Charismatic Practices: Power and Affect in Psychotherapy

• In Event: 586 - Regular Session. Social Theory

Abstract

This paper examines psychoanalytic psychotherapists’ charismatic authority. I build on Reed's (2013) recent call for greater attention to the performative dimension of power, particularly of its charismatic manifestations. While Reed (2013) focuses on the revolutionary nature of "genuine" charisma, I discuss the transformational potential of institutionalized charisma. This paper advances a two part argument: first, that some expert performances meld an institutionalized “charisma of office” (Weber [1922]1978: 1139) with embodied affective practices more commonly associated with “genuine” charisma. Second, I contend that such affective charismatic performances promote change, albeit of more limited nature than that engendered by “pure” charisma. I draw on science and technology scholars' discussion of the performativity of economics to demonstrate that even institutionalized practices and ideas can transform social action. Moreover, I problematize the concept of “uncertainty”—one of the core conditions for the efficacy of charismatically generated transformations—and argue that it isn’t only an objective state in the world, but can also be interpreted as a subjective experience. The empirical analysis is organized in two parts: first, I establish that psychoanalytic therapists maintain their “charisma of office” through narrative and boundary-drawing practices. Second, I show that practitioners use their affective experiences in session to project control (a form of power that is opposed to clients’ difficulties and uncertainties), and model particular emotive ways of being. Clinicians thus embody charisma through these affective performances, while enacting the performative potential of psychoanalytic ideas and practices.

Author

• Mariana Craciun, Northwestern University