02: The Social Work of Psychoanalysis (w/ Carlos Padrón & Darragh Sheehan)

In this episode of Little Hysterics, Austin McCann speaks with psychoanalyst Carlos Padrón and clinical social worker Darragh Sheehan about the “social turn” in psychoanalysis, the gentrification of social work, and how neoliberalism is reshaping clinical practice.







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show notes:

Center for Critical and Clinical Analysis
https://www.cccacommunity.com/

Carlos Padrón
“Spiritual Misery and the Absence of Experience: Towards a Political and Poetic Psychoanalysis.”
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ba68d8ba9ab951e0bf4bea6/t/69401441504b450203eed036/1765807169403/Spiritual+Misery+and+the+Absence+of+Experience+-+Padron.pdf

“The Political Potentiality of the Psychoanalytic Process.”
 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/650efcc37d0d663a4a766651/t/686eb3897503de640d6eb03b/1752085398223/The+Political+Potentialy+of+the+Psychoanalytic+Process%2C+Carlos+Padr%C3%B3n.pdf

Darragh Sheehan
 “From Public Service to Private Practice: The Collapse of the Social Work Profession.” (March 2025)
 https://www.madinamerica.com/2025/03/collapse-social-work/

“The Gentrification of Social Work: Why a ‘Political Mental Health’ Must Be Public.” (December 2025)
 https://www.madinamerica.com/2025/12/the-gentrification-of-social-work-why-a-political-mental-health-must-be-public/

“The Quiet Crisis in Mental Health: The Medicalization and Deskilling of Psychotherapy.” (April 2025)
 https://www.madinamerica.com/2025/04/quiet-crisis-mental-health/
"Glittering Generalities & Pop-leftist 'Psychotherapy Speak." (September 2024)
https://www.sublationmag.com/post/glittering-generalities-pop-leftist-psychotherapy-speak

Basia Winograd, dir. Psychoanalysis in El Barrio (2016), featuring Carlos Padrón
https://pep-web.org/browse/document/pepgrantvs.001.0010a

Works Referenced

Cushman, Philip. Constructing the Self, Constructing America: A Cultural History of Psychotherapy. 1995.
Danto, Elizabeth Ann. Freud’s Free Clinics: Psychoanalysis and Social Justice, 1918–1938. 2005.
Fanon, Frantz. Black Skin, White Masks. 1952.
Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. 1961.
Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. 1970.
Freud, Sigmund. Studies on Hysteria. 1895.
Lear, Jonathan. Freud. 2005.
Piven, Frances Fox, and Richard A. Cloward. Regulating the Poor: The Functions of Public Welfare. 1971.
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institutional_psychotherapy 

What is Little Hysterics?

Conversations on the contemporary relevance of psychoanalytic thought and practice, hosted by Austin McCann. Brought to you by the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis, a nonprofit institute devoted to the study, practice, and public life of psychoanalysis.

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