Critical Consciousness

Critical Consciousness provides insight into the antagonism and disputative dialogue present in contemporary discourse. Taking a broad, pluralistic psychoanalytic perspective, the authors shed light on how and why ideology and conflict have infiltrated education, environmentalism, and psychoanalysis. The book unpacks forms of indoctrination and rejection of new ideas in environmentalism, considers the desubjectification of the human in mental health 'services', and assesses how the educational world needs leaders who can articulate unspoken educational aims that perpetuate inequalities, hidden oppression, and their pathogenic effects on disenfranchised groups. The book takes account of the competing schools of psychoanalysis, their members' dismissiveness and enmity toward each other, and their rationalized resistances to discussion across the aisles. From that viewscape, a challenging path forward is proposed. Critical Consciousness will be of great interest to psychoanalysts in practice and in training, and to readers interested in the psychological aspects of dehumanization, competition and opposing group identity.