reimagine the meaning and dynamics of trauma, as well as psychoanalysis as a process that remedies, in part, traumatic experiences. More particularly, trauma is conceptualized in terms of Agamben's notions of potentiality, singularity/suchness, and inoperativity, although these are inflected from psychosocial developmental and political perspectives. This provides a way to bridge the idea of individual trauma with the larger political milieu's apparatuses that can be systemically traumatizing, as seen in the social death of racism. This reframing of trauma leads to reconceiving the process of therapy as rendering inoperative memories of trauma and, in some cases, traumainducing apparatuses, while, in part, mending the dialectical and paradoxical tension between potentiality and actuality that is necessary for socialpolitical agency and experiences of singularity.

Psychoanalysis and the Ungovernable Self: Further Explorations.

The author explores the idea that psychoanalysis is a process that facilitates, for some patients, the emergence of an ungovernable self. To make this case, Agamben's notion of the ungovernable self and its relation to potentiality-actuality, excess, and inoperativity are explained in light of psychosocial development. It is argued that the seeds of the ungovernable self lie within the parent-infant space of speaking and acting together, wherein good-enough parents' personalizing attunements to infants' assertions facilitate children's sense of singularity that is not contingent on social-political apparatuses. This space of suchness provides a secure base for children's transition to political spaces. From here, the argument shifts to the psychoanalytic process, which (1) affirms the singularity of the individual while engaging in inquiry into and exploration of the patient's life; (2) possesses a key premise of the excess of the "unconscious"; and (3) fosters the exercise of ungovernable selves.

The Future of an Illusion: The Problem of Sovereignty.

The author explores the idea of sovereignty as an illusion that is and will continue to have deleterious effects on cooperative efforts to slow or stop climate change and the extinction of millions of species. To make this case, the notion of sovereignty is defined and its attributes described. This lays the foundation for arguing, from a psychoanalytic perspective, that sovereignty is a tightly held illusion (and practice). The last section of the article identifies the negative present and future impact of sovereignty with regard to the Anthropocene Age, as well as briefly identifying other possibilities for ordering societies.

An Indecent Society, Sick Souls, and the Weak Messianic Force of God: A Reflection on Religious Health in the Anthropocene Era.

This article posits that the dire realities associated with the Anthropocene Era will increase the presence of indecent societies that humiliate Others while securing the well-being of privileged groups. Within the society, humiliation, which is carried out by various political, social, and economic apparatuses, leads to civic carelessness and perfidy that accompanies both the foreclosure of the space of appearances, wherein people speak and act together, and the diminution of Others' self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-respect. It is argued that indecent societies depend on sick souls who seek to retain social, political, and economic privileges that depend on the illusions of their superiority and the inferiority of humiliated Others. At the same time, humiliated Others, who believe in and accept their inferiority, are understood as sick souls. Healthy souls vis-à-vis the looming realities of the Anthropocene and indecent societies are depicted in terms of inoperativity or the weak messianic force of God, wherein healthy individuals and groups are not captive to and do not operate out of the illusions of superiority and inferiority, but instead recognize the unfathomableness of Others (human and otherwise). This means that Others are recognized in their suchness, which attends mutual self-respect, self-esteem, and self-confidence that are necessary for speaking and acting together vis-à-vis the space of appearances. This slight adjustment renders the beliefs of indecent societies inoperative, making possible both human agency that cares for human beings in their suchness and ecological agency that cares for the habitat and all its creatures.

On Being at Home in the World: A Psychoanalytic-Political Perspective on Dwelling in the Anthropocene Era.

In this article, the notion of dwelling is considered from a psychoanalytic developmental perspective, as well as in terms of the political dimension of life. The author contends that a psychoanalytic portrayal of dwelling should not lose sight of the political-economic realities implicated in experiences of being unhoused, especially when we consider the possibility that climate change, which human beings have caused, is likely to unhouse millions of species, including human beings. Given this, the author briefly indicates what this means for psychoanalytic therapy in the Anthropocene Era.

Giving Counsel: Donald Capps' Contributions to Pastoral Counseling.

This article explores some of Donald Capps' contributions to the ministry of pastoral counseling. In particular, several key attributes of pastoral counseling as a ministry of the church are identified and discussed. This is followed by identifying six features necessary for good enough pastoral counseling. A final brief section offers some musings that I wish Capps could respond to.

The Willie Lomans of a Market Society: Addressing Political-Economic Sources of Suffering in Pastoral Counseling.

This article focuses on the culture of state-corporate capitalism as a source of psychological suffering for some people who seek the aid of pastoral counselors. An underlying premise of this article and, more particularly, the work of pastoral counseling comes from Frantz Fanon's view that the aims of psychotherapy are (a) 'to 'consciousnessize' [the patient's] unconscious, to no longer be tempted by a hallucinatory lactification', and (b) 'to enable [the patient] to choose an action with respect to the real source of the conflict, i.e., the social structure'. An aim of pastoral counseling, then, is to facilitate recognition of a person's sources of suffering so that s/he can decide how to respond. By contrast, it is argued that a pastoral counselor, in leaving a client unaware that his/her suffering is partially the result of a capitalistic culture, fosters hermeneutical mystification, and the patient is not able to choose an action directed toward a major source of his/her depression.

Winnicott and helplessness: developmental theory, religion, and personal life.

The author examines Winnicott's theory of development from the perspective of existential helplessness, arguing that (a) his views illuminate healthy (and unhealthy) aspects of religion, and (b) express his stance toward the helplessness of dying and death. The author contends that Winnicott understood the infant's psychic growth in relation to the reality of existential helplessness and absolute dependency. Four interrelated, dynamic paradoxes embedded in Winnicott's developmental perspective are discussed, and these paradoxes are seen as frameworks to depict his notions of ego, transitional objects, and true/false selves. The author posits that religion, which Winnicott included under the rubric of transitional phenomena, can be understood in relation to existential helplessness and can be assessed in terms of the degree to which these paradoxes are dynamic.

Pastoral counseling in the 21st century: the centrality of community.

In this article, I argue that the notion of ecclesia or faith community is a central, existential anthropological premise that can shape how we understand facets of pastoral counseling such as diagnosis, process, and aims. Implicit here is the idea that the distinctiveness of pastoral counseling lies not simply in accountability and authority vis-à-vis community, but in its use of a communitarian anthropology to understand the importance of community for psychosocial development, resiliency, and healing. I argue further that in the 21st century the centrality of the notion of community is, and will continue to be, critical, because of political and economic forces that undermine community, giving rise to psychosocial alienation, depression, etc.

Winnicott and Arendt: bridging potential and political spaces.

In this article, the author seeks to bridge analytic theory, which is used as an interpretive framework to understand patients' psychic lives, and political philosophy, which accounts for individuals living a life in common as citizens. Specifically, I address how we can understand the relation between the psychosocial space of a parent(s) and child interaction, which becomes part of the child's psychic life, and the political space between and within citizens. The underlying claim is that there is a correlation between political space and the space between parent and child. I use an emended version of Donald Winnicott's concept of potential space and political philosopher Hannah Arendt's notion of the space of appearances to suggest connections between the consulting room and political space.

The spirits of capitalism and christianity and their impact on the formation of healthcare leaders.

In this article, I portray how the ethos of Christianity, broadly speaking, and the mores of capitalism intersect in the formation of healthcare leaders and the difficult decisions they make in insuring the viability of healthcare institutions. More particularly, I argue that healthcare leaders in Christian healthcare institutions are largely formed by and dependent on a capitalistic ethos in making decisions and less so by a Christian ethos. There are key differences in these two meaning systems, and these differences, in part, reveal an incompatibility between them. This incompatibility does not imply a rejection of capitalism, if that is even possible, but rather a recognition of its effects and limits vis-à-vis the formation of healthcare leaders and their decision-making process. Finally, I offer an approach that deals with the spirits of capitalism and Christianity in forming healthcare leaders and their decision-making.

Potential space: creativity, resistance, and resiliency in the face of racism.

An amended version of Winnicott's concept of potential space is used to depict and understand the creativity, resilience, and resistance of African Americans facing the pervasive realities of social oppression, marginalization, and alienation linked to white racism. In particular, I argue that familial-communal potential space functions to confirm, secure, and maintain subjective and intersubjective experiences of being persons-unique, valued, inviolable, and agentic subjects-over and against the depersonalization of racism.

Political humiliation, object use, and psychological changes in the life of Malcolm X.

This article examines and describes the traumatic effects of political humiliation in the life of Malcolm X, and the psychosocial changes exhibited in his moving from being snared by the talons of racism to a greater sense of freedom and flexibility in working with a wide variety of people. Malcolm X's suffering and psychosocial changes are framed in terms of object relating and use, as well as by his search for a transformational object that would restore and secure his self-worth and efficacy.

The taboo of politics in pastoral counseling.

The political realities of society are present in counseling in subtle and overt ways. In this article, I argue that the client's (and counselor's) political experiences, beliefs, and commitments can be and, in many cases, should be explored. The idea of the political self or subjectivity and its identifying features and sources are described. I posit that political subjectivity forms through the processes of internalization, identification, and idealization. In identifying several reasons for the taboo of political discourse in pastoral counseling, I suggest a number of ways pastoral counselors may manage the political self in the counseling relationship. The three goals for exploring a client's political subjectivity for the client are: (1) to have a deeper and broader understanding of one's political beliefs, values, and commitments; (2) develop a more empathic understanding of the beliefs and experiences of Others; and (3) be able to take responsibility for the harm that results from one's political commitments.

The clash of Gods: changes in a patient's use of God representations.

In this article, I argue that manifest and latent intrapsychic and interpersonal clashes of god representations, which are inextricably yoked to transference and countertransference communications, signify the patient's and therapist's personal realities and histories. More specifically, the therapist's conscious (relatively speaking) commitment to a god representation will not only shape his/her analytic attitude-as well as interpretations and noninterpretive interventions-it may also be implicated in a patient altering his/her use of god representations. I suggest further that one way to understand the process of psychoanalytic therapy is how both analyst and analysand tacitly face and answer the following questions: What God(s) orients my life and relationships? What God(s) represents subjugation, fear, and the loss of freedom? What God(s) have I repressed? What God(s) represents the possibility and experience of being alive and real with others? In the end, what God(s) will I choose to serve, to surrender to?

Alter(ing) potential space: personalization and community in psychoanalytic therapy.

In this paper, I use the notion of alterity to amend Winnicott's view of potential space. I suggest that the parent's potential space--omnipotent recognition and treatment of the baby as person--makes possible the baby's belief in and experience of omnipotence, which is manifested in his/her omnipotent recognition and treatment of objects in terms of utility, pleasure, and function. This early manifestation of potential space gives way to recognition of objects as proto-persons, which accompanies the child's illusion that the (transitional) object recognizes him/her as a person. Here the child learns to surrender to the object's omnipotent constructions and, in these moments, there is a proto-communion--an illusory experience of mutual joining together as persons. This eventually gives way to a potential space wherein two or more people mutually and omnipotently construct and surrender to each other as persons, subordinating pleasure, function, and utility to the recognition of the Other as person. This depiction of potential space can serve as a framework for understanding the process of therapy as a struggle not simply of reality and illusion, but one of recognition and treatment of Others as persons and the possibility of communion and community.

"I came so that they may have life": amative space and faith as vital concern.

This article describes four attributes of faith as vital concern--relational spontaneity, responsiveness, receptiveness, and vulnerability--which are key ingredients to subjective and intersubjective experiences of being alive and real. The metaphor, amative space, refers to the processes and dynamics that make faith as vital concern a viable possibility between and among people. The author depicts these processes as four, interrelated dialectical pairs--recognition-negation, surrender-generation, trust-distrust, and disruption-repair. The four attributes of faith as vital concern combined with the processes and dynamics of amative space can be used as a relational model to understand faith experience and interactions of individuals and groups.