Have Americans, in the aftermath of Trump and in the time of COVID, lost our ability to appreciate beauty? And without beauty, how will we combat the ugly threats of the 21st century: the climate emergency, racism, violence and the most extreme

Election emergency: Can we pull America out of its death spiral?

Nov 1st, 2020 25m 48s

America is in the midst of an emergency – an emergency which threatens our bodies, threatens our social fabric, and threatens our very souls. How we come out of this emergency, over the next days and weeks and months, will determine what kind o

In Praise of Shame

Sep 30th, 2020 38m 17s

When Donald Trump steals our democracy, will Americans fight to save it? In Episode 7, Dr. Steven Reisner argues that if America is to be saved—if America is worth saving—Americans must reconnect with the emotion that psychoanalysts (and biblic

The Masque of the Black Death (Racism in the Time of Trump)

Jun 16th, 2020 33m 53s

In 1842, Edgar Allen Poe wrote the Masque of the Red Death, a prescient short story about a country devastated by plague. “No pestilence,” Poe wrote, “had ever been so fatal or so hideous.” But the Prince of the land ignored the epidemic. He ho

Mourn and Mobilize: Radical psychoanalysis confronts the climate emergency

Feb 9th, 2020 28m 15s

Climate trauma – is it the result of the climate catastrophe or a consequence of our inability to really imagine such a catastrophe, even when it is taking place all around us? Dr Steven Reisner takes a deep dive into the psychology and history

Paranoia: Is it good for the Jews?

Jan 18th, 2020 31m 40s

Paranoia - is it a mental disorder or a political strategy? Dr Steven Reisner exposes the underlying connection between our Trumpian culture of paranoia and the eruption of antisemitic violence by mentally ill assailants on the streets of New Y

The American Dream: Time to Wake Up?

Jan 6th, 2020 25m 21s

A mega mall in New Jersey, a pile of shoes and toothbrushes in the Arizona desert, and an array of immigrant witnesses at the impeachment hearings. In 2020, these are the artefacts of The American Dream. In Episode 3 of Madness, Steven Reisner

Trump, lies & the American way: a psychoanalysis of political lying.

Nov 7th, 2019 25m 32s

What was Trump’s very first lie? Steven Reisner explores the effects of lying on children, on politics, and ultimately on our democracy. And he asks the question, if Trump has been lying all along, why, now, is he being impeached? Is it because

A constitutional crisis without a written constitution?

Oct 9th, 2019 22m 59s

The importance of eye contact, the “fascist nature” of traffic lights vs “democratic” traffic circles, how Britain’s unwritten constitution is holding up better than America’s written one; Steven Reisner weaves together these and other curious

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