– and carrying it into the Agora Essays and analyses that connect inner dynamics—affects, conflicts, fantasies—with public debates. A resonance chamber for what usually remains behind closed doors. Why do millions of people follow authoritarian leaders, often against their own interests? This article… Vitality means: to be there inside. Inactivity is often protection.…Putting the Present on the Couch
Psychoanalytic perspectives on the authoritarian turn – The politicized unconscious of late modernism
Of life without being alive. Psychoanalytic perspectives on vitality and its disorders
Note on Authorship
The authorship of the texts on Couch & Agora is hybrid and is deliberately made transparent here. They emerge in “wrestling with the automaton” – a dialectical process of co-production between the human author and generative AI systems.
This practice is not an unreflected delegation, but follows a strict ethical and methodological guideline. AI is used as an “artificial peer” to provoke and sharpen theses, but never as a source of original content.
The final form of each text is the result of a conscious act of “humanization” and re-authorization, for which Florian Lampersberger bears sole responsibility.
Read Editorial →Topics
Four perspectives on the unconscious in culture and society
Culture & Society
Psychoanalytic readings of the present: Gender, Media, Authoritarianism, Digital Culture.
Theory & Concepts
Metapsychology, Hermeneutics, Lacan – Texts that lay foundations and sharpen concepts.
Politics & Discourse
Frameworks, Ethics, Chambers, Care – what we represent externally, how we work.
Practice & Research
Clinical practice, technique, evidence – what works in practice and what the data says.
Latest Posts
Current essays and analyses
Of life without being alive. Psychoanalytic perspectives on vitality and its disorders
Vitality means: to be there inside. Inactivity is often protection. The essay shows four conditions for the living—casting,…
The Pleasure of Transgression as a Mode of the Authoritarian: On the Jouissance of Transgression
The essay explains contemporary authoritarianism as a political pleasure machine, in which offenses and fears are transformed into…
Psychoanalytic perspectives on the authoritarian turn – The politicized unconscious of late modernism
Why do millions of people follow authoritarian leaders, often against their own interests? This article dives deep into…
Join the Conversation: Enliven the Agora
In psychoanalysis, spontaneous reactions to what is heard are called countertransference – they are often a trace into the subject itself. On Couch & Agora, you can share this resonance: via the floating button 💬 while reading or in the comments section.
“Agreement or friction, an image, a thought, a body note, a question – in short: everything the text triggers in you.”
You can tag your resonance with categories – but you don’t have to:
John Doe
2 days ago