by Molly Merson, LMFT, Psychoanalyst

This is a letter to membership from the President of Psychoanalysis for Social Responsibility (Section IX), a section of the Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology, Division 39 of the American Psychological Association. It does not represent the position of the American Psychological Association or any of its other Divisions or subunits.

[Originally sent via email: November 24, 2025]

I want to open my letter with a question: How are you?

Really. How are you? Stop for a moment, if you can. Check in. How are you feeling, right now? What can you contact in yourself when you check in with your breath, with your body? Can you find a way to check in with your breath and your loves and your life a little more, especially now? I imagine we can all use a little more gentleness, right now.

We are heading into the colder and darker months of the Northern Hemisphere, and for many of us it is a time for solemn and slow reflection. As I complete my two-year position as President of this powerful activist section next month, I am reflecting on the work we have done as a Board, how many folks we have been able to meet and learn with and from at the conferences and at our Section events, and I think about all the opportunities we are cooking for future play and exploration. This includes the 2026 Spring Meeting, institutional life: reclaiming life from institutions, taking place in New York City April 22-25, 2026, Lenape land, where hopefully we will all be able to meet up and gift some gentleness, party a bit, and share generous hugs and laughs and good food together.

I came into this presidency on the heels of a powerful letter from the Board to Section IX membership stating, clearly and plainly, our support for Palestine, affirming our time-honored position as a section that holds anti-Imperialist, anti-torture, anti-racist, and anti-occupation values among others. It is a stance we have held since the section’s inception over 25 years ago. We received a lot of blow back for that letter, as have many in our community and beyond who dare to speak out about Palestine. It is, apparently, decidedly politically disadvantageous to speak out on this matter. But, as Audre Lorde reminds us, not speaking won’t save us. As ethical psychoanalytic activists, we know that we are not free until all of us are free (thank you to Maya Angelou for this beautiful, simple message), and freedom is not available when we cannot make the political, emotional, affective, and material thinkable, feelable, and speakable. 

Since that letter in late 2023, our Board has published another letter to membership this year, affirming our pro-trans, pro-queer, pro-immigrant, anti-oppression psychoanalytic activist stance. You can read this letter here. Again, it is a reaffirmation of the tenets and values of this section, and I suspect these deep ethics are why you are a member. It is increasingly important to have thinking spaces where we can take up the painful realities of our current sociopolitical situation, and find ways to be honest with each other, accountable to each other, and utilize our positions as activists and psychoanalytic thinkers to resist, through joy and collaboration, the impacts of authoritarianism on our psyches and subjectivities. I believe we have done this brilliantly together, and look forward to continued work and play. I am reminded here of what Idles, one of my favorite bands, has titled their excellent 2018 album:  “Joy as an act of resistance.”.”

On the topic of psychoanalytic activism, I hope you have had a chance to check out our newsletter The Activist’s newest invitational prompt, “What does it mean to be a psychoanalytic activist in this political moment?” This is an open prompt, and the Editorial Board— consisting of Sinam Ward, Rodney Orders, and Drew Madore— is accepting responses now. You can read the most recent response from our board member Judy Blumenfeld here.

The Section IX Board has also been hard at work creating events, writing groups, and reading groups over the course of the past year. The Education and Training Committee, co-chaired by Tara Lasheen and Mamta Dadlani, hosted the film, “The Palestine Exception,” in October, with a panel including the filmmaker Jan Haaken, a Section IX Member. In our ongoing effort to invite reflection and engage in dialogue about the importance and impact of speaking up about Palestine, this screening’s panel also included Jennifer Zachariah, attorney and writer, and Brooke Lober, activist and scholar, moderated by Mamta Dadlani. In addition to this film screening, Mamta supported committee member Charla Malamed in forming a writing salon. So far, Charla has hosted three rounds of this committed group, including a drop-in workshop that has helped facilitate different kinds of writing for the group members. If you are interested in participating in future iterations of this group, please reach out to Charla to get connected.

The Section also offers a Psychoanalysis for Social Responsibility Black and Indigenous Scholarship Award to two students each year, which includes a stipend and free registration to the SPPP Spring Meeting, as well as year-long mentorship from a Section IX Board member. This award grew out of a partnership with the Grassroots Reparations Campaign and is championed by a group consisting of Section members, former Presidents, and activist stalwarts Lynne Layton, Ruth Fallenbaum, and Jane Hassinger.

What are you up to these days? Please share any publications, events, achievements, and celebrations to the listserv. We would love to know how, and what, you are doing in these challenging times to keep life, and curiosity, going.

Also, the Board is undergoing a few transitions at the end of this year— and you can get involved! First, I am thrilled to introduce Brianna Suslovic as our incoming Section IX President. You can find Brianna union organizing as well as organizing PowerPoint presentations on different types of whiskey, teaching yoga, co-owning Spring Up, completing her doctoral dissertation, organizing and writing around prison abolition, and as co-chair for the upcoming SPPP Spring Meeting. Brianna truly does it all and does it all brilliantly. We are so fortunate to have her running our Section’s Board for the next two years.

If you would like to join the Board, we have elections coming up this month: Three Members at Large, Treasurer, and, we are especially looking for a Secretary, as our stalwart Secretary Sarah Blair Jenkins will have completed two terms in this position and thus will be stepping down. We will miss her tremendously! Please be on the lookout for information about how to nominate yourself or someone else for a Board position for the term 2026-2029. 

And finally, I would be remiss to not say a public goodbye to Matt LeRoy, who is the outgoing Past President of the Section. Matt has been involved with in Section leadership for over 12 years, first as the Editor of the Activist newsletter, and then being elected as the President of the Section. We are sad to see him go and are so fortunate to have benefitted from his involvement for so long.

Thank you for reading this far! If you have any questions for me specifically, please reach out anytime. I look forward to seeing you at one of our upcoming events, and at the Spring Meeting, institutional life reclaiming life from institutions, April 22-25, 2026.

Warmest Regards,

Molly Merson

Psychoanalyst

President, Section IX