Reflections on Climate Change Dissociation in Psychoanalysis

This paper examines the lack of psychoanalytic attention to the climate crisis. The focus is on the defensive/adaptive mechanism of dissociation, which, though widespread in larger society, has a particular history in psychoanalysis, which is seen as facilitating the prevailing climate dissociation in our field. Two factors will be examined: 1. Historical, theoretical, and clinical dissociation of painful external realities that hold significance for our field’s engagement with the climate crisis. 2. A narrow understanding of Freud’s views of trauma and psychic reality that has led to a dichotomized view of psychic vs. external reality. It is suggested that psychoanalysts overcome these historical limitations and become climate-aware so that they can hear, name and treat climate anxiety and other climate emotions in their consulting rooms.