Course Description

This seminar follows the pioneering work of Philip Cushman in examining how psychodynamic psychotherapy, often perceived as an inward and apolitical practice, can serve as a form of political and cultural resistance. By attending to the unconscious dimensions of power, ideology, and social conditioning, psychotherapy has the potential to challenge the cultural narratives that shape and constrain personal identity. The course will explore the intersections of psyche and society, asking: How do social systems and historical forces become internalized as unconscious structures? In what ways can psychodynamic therapy foster not just individual healing, but also a more critical awareness of cultural oppression and systemic inequities? Topics include Philip Cushman’s critique of the “self-contained” self and the cultural-historical construction of psychological suffering, feminist perspectives on therapy as a site of resistance and empowerment, and the idea of the cultural complex (as developed by Thomas Singer and others) for understanding how collective archetypes shape and distort the psyche. Insights from critical theory and social justice frameworks that reveal the political undercurrents of psychological work. Through readings, discussion, and case study analysis, participants will consider how the therapeutic encounter can resist conformist and consumerist narratives, supporting clients in reclaiming agency, voice, and meaning. The seminar encourages a dialogue between inner and outer worlds, honoring psychotherapy as both a personal and cultural act of liberation.

Learning Objectives

Analyze how cultural, historical, and political systems (e.g., patriarchy, neoliberalism, colonialism) become internalized as unconscious structures that shape subjectivity, symptom formation, and identity development, drawing on Cushman’s critique of the “self-contained” self and Foucault’s historical analysis of madness.
Evaluate DSM-based diagnoses, particularly personality and trauma-related diagnoses, through a psychodynamic framework that incorporates contextual and liberation psychology perspectives, identifying how power, gender, and oppression shape diagnostic categories, clinical meanings, and treatment trajectories.
Apply the concept of the cultural complex (Singer) to clinical material, demonstrating how collective archetypes, historical trauma, and shared mythologies unconsciously organize individual affect, defenses, and relational patterns within the therapeutic encounter.
Formulate psychodynamically informed clinical interventions that resist conformist, consumerist, and patriarchal narratives by supporting clients’ agency, voice, and symbolic meaning-making, integrating feminist psychoanalytic theory (Benjamin, Gilligan) and liberation-oriented clinical ethics.

The Aion Institute is approved by the California Psychological Association to provide continuing professional education for psychologists. The Aion Institute (AIO279) maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

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AION 404 Psychodynamic Psychotherapy as Political Resistance