Rendering Unconscious is the title of both a book and podcast hosted by Dr. Vanessa Sinclair, an American psychoanalyst based in Stockholm. It began with the desire to provide a platform for a variety of philosophical and psychoanalytic theoretical orientations, demonstrating that diverse viewpoints can be complementary rather than oppositional, and highlighting the usefulness of implementing a variety of lenses and perspectives, thereby broadening one’s worldview. I also explore the subjective experience of psychoanalysts and philosophers, as well as other scholars and clinicians. How did they come to their field of choice in the first place? What has their career path been like? What have they found to be engaging, surprising, inspiring and disappointing?
In this context, I interview psychoanalysts, philosophers, psychologists, creative arts therapists, writers, poets and other intellectuals about their work, process, the current state of mental health care in general and psychoanalysis in particular, as well as current events, activism, politics and culture. I intentionally invite clinicians and scholars coming from a diverse range of theoretical orientations, perspectives and experience, as one of the areas I wish to address, and hopefully mend, is the tendency for theorists to stay in their various “camps” rather than engaging in interdisciplinary or even cross-theoretical discourse.
I have really enjoyed the process of hosting the podcast, especially as I interview more and more guests. It is interesting to listen to and share such a diverse range of viewpoints, how they come together and complement one another in certain ways and juxtapose against each other in others. It is interesting to hear others speak about their personal experiences in their fields of interest, learn about the varying areas in which psychoanalysts and philosophers currently work and practice, and the ways in which these fields intersect not only with one another but with other fields of interest. For example, some recent guests – Jacob Johansson, Isabel Millar and Damien Patrick Williams – work within the intersections of philosophy, technology, and digital media, areas of interest that I haven’t personally studied but are fascinating and clearly becoming more and more important as new technologies develop and we are ever more dependent on them and increasingly live our lives online. In this way, not only am I exposed to new areas of expertise and exploration that I haven’t personally researched in my own experience or practice, but I have the opportunity to amplify these forward-thinking voices and project them out to you all, the listeners.
I treat the podcast interviews in much the same way as I treat the beginning of an analytic session. I don’t prepare questions ahead of time or send the guest talking points I’d like to discuss (and vice versa). Rather, being a proponent of the intelligence of the unconscious, I prefer to allow the guest to start the discussion with whatever first comes to their mind, and I allow the discussion to unfold how it will, the unconscious associations leading the way. That being said, there are a couple of areas toward which I do direct the conversation at some point during the course of the interview. First, I like to ask my guests how they became interested in psychoanalysis or philosophy in the first place, and what their educational and career path has been like. I think it is important to discuss these more concrete details of our trajectories, as they are very rarely discussed openly in my experience, and it’s important to give students and those who may be considering entering the field an idea of what it’s like. Our fields are fantastic in that our degrees can provide so many possible trajectories: we may teach, write, lecture, see patients in private practice, hospitals, community mental health centers, universities, and so on. There are so many options, and that’s one of the aspects of our work that is wonderful. But there can also be obstacles, politics and unknown territory that may be overwhelming at times, especially for those just entering the field. I find it useful to discuss these integral points with those who have been successful in navigating these areas in theory and practice. Hopefully this aids students and early career professionals in their journey. I also make it a point to interview people at varying levels of career and experience, some more focused on clinical work, others philosophy, teaching, writing… I also think it is important to note how many of us have had career changes at various points along the way.
I’ve worked with so many students and patients who, especially around college-age, feel frustrated and terrified that they don’t have it all figured out yet. I wish to impart that some of their favorite writers, authors and philosophers came to their field of study later in life; this wasn’t necessarily their original intention. For example, Julie Fotheringham was a professional dancer, touring with Fischerspooner and Cirque du Soleil, before she came to psychoanalysis. Lacanian psychoanalyst Ray O’Neill was a lawyer. Psychoanalyst, clinical psychologist and political activist Steven Reisner was an actor and playwright. Career paths (and life in general) are a winding process, and that’s something that’s hardly ever discussed openly and without shame. Mainstream society puts pressure on the youth to decide what they’re doing with their lives as soon as possible, so they can enter the marketplace and start earning. This is due to a neoliberal, production-based, economics-first mind frame, which should not have such a prominent place in institutions of higher learning, as Professor Dany Nobus discusses in Part I of our conversation. The other area I always make a point to ask my guests is what they are currently working on, and of course if they have any events, conferences, books coming up!
Rendering Unconscious Podcast actually began as an idea for a book. In New York City, where I trained in psychoanalysis and practiced for a decade, a group of psychoanalysts, philosophers, graduate students and other professionals came together under the signifier Das Unbehagen (www.dasunbehagen.org) in an attempt to revitalize psychoanalytic formation and the field of psychoanalysis in general. Our intention was to engage in theoretical discussion “across party lines” so to speak. Analysts from a variety of psychoanalytic institutions and theoretical perspectives participate, and we host lectures, events, clinical study days, and conferences internationally, as well as facilitate working groups, peer supervision groups, study groups and so forth. Rendering Unconscious: Psychoanalytic Perspectives, Politics & Poetry (Trapart Books, 2019) developed with the same ideas in mind.
Being that we are currently experiencing a critical moment in our national/ international/ global culture, the focus of the book became scholars and clinicians thoughtfully evaluating this particular moment in which we find ourselves, its implications, wide-ranging effects and the social structures that have brought us to this point of urgency. In times of crisis, one needs to stop and ask, “How did we get here?” Our contemporary chaos is the result of a society built upon pervasive systems of oppression, discrimination and violence that run deeper and reach further than most understand or care to realize. These draconian systems have been fundamental to many aspects of our lives, and we seem to have gradually allowed them more power. However, this foundation is not solid. We need to start applying new models of interpretation and analysis to the deep-rooted problems at hand.
Hate speech, Internet stalking, virtual violence, the horde mentality of the alt-right, systematic racism and oppression, the psychology of rioting, the theater of violence, fake news, the power of disability, erotic transference and counter-transference, the economics of libido, Eros and the death drive, fascist narratives, psychoanalytic formation as resistance, surrealism and sexuality, traversing genders, and colonial counterviolence are but a few of the topics addressed. Contributors include philosophers Chiara Bottici, Simon Critchley, Brad Evans, and psychoanalysts Sergio Benvenuto, Jill Gentile, Patricia Gherovici, Per Magnus Johansson, David Lichtenstein, Elisabeth Punzi, Steven Reisner, Manya Steinkoler, Marc Strauss, and Jamieson Webster, to name a few.
Several contributors to the Rendering Unconscious book have been guests on Rendering Unconscious podcast. If you have an upcoming book, conference or project, I’d love to speak to you, too! I’m always looking to broaden horizons, make connections and keep growing the philosophical and psychoanalytic community, and to bring these ideas further out to the general public at large.
Vanessa Sinclair
Vanessa Sinclair, Psy.D. is an American psychoanalyst, based in Stockholm, who sees clients internationally. She is the editor of Rendering Unconscious: Psychoanalytic Perspectives, Politics & Poetry (Trapart Books, 2019), co-editor of On Psychoanalysis and Violence: Contemporary Laconian Perspectives (Routledge, 2018) with Dr. Manya Steinkoler, and author of Switching Mirrors (Trapart Books, 2016). Dr. Sinclair hosts the Rendering Unconscious podcast, addressing the state of psychoanalysis and mental health care, politics, the arts, culture and current events. She is a founding member of Das Unbehagen: A Free Association for Psychoanalysis, and arranges psychoanalytic conferences internationally. For more information, please visit: www.drvanessasinclair.net www.renderingunconscious.org www.trapart.net
