Datum: 17 februari
Tijd: 12.00-13.30 uur.
Locatie: Vrije Universiteit, NU-building, room NU 02A-65Wil je de lezing online bijwonen? Dat kan ook! Graag aanmelden via een mailtje naar info@swip-filosofie.nl.

Abstract:
“Getting Something Off your Chest”: Feminist Consciousness-Raising, Therapy & Catharsis

In 1973, when Kathie Sarachild, co-founder of the first feminist consciousness-raising (FCR) groups, spoke to attendees of a feminist conference in New York City, she was adamant to stress that the purpose of FCR was “not therapy, was not to give someone a chance to get something off her chest”. With this, she set up a sharp opposition between therapy, understood as a process of ‘offloading’ or ‘discharging’ negative emotions, and radical feminist emancipation. My aim in this paper is to overcome this false dichotomy between therapy as ‘catharsis’ on the one hand, and emancipatory political projects on the other. In order to do this, I will formulate a notion of catharsis that can make sense of the ‘therapeutic’ effects of feminist consciousness-raising without thereby pitting narratives of individual healing against projects of collective political emancipation.

Bio:
Jana Cattien is Assistant Professor in Political and Social Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam. Her areas of specialization are feminist philosophy, gender theory, critical race and postcolonial theory. Previously, she was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Lincoln, on the ‘Suicide in/as Politics’ project. She holds a PhD from SOAS, University of London (funded through a SOAS Research Studentship), an MPhil from the University of Cambridge, and a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Durham.