Adrienne Harris: The next generation of psychoanalysts should understand the importance of freedom

Relational psychoanalyst Adrienne Harris discusses the future of psychoanalysis and the responsibilities of the current generation toward those who follow. She argues that the primary task is to authorize the next generation of analysts to find their own voice — to write, teach, and engage publicly with the pressing issues of the day, including race, migration, climate, and political freedom. Harris reflects on the changing relationship between psychoanalysis and communication, emphasizing the need for analysts to continuously reinvent the ways they reach broader audiences. The interview also touches on the historical fate of Otto Fenichel, whose intellectual and political ideas were suppressed by the climate of McCarthyism after his emigration to the United States — a cautionary tale about what happens when political conditions close down free thought. Harris draws a parallel to the present, noting similar pressures on free speech in the current political environment. This is the second part of a two-part interview conducted in Prague during the 2nd Fenichel's Conference: Psychic Change (October 2017).