Keynote by Nathan Gerard¹
¹ California State University Long Beach, USA
TIME: Tuesday, 14 July, 12:15 – 13:15
LOCATION: HS1
Session: Keynote 2
Abstract
What does it mean to welcome the unconscious into what we do as critics of psychology? If one of the calls for this conference is for us critical comrades to “freely associate,” a term taking directly from psychoanalysis, what does it mean to not just associate freely, or to say whatever comes to mind in the presence of another, but also live and relate, and even organize and disorganize freely? Might we use the exchanges on offer here to prove to ourselves that the identities and structures we stubbornly rely on—our disciplinary training and institutional affiliations—are not always required to create something new? Or might we need something more radical, something entirely grassroots and free from the institution, free even from our professional selves, to invite transformation and surprise? The unconscious, of course, surprises. This talk will explore the surprises of the unconscious in the work of critique, the critique of work, and ultimately the prospects of working together amid relations of domination and subordination and the urgent need for a wider coalition of collaboration and solidarity on the Left.
Bio
Nathan Gerard is an organizational psychologist and full professor at California State University, Long Beach, where he teaches and conducts research at the intersection of psychoanalysis, work, and organizations. He is also a research associate at the Center for Psychosocial Organization Studies. He is the author, most recently, of Winnicott and Labor’s Eclipse of Life: Work is Where We Start From (Routledge, 2023) and co-editor of the Handbook of Critical Work and Organizational Psychology (Edward Elgar, 2026). In addition to maintaining an engagement with the conceptual and historical foundations of organizational psychology, Nathan also applies psychoanalytic theory to politics, education, and health and social care.