The deontology of a political psychoanalysis: an interview with Patricia Gherovici

Abstract

Patricia Gherovici’s groundbreaking work in Lacanian psychoanalysis brings unique focus to both clinical psychology and today’s socio-political reality. In this interview, we ask Dr Gherovici to reflect on how Lacanian theory can be applied to the political issues of today. Our discussion takes place months after the Trump election and addresses such matters as unconscious choice in gender selection; rising levels of anxiety in non-cis identified analysands over Trump’s presidency; the subversive potential of the unconscious; the efficacy of grounding ethics on comedy; and employing Jacques Lacan’s notion of the sinthome to depathologize psychosis and transgender identity. Dr. Gherovici finds in her analysands a window through which to witness the impact of our social reality upon our psychic selves; and she argues for a psychoanalytic praxis that not only marries the political to the clinical, but also bases its ethics upon recognition of the singularity of the subject. In particular, she points to the subject’s individual sinthome as charting a creative response to the dire realities we each confront.