Considerations for a Beyond-the-Couch Clinic: Psychoanalysis and Politics

Abstract

Is there a Psychoanalysis outside the couch? If so, which psychoanalytic clinic are we talking about? Starting from some questions that impose themselves and are agitated in the face of contemporary political issues, in reference to anti-black racism in Brazil, the theorizations carried out in this work carry out the proposal to think about ways for a clinic, guided by Psychoanalysis, which takes effect in the social field from the work Black Skin, White Masks, by Frantz Fanon. Undertaking the work of returning to Fanon is, to a certain extent, an effort to follow the Lacanian method of returning to Freud, seeking in the Fanonian proposal instruments that help in the commitment to bring us up to par with our times. The steps here are taken starting from the question about the reasons for using Fanonian theory in this context. Next, crossings between the fields of Psychoanalysis and Politics are considered, finally arriving at questions about what to do considering the reflections raised.