Philip Cooke
philipcooke.bsky.social
Philip Cooke
@philipcooke.bsky.social
Psychoanalysis. Licensed psychologist. Anti-Fascist. Progressive politics. (Musical) Theatre.
Agreed.

And even those trying to reckon with this don't seem to have very useful models for how the disruption might unfold or develop over time, which is a whole other level of terrifying to me. Truly in unchartered territory with no reliable sign posts.
November 16, 2025 at 5:38 AM
There’s also Mandy Patinkin yelling
October 30, 2025 at 7:21 PM
What a fascinating piece.

I think your point about the ethics also suggests why her experiment was doomed to end so predictably. What are the chances to develop a positive sexual/romantic attachment with someone you view as an object to observe/fear while sharing so little about your real self?
October 30, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Oh yeah. I’m pretty sure this isn’t my first time reacting to one of their anti-psychoanalysis takes 😒
October 23, 2025 at 8:59 PM
Yes absolutely! We need 100 Erich Fromms.
October 23, 2025 at 8:58 PM
Too often, institutional psychoanalysis profits from fascism, even as it developed partially out of a reaction against the authoritarian and fascist politics of the 1930s.

I don’t know how we change this, but I hope we can dream our way to a psychoanalysis that is an undeniable good for the world.
October 23, 2025 at 8:18 PM
As our world becomes increasingly dehumanized and depersonalized, psychoanalysis could offer a path back to our selves, but only if psychoanalytic institutions find ways out of elitism, ideological purity, and white/hetero/cis-hegemony.
October 23, 2025 at 8:18 PM
He said that psychoanalysis has always been most useful in the context of two people inside the consulting room.

I think that’s right, and offers some hope to me that my analytic practice can be a small but meaningfully anti-fascist act.

But I’m not sure that’s good enough.
October 23, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Phillips seemed sympathetic to my suggestion that psychoanalysis might offer something to society and the body politic, at least in theory. But not in practice. He owed this mostly to institutional psychoanalysis’ elitism and insistence on maintaining purity at the expense of broader understanding.
October 23, 2025 at 8:18 PM