The Critical and Clinical Initiative is an online collective interested in putting clinical problems under a critical lens while opening up critical analysis to its clinical dimensions. Our goal is to examine contemporary problems and issues emerging in the psychic domain not only from a ‘neutral’ scientific perspective but from a socio-historical as well as philosophical perspective.
Today we are witnessing a growing tendency to use knowledge of the psyche as an excuse to find solutions to social and economic problems. Corresponding to such a reductionist process which significantly damages socio-critical thinking in the name of a personalized cult of psychology, is the proliferation of therapeutic practices within the popular domain. The culture of therapy that pre-dominates our societies is more often than not sustained by such a reductionist logic of treatment.
The imperative for immediate relief from suffering blocks any sustained analysis of the causalities and sources of suffering and pain, whether psychic, physical, or social. We are, therefore, interested in critically engaging with such problems, seeing such blockages as symptoms that need deeper socio-historical analysis.
One can also configure this problem as a question of “health”. “Health” is almost exclusively seen today under the moral imperative of positivity giving rise to a regime of ideas from ‘mental health’ to ‘healthy break-ups’. “Health” has become the solution to all our problems. In the collective, we will explore how not to use "health” as a solution but how to construct the problematic of health.
Our aim is to examine these and other similar questions through a whole range of lectures, reading groups, and courses, both free and paid.
Meet the Team
Hosted by Homecoming Psychotherapy, the Clinical and Critical Initiative is founded by Dr. Soumick De and Sankalp Batra. Dr. De is a friend of psychotherapy who brings a critical lens to the clinic, while Sankalp is a clinician.
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Dr. Soumick De has been a guest faculty at the Department of Psychosocial and Clinical Studies , Ambedkar University, Delhi and a post doctoral fellow at Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR). He is the author of the book Perversion, Pedagogy and the Comic: A Survey of the Concept of Theatre in the Christian Middle Ages (Routledge, 2022). He has also written a number of articles on philosophy, theatre and cinema.
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Sankalp is a psychodynamic psychotherapist based in New Delhi. His private practice, Homecoming Psychotherapy, hosts the Clinical and Critical Initiative. His interest in this collective arose from a growing recognition of how - unbeknownst to us - knowledge/power and our socio-cultural-historical location shapes our clinical work. This limits the possibilities of psychotherapy, and ultimately, it limits the lives of our patients and clients.
Join the Clinical and Critical Collective
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