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The story underlying this special issue of Psychoanalytic Social Work begins in the 1920s, and centers on the idea that community-based psychoanalytic clinics reappear throughout our history with a creative strength all their own. From the free clinics instituted by Freud and the first generation of psychoanalysts to our most current work across most borders, the clinics inevitably draw interesting connections between present-day practice, its past and its future. Today, “community psychoanalysis” is defined by its services to individuals and groups of people in social crises. Offering us insights into nontraditional practice and the transformative impact of cities on one’s understanding of psychoanalysis, the clinical projects showcased here are based in countries across both the southern and northern hemispheres. Each of the projects is situated outside conventional private practice boundaries serving the middle and upper classes, yet all hold to a rigorous clinical approach. Together, they testify to the power of psychoanalysis as a living language that traverses urban territories and cultures.
The urban psychoanalytic clinic addresses social urgencies and unconscious connections within and between communities, as desires and conflicts become evident in the transference process. These transference relationships confront us with the unknown, requiring psychoanalysts to shift our perspective from individual internal worlds to larger social realities. We are talking, therefore, about the production of new knowledge that promotes a deep understanding of a city’s disenfranchized residents, and that becomes a methodology for social research. This production of knowledge positions psychoanalysis in its rightful place, a place from which Freud never departed, transcending the boundaries of his own life history, his era, his social class, and his culture.
Community psychoanalysis and its clinics, with or without walls, confronts us with the impact of economic, social, and c