Introduction to “Social Voices”—Oral History Workshop, American Psychoanalytic Association, February 2021

The papers collected here were originally presented at the 83^rd Oral History Workshop during the American Psychoanalytic Association meetings in February 2021. The topic of the workshop, “The Social Voices of Psychoanalysts: The 1960s and 1970s,” was chosen because, over the last several years, members of the psychoanalytic community had been debating the question of the role of psychoanalysts in a deeply divided political, social, and cultural environment governed by an individual who many, both analysts and non-analysts, viewed as a dangerous and unstable leader.

Fifty years ago, during the 1960s and 1970s, a number of leading analysts engaged with the social, cultural, and political crises of the era in papers that drew on psychoanalytic (developmental) theory, sociological texts, and memoirs of past revolutionary figures. In light of the contemporary move to revive and strengthen the social voices of psychoanalysts, the Committee on History, Archives, and Library thought it would be useful to return to the psychoanalytic literature of that era: What of lasting value does it offer to contemporary analysts as we confront and engage with the social, cultural, and political dynamics of the current moment as embodied in both individual and collective behavior?

Two papers from the 1970s were revisited: John Martin-Joy presented Erik Erikson's “Reflections on the Dissent of Contemporary Youth” , and Daniel H. Jacobs reviewed Andrew Peto's “On Crowd Violence: The Role of Archaic Superego and Body Image” . Their papers were discussed by Nancy Chodorow, who drew on her experiences as a member of this generation as well as her training in both sociology and psychoanalysis.