Naming a changing world: conceptions of crisis and youth suffering in the context of global warming

Abstract

This theoretical essay examines how distinct conceptions of crisis within the field of mental health- particularly in psychoanalysis and psychosocial care- can contribute to the understanding of how climate change is named and to the development of care practices for populations most affected by global warming. Three paradigms of crisis are analyzed: crisis from a capitalist and asylum-based perspective, crisis in psychoanalysis as linked to trauma theory, and crisis as a possibility for transformation within psychosocial care. These frameworks provide insights for rethinking clinical practice in times of environmental collapse. The essay argues for an engaged mode of listening, attentive to the analyst’s social position and to the colonial imprints of psychoanalytic theory. By recognizing how different paradigms of crisis shape modes of naming and listening to suffering, the paper proposes embracing these tensions as pathways for reimagining clinical practice and theory in the face of the anxieties generated by the climate crisis.