In this issue, TAP publishes the last two articles of a series on psychoanalysis and war Our responsibility for the men and women we, as citizens, send to war was the focus of the first articles. In an interview with TAP, Harold Kudler spoke of his work as chief consultant for mental health services at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Prudence Gourguechon wrote of our psychological investment in our warriors and our responsibilities to them on their return home.
Below, Neil Altman writes of his work and psychological experience in the battle to hold his professional organization—members and leaders of the American Psychological Association—responsible for their roles in the torture of our prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. With considerable insight and humanity he uses the work of Melanie Klein to understand his variable emotions and motivations, and those of his opponents, in fighting this ethics battle.
William Braun, also in this issue, discusses an amazing work of performance art he and colleague Tracy Morgan brought to fruition and acclaim at Judson Memorial Church in New York: A theatrical reading of what he writes is the “last word” on aggression, Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents. Without the aggression of individuals, without group aggression, there would be no war Unless we can understand this basic drive, we cannot understand the totality of our human nature or put reins on violence. Braun writes of bringing a Freud masterwork to a public space, engaging with a timely and timeless issue.
Michael Slevin, M.A., M.S.W., a former TAP editor, graduated as academic associate from the Baltimore Washington Institute for Psychoanalysis, where he completed the Adult Psychotherapy Training Program. He works at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore and has a private practice.