Psychoanalyse der linken 'Palästina-Solidarität'

In the organizer's words:

Immediately following the massacres of 7. Immediately after the massacres of 7 October 2023, a Palestine solidarity movement formed in the major cities of the West, which has since succeeded in doing what no left-wing movement of the last 30 years has been able to do: mass, well-organized protests, which are supported by an apparently extremely diverse and relatively young milieu, have since regularly taken to the streets and squares, established themselves in the cultural scene and universities and developed their own protest folklore, which allows the partisans of this movement to unite extremely contradictory positions and perspectives in a seemingly casual way.

Standing up for 'Palestine' makes it possible to fight collectively for socialism and barbarism, feminism and patriarchy, queerness and theocracy, unconditional diversity and ethnic homogeneity, world revolution and nationalism, emancipation and jihad, anti-authoritarianism and Hamas, global freedom of movement and indigenous connection to the earth, war and peace, and to speak out both for the pogrom and against anti-Semitism.

Across all possible contradictions, the movement processes as a dynamic whole, driven by a permanent activism that is as ritualized as it is senseless: "Palestine is a promise for us all" or "Palestine will free us all".

But what is the actual object of this movement and what does it promise? How can this promise be grasped and where does the movement draw its uncanny dynamic from? How can this be understood psychoanalytically? These and other questions will be explored in the lecture.

To this end, the fundamental question of what one actually does when one wants to understand and criticize social phenomena with psychoanalytical terms will be addressed first and then examples (images, texts) from the movement will be used.

Christine Kirchhoff is Professor of Psychoanalysis, Subject and Cultural Theory at the International Psychoanalytic University (IPU) in Berlin and a psychoanalyst (DPV/IPA).

When: 13.05.2026, 6 pm

Where: University of Bremen, Building GW2, Room B2890 (please note room change!)

A cooperation of the Association of Jewish Students North, the Alliance against Antisemitism Bremen and the contact person for students affected by antisemitism at the University of Bremen, Prof. Dr. Anne Levin.