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Campus News

CIIS Hosts Psychoanalysis and Activism Forum

Psychoanalysis and Activism In the Era of Trump and Neoliberalism: A Forum and Dialogue

January 16, 2017

On December 9th CIIS professor Fernando Castrillon, Lewis & Clark College Professor Tod Sloan, and CIIS graduate Paul Kalkin participated in a panel discussion facilitated by Anthropology and Social Change Ph.D. Candidate Claudia Lodia.

Together as analysts, educators and activists they orchestrated an open and creative discussion about the role of psychoanalysis in activism, during the recent election of Donald Trump and proposed policies that could exacerbate class struggle, hate-based propaganda and the exploitative nature of global capitalism.

The event represented a hopeful moment for many of us who attended. To me, it was an event that demonstrated a collaborative conversation influenced by a range of connections between people from and outside of CIIS. The discussion signaled the intricate connections between our deepest imaginations and the broader processes of everyday life in contemporary US. Indeed it was a beautiful effort toward unraveling the knowledge of struggle against a sociality hollowed out of care." - Claudia Lodia

Questions were posed to the community about ways psychoanalysis could be useful in analyzing and understanding the processes and conflicts of building solidarity and movement. Community members and students echoed a desire to continue this discussion on the current political climate and the role of psychoanalysis in activist work.

The event was made possible by Dr. Fernando Castrillon and Professor Andrej Grubacic, of the Community Mental Health M.A. and Anthropology and Social Change M.A. and Ph.D. programs at CIIS.

Facilitator Bios

Claudia Lodia's dissertation and activist work focuses on "Pinay femmë-ninities" in Metro Manila, using intersecting lenses of Queer Diaspora and Postcolonial Philippine Studies and, the methodological tools of Phenomenology, Activist Ethnography, and kuwentuhan (Philippine rendition of storytelling).

Fernando Castrillon, Psy.D., is a Core Faculty member of the Community Mental Health program, candidate psychoanalyst and faculty with the Lacanian School of Psychoanalysis in Berkeley, California, and has served on the editorial boards of the journals "Ecopsychology" and "Universitas Psychologicas." among others. He is currently on the editorial board of "The European Journal of Psychoanalysis."

Tod Sloan, Ph.D., is a professor at Lewis and Clark University in the Graduate School of Education of and Counseling. He is known internationally as an advocate for critical psychology.

Paul Kalkin, M.A., is a LMFT and CIIS graduate. He is a psychoanalytically focused and works with families, individuals, and couples on addictions and other compulsive behaviors amongst other things.