The Depolarization Project

The Depolarization Project is a group of four psychoanalysts and four people who are not in the mental health field yet are interested in the spread of toxic polarization within our society. Our group is quite diverse in terms of age, religion, and political leanings. We meet monthly to discuss readings, some of which focus on the process of toxic polarization itself, and others that have been polarizing within the field of psychoanalysis.

Two of the group members regularly conduct dialogues with Trump supporters. In several meetings, we have then reviewed the videotaped dialogues and discussed them. In one case, we taped our “meta-dialogue” and showed it to the contributing Trump supporter, who then came to a meeting of the group and gave his feedback on our reactions. At each meeting we revisit the question of whether psychoanalysis has anything to offer to help alleviate toxic polarization.

Importantly, we also pay attention to how toxic polarization might be occurring within ourselves and within the group. This occurred most poignantly when we read the controversial book by Lara Sheehi and Stephen Sheehi, Psychoanalysis Under Occupation.

The idea for the group came from a panel presented by Sue Kolod and Chris Heath at the 2021 IPA Congress, which had been planned as an in-person event in Vancouver but ended up meeting virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The panel was titled Masked Rage: Vaccine Refusal and Conspiracy Theories. During the Q&A, several of the audience members remarked that psychoanalysts had much to offer to alleviate toxic polarization, but when prodded to elaborate, their responses were vague and full of Bionion jargon.

After the Congress, Chris and Sue decided to form a group to study the question of whether/what psychoanalysis had to offer. We are trained to be good listeners, to be able to hold different and sometimes opposing thoughts in our minds at the same time, to listen to ourselves as we listen to others, to pay attention to our rea