A Political Mind Special

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Organised by:

British Psychoanalytical Society (incorporating the Institute of Psychoanalysis)

04 February 2025

Time: 20:15 - 21:45

Price: Standard - Online £ 35.00 Concession - Online £ 20.00

Location: online

Description

“Wrap your troubles in dreams, and dream your troubles away.” Reflections on the American Dream.

Renée Danziger

Chaired by Angela Joyce

Announcing his withdrawal from the 2024 Presidential election in July, President Joe Biden looked back wistfully at his path to the White House, and, with a certain amount of emotion, he declared:

“Nowhere else on Earth could a kid with a stutter from modest beginnings in Scranton, Pennsylvania…one day sit behind the Resolute desk in the Oval Office as President of the United States. [And yet] here I am. That’s what’s so special about America. We’re a nation of promise and possibilities. Of dreamers and doers. Of ordinary Americans doing extraordinary things.” (21 July 2024)

Biden was speaking in a language familiar to many Americans: the language of ‘rags to riches’, and ‘log cabin to White House.’ It is the language of the American dream: a dream that if you work hard and with sufficient determination, you will achieve a better life.

Renée Danziger’s paper explores from a psychoanalytic perspective this American dream after spending time researching in the US.

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