Guest Editors:

Assoc. Prof. Jacob Johanssen, St. Mary’s University, Twickenham, London
Dr. Orit Dudai, Kibbutzim College of Education, Technology and the Arts, and Bar Ilan University, Israel
Dr. Susanne Benzel, Sigmund Freud Institute, Department of Sociology and Psychoanalytic Social Psychology, Frankfurt, Germany

We live in a time that is characterised by increasing political polarisation, fake news, conspiracy theories and other forms of extremism. Social media such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram are often characterised by misogyny, sexism and racism and as lacking in empathy, compassion, and love. Traditional media, such as tabloid and broadsheet journalism or television news, also find themselves part of “culture wars” and torn between different political positions. This issue will explore what role psychoanalysis in combination with other disciplines, such as media and communication studies, philosophy, and sociology, can play in analysing such phenomena, as well as finding possible solutions for them.

Recent political developments, such as the post-Trump moment, have been credited with an increase in political paranoia and conspiracy theories have spread far and wide on the internet. In times of culture wars, many have also claimed an erosion of free speech in a climate of “cancel culture” in which it has allegedly become impossible to share particular viewpoints or ideas. Equally many have disputed the very existence of cancel culture and have pointed out that many instances of deplatforming or cancellation are mere shifts in discourses whereby voices who have been marginalised are now claiming their rightful place on the discursive stage. The articles in this issue will discuss the above themes and address the questions: Do we need a new form of empathy or spirituality? To what extent are moments of denial, disavowal, and polarization necessary? Can they revitalize political culture and society more generally? What are their limits? What solutions can be found? How are they intrinsically connected to questions of mediation and representation? What tensions are revealed between what can be represented and what remains unrepresentable?

The articles in this special edition will cover a range of topics circulating around the way the questions above are embodied, represented, and worked through different digital media. For instance, the role of WhatsApp in the therapeutic encounter, or theoretical, philosophical, and psychoanalytic papers on the representation of political, institutional, or personal trauma. Each contribution will add another layer to a wider sphere: the tension/relationship between the advances of technology as a form of human communication and our ability to reflect upon these issues through our cultural known perspectives.

Please send abstracts of up to 300 words by 01 October 2023 to the guest editors: jacob.johanssen@stmarys.ac.uk, orit.dudai@smkb.ac.il, benzel@sigmund-freud-institut.de

Timeline

  • 01 October 2023: Receive abstracts
  • 01 December 2023: Receive full articles and allocate them to reviewers
  • February 2024: Reviews are sent out
  • June 2024: Receive re-submissions of articles and make final decisions on acceptance / rejection
  • August 2024: Send articles to PCS for copy editing
  • October 2024: Send article proofs to authors for checking
  • December 2024: Publish special issue (articles will be published as Online First as soon as they are ready)