Inoperative Love and Social Well-Being in the Face of Oppression: A Psychoanalytic-Agambenian Developmental Perspective and Its Implications for Psychoanalytic Therapy

Psychoanal Rev. 2023 Sep;110(3):239-257. doi: 10.1521/prev.2023.110.3.239.

Abstract

The author depicts, relying on several of Giorgio Agamben's philosophical concepts as well as a psychoanalytic developmental perspective, the origins and features of inoperative love and spaces, especially as they pertain to oppressive situations wherein social, political, and economic apparatuses undermine the psychosocial well-being of individuals, families, and communities. In addition, the author conceptualizes psychoanalytic therapy as an inoperative space wherein patients actualize their capacity for impotentiality and experience singularity and rapport.

Keywords: impotentiality; inoperativity; oppression; potentiality; psychosocial development; singularity; trauma.

MeSH terms

  • Humans
  • Love
  • Psychoanalysis*
  • Psychoanalytic Therapy*