A New Year’s Note from the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis

Simone de Beauvoir wrote of Americans in her travelogue of 1947:

“They witness the rise, more ominous every day, of racism and reactionary attitudes—the birth of a kind of fascism. They know that their country is responsible for the world’s future. But they themselves don’t feel responsible for anything, because they don’t think they can do anything in this world.”

Little has changed except we’re moving ahead at an AI algorithm’s pace as our government (shorthand for capitalism/colonialism/white supremacy/patriarchy) openly justifies the dehumanization of others unlike themselves.

Beauvoir noted that freedom and responsibility are linked. Poet and critical theorist Maggie Nelson also linked freedom with care – an active care for others as well as the world. For both writers the idea of “freedom” demands work, demands an acknowledgment of the other unlike us. And both touch upon Emmanuel Levinas’ “ethical subject” whose responsibility is to not turn away from suffering.

If we can accept a definition of freedom which places us in the world, interconnected to, impacted by, and responsible for others, then the dialectics of Beauvoir and Nelson ask us to accept things as they are and to simultaneously push to change them.

CCP offers more than professional training, education, lectures, and CEUs; we hope we are creating change in the world, individually and systemically. Our roles as social workers, psychotherapists, teachers, supervisors, and analysts ask us to be nurturing in a neglectful environment.

We have the opportunity and potential to do amazing work, to reduce the suffering of others. The first of the four great vows in Zen Buddhism says: “Sentient beings are numberless, I vow to save them.” Like most teachings in Zen, the important part is silent: We must count ourselves among that infinite number of beings as we practice and study so we can become the kinds of healers we imagine.

I hope we can continue to take care of ourselves, those we love, and those we don’t even know across the coming year.  

Happy New Year.

Zak Mucha, LCSW. Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis