News Notebook Friday 8.13.21
Dear Mr. Governor... Fire, Lightning Bolts... and Magnolias
Happy weekend, and good 🍀 Friday-the-13th luck from newShrink!
Some good news would be welcome as well, in a mess of a week’s cycle dominated by the political descent and resignation of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, our fourth COVID surge amid crazier-than-ever politics around vaccinations and masks, and worse-than-dire new climate change forecast.
So I’m glad to be able share links to coverage of the Senate’s approval of the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, a successful step for one of President Joe Biden’s key goals, in today’s Library on the website (also always browsable directly at newshrink.substack.com). There’s also commentary on this second anniversary week of the Charlottesville, VA, riots and tragedy that inspired his Battle for the Soul of America commitment and his campaign for the presidency.
The Notebook in weeks ahead will catch up with ongoing extensive coverage of the unfolding fourth COVID surge and climate change. Meanwhile,
the bigger they are…
The remainder of today’s edition begins with the NY Governor. News coverage of Cuomo’s resignation this week offers a day-by-day sampler of how breaking news and the aftermath of a public figure’s fall-from-grace and immense public power unfold.
This naturally opens to the broader newShrink theme and inquiry on the enormous psychological and soul dimensions at these intersections of public power, gender relations and sexuality. So this gnarly, sticky, often-contradictory thing now pretty much has my name on it! It is stuff I care deeply (and rant) about on many levels… which is probably why I also resist going-there. Exhausting enough is the back and forth whiplash of all of the “and on the other hand/holding the tension of the opposites” involved in the depth psychology approach. And I’m starting to wonder if there’s also celestial influence, with my astrological birth chart’s having something like four planets in Libra along with the sun-sign scales. (I’m only part-joking about this.)
Maybe that’s the appeal all of those Lady Liberty & Justice statues awhile back!
Now the Cuomo news sequence with some of my thoughts.
… the harder they fall: cuomo resigns on Tuesday
This entire breaking-news thread from The New York Times is roughly tick-tock and includes links to several update stories: After amassing power ruthlessly for a decade, Cuomo ran out of moves .
Note the feverish frenzy at the fall of the idealized fallen-hero, in the tone and language of quotes like this, from Katie Glueck’s first-day piece:
“…[t]he man who had controlled Albany politics with an iron fist for more than a decade was out of moves. Politically ostracized, facing criminal investigations and the prospect of impeachment, and with his family’s legacy at stake, Mr. Cuomo’s decision to resign on Tuesday completed one of the most stunning falls in modern American politics, marking the end of a political dynasty and the beginning of a chaotic and uncertain new chapter of governing in New York.
And from Luisterre Sadurní & Michael Gold’s day-one story, the demonizing via vivid contrasts, which also point directly not subtly to Cuomo’s unconscious shadow emerging here: “The dramatic fall of Mr. Cuomo, 63, was shocking in its velocity and vertical drop. A year ago the governor was being hailed as a national hero for his leadership amid the coronavirus pandemic.”
The rhetoric isn’t as colorful, but for perspective we might remember the guy isn’t dead and was just as human and flawed a year (or a week) ago. What’s changed is the shift of our collective lust for the next golden-hero.
Here in Cuomo seems to be a gigantic shadow blind-spot, plus what must be some combination of brinksmanship and/or a big ego-self-destruct push from some unconscious part of him. From a psychological standpoint the initiatory story has just begun, speculations on his future vastly premature.
This new-this week, first-person account was part of a series of well-timed TV interviews and appearances: Executive Assistant Who Accused Cuomo of Groping Says It Was ‘Not Normal’.
Here’s some analysis of his presumed motivations and MO: How Cuomo Got Away With It for So Long and How Cuomo Took Advantage of #MeToo
All valid points and arguments. None of this is new or unfamiliar terrain for Cuomo, who simply knows better and behaved this way anyway. By almost any measure and argument, for political-reign as he and we have known it, “Time IS Up” now. AND
…it’s (also) complicated…
Roberta Kaplan, Who Aided Cuomo, Resigns from Time’s Up
My knowledge about Kaplan and this situation is limited to what is in this story and to her interview on NPR the day she resigned. In both she specifies her sworn duties to represent her clients as a lawyer—and the conflicts of interest that arose to cloud this case, especially as the Cuomo resignation materialized.
I do know that a reality for professionals, like attorneys, therapists, and even those who provide PR counsel in some situations are professionally, ethically and even legally bound to limitations on how and whether they provide public comment or support. The advancement of meaningful social change, particularly from less to greater institutional, financial and public power, requires and involves engagement with advocates and supporters with many kinds and degrees of power.
It’s critically important, I believe for all of us as we mature through whatever professional ranks and roles we have as well as age, that we mentor, supervise, parent, grandparent, coach, teach and simply befriend young women and men by demonstrating, actively discussing, encouraging and calling for elements of empowerment including self-awareness and curiosity, assertiveness skills (in contrast to aggression or passivity), and accurate assessment, application and development of their power.
…the laws and protections are complicated…
This story about a different case, that of Tiger Woods, happened to appear this week exploring the additional thicket of non-disclosure agreements and other tools/weapons involved in these cases: This Is Rachel Uchitel, Representing Herself
… and we women (and men) are complicated…
New York Women Weigh Admiration for Cuomo Against Allegations
Women are not a monolithic sisterhood on this or other #MeToo or Time’s Up situations.
Power dynamics, including the realities of money and women whose financial support is tied to and dependent on their relationships with the men in their lives, are often a factor—whether conscious and named or not.
Obnoxious, and worse, as many behaviors and men are to many people when their actions are exposed, women not only go-along-to-get-along but also can be attracted, choose to date, enjoy, marry, and have and raise children with them.
Some remaining thoughts on the Governor are in today’s Library on the website (always browsable directly via newshrink.substack.com).
A final word on Cuomo, I’m pretty much all-in with “Time’s Up”. He doesn’t get to be a long-vocal advocate who’s actually brought some good results for women by speaking out on sexual misconduct, and also “not realize the extent to which the line has been redrawn.” Gender dynamics, and all diversity work, are kind of like the international navigation rules in boating: We’re all responsible for our own wake, and not looking back at it/”I didn’t know or mean to” only counts once. After that, it’s a choice. Here I like Jung’s core concept that once we know and experience the reality of the unconscious and its material we have a moral obligation to consider and incorporate it in our lives, choices and work.
On #MeToo, I am more mixed, largely when considering some other cases involving younger adults, which I’ll be discussing. For me all solutions, to be solutions, must involve expanded consciousness and wholeness for both women and men. And whether as unintended consequence or simply lack of priority focus, there is a lack of increased push for self-awareness and self-empowerment of either young women, men, or both that I find disturbing. This echoes my observations and experiences of passivity in both therapy room and in school and training with classmates specializing with older adolescents and young adults. Among adults of both genders but especially women, I would like to be seeing more things like body awareness and autonomy, ability and willingness to voice and stand on one’s authority (even when negotiating with small children), assertiveness skills, self-curiosity and awareness. This pattern aligns with near epidemic-level rises in clinical anxiety diagnoses in these populations.
the bigger picture
In weeks ahead I will periodically include a segment focused on other specific #MeToo and Time’s Up cases, such as Al Franken, Aziz Ansari, Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas, and Roger Ailes. As prep for these I recommend the excellent 2018 HBO docudrama “Confirmation” about the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas case and both the feature film “Bombshell” and the Showtime series “The Loudest Voice” about Ailes.
Here, meanwhile, are some things I want to say as points of reference and framing for those discussions of psychological and soul perspectives at these intersections of public power, gender relations and sexuality:
Psychologically, physiologically and from the standpoint of the soul the energies, both creative and destructive, of our sexuality are in the realm of gift-and-curse from the gods to us mortals—somewhere between Zeus’ lightning bolts and the discovery of fire!
(Recalling definitions from previous June posts in the Library on the website), unlike Freud—who viewed libido solely in terms of regression to infantile sexuality—in the Jungian view libido is all of the creative energy and power of the psyche, including but not limited to sexuality, that’s moving, and moving us, forward throughout the adult life span.
Although there’s a lot we can (and should) learn consciously and stay curious about both with our own sexuality and sex in general, it’s important to keep in mind also that to a large degree it is not and will not become a cognitive, rational or conscious process. (At one end of the non-cognitive spectrum is the instinctual animal-body, at the other the imaginal, archetypal, spiritual-inspirational.)
Sexuality is to a great extent like all instinctual drives, as well as other states of high arousal such as our physiological-neurological reactivity to emotions like fear, anger, sadness that result in fight-flight-or-freeze. (The point here is, whether arousal is sexual or fight-flight-freeze, the rational thinking-strategizing brain is shut down to serve and preserve life- and survival of the organism.)
So attempts, by organizations or in movements and individuals, to address and keep matters of sexuality at the purely rational, cognitive level not only don’t work too well but also relegate this immensely powerful force to the unconscious… Until it erupts unpredictably, as we keep seeing over and over across our culture with one perverse and damaging sex scandal after another.
There is a pattern of energy movement, a power dynamic, in every human transaction, relationship, group or organization, from families and couples to corporations, churches or nations. It is helpful and useful to become as curious and conscious as possible about this, for when we leave power dynamics unconscious, they drive our affairs rather than our being able to make choices.
In case you aren’t noticing this, I’ve loved the Ted Lasso character’s cheerful reminders for us to “stay curious, my friends!”
There are many different kinds, levels, colors and dimensions in the power tool-box, for women and for men, and it’s wise and self-aware to assess, claim and apply those we have when we have them. (This can empower by putting us in touch with our awareness and compassion for the ways everyone, even the overtly powerful, also is vulnerable.)
To experiment with different kinds of power, you might consider the experience of a household of adults utterly dominated by a beloved 4-or-5-year-old for a weekend! Or ponder and compare how the gender power dynamics worked in your family of origin… and in your current family or relationships.
Thinking specifically, and in perhaps different ways, about women and power, watch and track how it works in the 1989 movie Steel Magnolias (Hulu, Amazon Prime) or stream the 6-season TV country music-drama Nashville (Hulu Plus, Amazon, Vudu, iTunes) to track the dynamics there.
And finally, power is seductive, a draw, (for men and for women), and seduction—the pull of creative libido of all kinds—is powerful.
🦋💙
And as prep for next week’s Notebook:
A great and juicy read from David Brooks of The New York Times. (Thanks for the over-the-transom share from longtime friend and reader Frank Addison of Lake James, whom several of you from my bank days may know along with his wonderful wife Mickey.) Frank describes the piece as “superbly crafted explanation of current sociological unrest tensions, resentments and development of different realities. Red meat for newShrink. Enjoy!”
And, that is all I have. Talk to you next week!
🦋💙tish
… it is important that awake people be awake,
or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep;
the signals we give — yes or no, or maybe —
should be clear: the darkness around us is deep.
— William Stafford, “A Ritual to Read to Each Other”