SPPA Journal of Psychoanalysis

In The Future of an Illusion (1927), Freud emphasizes that the less we know about our past and present, the more insecure we will be in relation to the future. Almost a century after the publication of this work, the word civilization in our quotidian and scientific vocabulary has been replaced by the expression future of the planet. There’s an atmosphere of end times in real life, often appearing in our literature, cinema, the arts and, of course, in psychoanalysis.  

Time itself questions its arrows. In Modernity, there was a single direction and that was progress, but today we understand that not even time is experienced in a linear and progressive manner.  It unfolds in superimposed layers, like dough that allows itself to be kneaded and molded (Pál Pelbart, 2005). All at once, time swallows the present, imprisons the past and hides the unknown and virtual future, waiting always for the next fold. 

Given the complexity of psychological confrontation with the problems of civilization, especially in the postmodern era, we observe a growing tendency towards a “non-place”, an absence of presence, reflection and critical thinking. This reality is aggravated by expressions of the narcissism of death, manifested in forms of racism, homophobia and xenophobia, revealing inability to support differences and limits. Thus, the challenge imposed upon all of us is to reflect on the future of a planet on its way to becoming uninhabitable for humanity and other species.

The recent pandemic, wars, fanaticisms and hatreds, climate catastrophes and political polarizations may have dispelled our illusion of a better future, thus raising some questions:

- How much denial is there when we live under the illusion that the world would be better without instinctual renunciations?

- Are we capable of facing our destructive power? May we still use, transform, and develop the thanatic components that challenge the power of the word as a substitute for violence? 

- To what extent does dissociation from these problems lead us to the aesthetics of smooth (Byung-Chul Han, 2019), expressing the loss of reflective depth of artistic activity in a culture guided by immediacy, living by appearances, by the superficiality of a world without layers, wrinkles, grooves, folds, fat, blemishes and scars?

- Is hope for the integration of Eros and Thanatos possible?

- Will we resist the threat of collapse of our psychic resources?

Illusion is a hasty hope..., reflects Carrara (2024). Do we need to renew our reflections on hope and illusion? Do we need to cultivate hope in its psychic aspect, exercising our curiosity for what has not yet been born and that, for this very reason, is always searching, opening itself to the unknown. Or would thinking like this be an illusion? Could this be the path toward a mature, necessary and transformative disillusionment?

Illusion forges our first contact with the other, which is necessary to create a quantum of confidence in life. If followed by real satisfaction and new deprivation (disillusionment), it will follow a path within a rhythm of security capable of leading to hope for the future. It is from disillusionment that we potentially grow towards alterity, respect and tolerance of our limitations and differences. Disillusionment not only deconstructs illusions, but also redefines the subject’s expectations and relations with the world and with oneself. Psychoanalysis suggests that hope, derived from the oscillation between illusion and disillusionment, drives desire for a better future and is also essential for the construction of utopias.

Utopia lies on the horizon. I move two steps closer; it moves two steps further away. I walk ten steps, and the horizon runs ten steps. No matter how much I walk, I will never reach it. What is the use of utopia? This is what it is for: that I never stop walking. (Fernando Birri, quoted by Eduardo Galeano, 1994)

These are some formulations that touch on the space for thinking, where psychoanalysis becomes one of the possibilities for proposing alternatives to address human psychic problems.