The Psychoanalytic Activist is putting out a call to any who would seek to answer the question: what does it mean to be a psychoanalytic activist in this political moment? On this day, when we celebrate the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., we are faced with the inherent contradiction of the United States: that a country which celebrates the legacy of a civil rights activist and claims the fruits of a revolutionary social movement as part of its history can be the same country in which a person who pushes for liberty and justice can be assassinated for espousing those very beliefs. In this current political moment, where this contradiction is brought into stark relief, when the celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and legacy coincides with the inauguration of a president who has overtly worked to subvert justice and enact continuing marginalization, we are faced with the question of what it means to continue to work toward collective liberation. 

We, the editorial board of the Psychoanalytic Activist, believe that the struggle toward liberation is a collective endeavor – one which requires that we work in dialogic, reflective relationship with each other in pursuit of a larger vision. This work will require that we engage thoughtfully and build understanding together in service of promoting collective action. No one person, or singular group, holds all of “the” answer for what we will need to do in order to transform our world so that all people everywhere may live in free relation with each other. 

In this spirit, we have put forth our own response to the question of what it means to be a psychoanalytic activist, and seek here to be in  conversation with others who also find value in grappling with this question. Submissions can take the form of written work, creative endeavors, and any other form which would be readily accessible through The Psychoanalytic Activist’s website. Whenever possible, we encourage written submissions to be written in a way as to be understood by a reader who is not deeply familiar with psychoanalytic concepts and terminology, in the hope of spurring dialogue across various sectors and groups of people who are engaged in the work of collective liberation, within and outside the mental health professions. We also particularly encourage pieces that bring theory and action together through praxis, which may include forms of work and relating that diverge significantly from the prototypical “frame” of psychoanalytic practice as it is most commonly conceived. 

If you would like, we welcome submissions that respond to or otherwise take up the framework we discussed in our first post, which identifies four elements of psychoanalytic activism: centering relationships, seeing and continuing to endeavor to see, making meaning, and acting/disrupting. Submissions are welcome to take up one, all, or any combination of the above, particularly if they elucidate ways in which these four elements can be put into practice. It is not required to use this framework, and we will not given any special “preference” to submissions that speak to these four elements. Instead, we welcome submissions that speak to this as a way of continuing dialogue. Submissions that speak to the question of what it means to be a psychoanalytic activist in this political moment – however answered – are encouraged.

We suggest a general guideline of submissions that do not exceed 3,000 words, although we are happy to review submissions of varying lengths.

How to submit:

• We are open to pieces of varying lengths, with a general guideline of up to 3,000 words per submission. If you have a piece that’s significantly longer, we are more than happy to discuss various ways of working with this
• Email thepsychoanalyticactivist@gmail.com with submissions attached, including attributions to anyone who was involved in the creation of the submitted work
• While this call for submissions has a rolling deadline, we are hoping to collect and publish pieces within the first 100 days of the presidential term in order to encourage proactive reflection and action in our communities 

Editorial process:

• We as co-editors view it as our role to be in active dialogue with authors, engaged in a co-creative act of knowledge construction. As such, our editorial process will involve ongoing discussion with each other and with those who submit their work. Our goal in this is to work within a praxis of dialogical community, which aims to build collective understanding through dialogic encounter (Spezzano, 1993). This will likely involve multiple rounds of engagement, suggestion of edits, and bi-directional incorporation of feedback until we cohere around a finalized version.

Spezzano, C. (1993). A relational model of inquiry and truth: The place of psychoanalysis in human conversation. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 3(2), 177–208. https://doi.org/10.1080/10481889309538969