Psyche, Science, and Society

I am interviewed by Pinky: Fear, Aggression, & Empire

November 28th, 2007

I was recently interviewed by the Pinky Show on psychoanalysis and the American empire: Fear, Aggression, & Empire. You can “watch,”downloa, or read the transcript.

UPDATE: The interview has now been placed on YouTube:

Excerpt from transcript:

Note: The following is a verbatim transcript of the program’s spoken dialogue.

[ phone ringing ]

Soldz: Hi.

Pinky: Hi, is this Dr. Stephen Soldz?

Soldz: Yes it is.

Pinky: Hi, this is Pinky… from the desert.

Soldz: Hi, how you doing?

Pinky: Um, fine thank you. Dr. Soldz, may I ask you some questions about psychoanalysis and fear and… empire building and stuff?

Soldz: Sure.

Pinky: Okay… Um, maybe first can you please tell me about psychoanalysis - like, what’s it for? And what is the objective of therapy?

Soldz: Well, psychoanalysis is based on the assumption that in addition to the things we’re aware of that there’s a lot of mental life that we’re unaware of, you know, the concept of ‘unconscious’. In particular, wishes and motives that we’re unaware of because they conflict with other aspects of life - with reality, with the way we think we should be, and that these unconscious wishes and motives frequently get in the way of us having a enjoyable, meaningful life. So, the essence of analysis is to get people to talk and to try and find out why people are avoiding certain areas. Technically we call it resistance, but what it is that people are avoiding and why they are avoiding it, and to try and reduce this resistance to knowing yourself. So that people then develop greater flexibility and can live their life with less compulsion and a wider range of thoughts and feelings guiding them. So that is sort of the essence of what the process is about.

Pinky: When people construct these kinds of - can I call them self-narratives? - if these narratives differ from outward ‘reality’ too much, is this merely annoying or can this be dangerous?

Soldz: That’s a good question. I mean, all of our self narratives, as you put it, differ from reality in various ways. None of us lives totally ‘in reality’. So, but, if too much of it differs from… and especially the internal reality, for example, someone who thinks of themselves as only being a nice person who never gets angry, that can be very limiting. There are many things in the world that do get one angry and if one has to keep that out of awareness that one never gets angry, then it can express itself in various other ways that can cause problems. So no, it’s not always a problem, but it often is.

Pinky: In one of your talks, I heard you characterize America as suffering from a sort of ’social narcissism’. Can you please explain what you mean by this?

Read rest here. “Watch”/download here.

Entry Filed under: Culture, Iraq, Politics, Psychoanalysis, Psychology, Social Change