Freitag, 5. Dezember 2025
Dr. Eran J. Rolnik, Dr. med, Dr. phil. (Tel Aviv / Frankfurt), Ausbildungsanalytiker (IPS und DPV / IPA)

Psychoanalysis has long examined the power dynamics between mental structures and the mind’s urges, fantasies, and ideals. Its therapeutic task is often described as the liberation of thought from internal tyrannies such as the super-ego and unconscious fantasy that forms it . Yet psychoanalysis rarely reflects on the external conditions — political, legal, and cultural — that make analytic thinking possible. This paper asks: how much political reality can psychoanalysis bear, and under what conditions can the analyst sustain their capacity to think freely?

Beginning with Freud’s wartime advice to Ferenczi to withdraw his libido from the fatherland and invest it in psychoanalysis, the paper explores the implications of political rupture for the psychoanalytic frame. Using recent developments in Israel as a case study, it argues that in times of democratic crisis, the analyst’s freedom of thought — and by extension, the patient’s capacity to engage with psychic truth — becomes increasingly fragile. The attack on democratic norms is not merely institutional; it undermines the very preconditions for sustained inner work.

The analyst’s task, therefore, is not only to interpret unconscious conflict but also to remain mindful of the broader political forces that shape subjectivity, communication, and the analytic process itself. The paper concludes with a reflection on the concept of a »psychoanalytic worldview” (Weltanschauung), proposing that freedom of thought is not merely a private or intellectual ideal but a shared political condition — one that lies at the porous boundary between psychoanalysis and democracy.

• jeweils freitags von 20.00 – 21.30 Uhr
• im Freud-Institut Zürich
• vor Ort: unentgeltlich
• Bestellung Videorecording der Vorträge, Zugang verfügbar ab einer Woche nach dem Vortrag: CHF 30.–, CHF 15 .– für FIZ-Mitglieder und Gast-Mitglieder des FIZ
• anerkannt von SGPP und PSY-Verbänden, je 2 Credits

Öffentliche Veranstaltung im Freud-Institut Zürich, Anmeldung erforderlich: anmeldung@freud-institut.ch