The Known and Elsewhere Collective
We are a group of clinicians, scholars, and organizers who are committed to working in the traditions of left psychoanalytic praxis, and to working with individuals who are directly impacted by political repression and/or socioeconomic oppression. We are learning from political projects, past and present, including mutual aid, self-organized care, and free clinic networks, which have a historic home here in Oakland and elsewhere.
We are working in direct response to the effects of racial capitalism, fascism, militarized xenophobia, and other forms of state violence, in all their guises in Oakland, the wider Bay Area, and internationally.
We care about–and struggle with–what liberatory care and movement psychoanalysis might look like under our current conditions, but we are unified in our commitments to:
-working to maximize agency under constraint
-thinking critically and rigorously about any form of state and institutional involvement in care
-prioritizing anti-authoritarian collective operation
-engaging in anti-racist, anti-fascist, and anti-Zionist political praxis as an extension of our clinical commitments
-holding psychic space for dreaming of the elsewhere and otherwise
-welcoming those who have been labeled by traditional psychotherapy and psychoanalysis as “not suitable” for analytic and depth-oriented work
In a psychoanalytic lens, we understand that, in addition to being political and material, our work necessarily involves the psyche. The forces and tendencies which we oppose also exist in our minds, and we will likely encounter them variously in our community, in our patients, in one another, and in ourselves. We aim to think strategically and collaboratively, using our larger goals and principles as guides, when we find the struggles (and the pain they entail) arrive within our work.
We all share a commitment to the liberatory potential of psychoanalytic therapy. We do not all think the same about what that means, nor do we expect the community in which we’re embedded to think like us.
At present, we have clinicians who can offer:
-Individual Therapy (both short and long-term)
-Child & Adult Assessment
-Group Psychotherapy
-Asylum & forensic evaluation
-Adult psychoanalysis
-Relationship Therapy
-Protest after care / process groups
All services are offered sliding-scale, down to $1 a session, according to need and means. Our intake form can be found here. We are currently accepting new patients. We will begin reviewing intake forms when the collective opens on September 8th. After you fill out this form, we will follow up with you at the contact you provide within two weeks. We will proceed to a phone intake, followed by a short consultation period to make sure that the fit between clinician and patient is right for all involved
We also offer, in partnership with the Psychosocial Foundation:
-Clinical and extra-academic education
-Political education for clinicians, healthcare providers, and others
-Consultation to clinical spaces & left groups
If you are a clinician and you’d like to get involved, please fill out our intake form.
If you’re an educator or organizer, and you’d like to get involved email: thepsychosocialfoundation@gmail.com or KnownandElsewhere@proton.me
Telephonic Support
The Psychosocial Foundation also offers low and free psychoanalytically-oriented psychotherapy by phone (and sometimes, in person). We do not collect data about any of the treatments. We are currently especially in need of clinicians working in Michigan, Maryland, Georgia, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Florida, Bulgaria, UK, Germany, Canada, & France. For prospective patients, please note that our wait times vary greatly depending on your geographic location and our work to match you with a clinician. This can sadly be from 1 day to months. Please know we are doing our very best to find a clinician for you.
To register your interest in providing treatment beyond the Bay Area, please fill out this form as completely as possible.
To register your interest in receiving treatment beyond the Bay Area, please fill out this form with any information that will help us best match you with a clinician.
Peer Supervision
The Psychosocial Foundation offers supervision for those who want or need it, who participate in our clinic.
We are currently building a peer supervision group for queer and trans clinicians treating queer and trans patients. To get involved, write: KnownandElsewhere@proton.me
Groups Group
Groups Group is a collective of clinicians, organizers, writers, artists, and scholars interested in group dynamics in the everyday life of social movements. Drawing from psychoanalysis, as well as systems thinking and leftist traditions, we are building a shared vocabulary of concepts that help us identify, articulate, and work through latent group dynamics on the left. You can read their first pamphlet, “How to Do Things with Groups,” published by the Psychosocial Foundation. Contact Groups Group at groupsgroup [at] proton.me