Dr. Lara Sheehi: The Case for Psychic Militancy | Sumud Podcast

🎙️In this episode of the Sumud Podcast, clinical psychologist and author Dr. Lara Sheehi joins Dr. Ed Hasan to discuss her book "From the Clinic to the Streets: Psychoanalysis for Revolutionary Futures" and the concept of psychic militancy. She explores how systems of power intrude upon the mind, normalize oppression, and bend reality, particularly in the context of Palestine. Drawing on Frantz Fanon and anti-colonial struggle, Lara challenges psychology’s neutrality and calls for an unbending, liberation-centered political commitment.

🌍Dr. Lara Sheehi is a Research Fellow at the University of South Africa's Institute for Social and Health Sciences, a licensed clinical psychologist, and the host of the Psychic Militancy podcast. Lara’s work focuses on psychoanalysis, the psychic refusals central to liberation struggles and life-making in the Global South, the psychic dimensions of resistance and revolution, and critical Zionism studies. She is co-author with Stephen Sheehi of Psychoanalysis Under Occupation: Practicing Resistance in Palestine (Routledge, 2022) which won the 2022 Palestine Book Award for Best Academic Book. Lara is a member of the founding collective for the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism and is on the advisory board for Forensic Architecture. Her new book, From the Clinic to the Streets: Psychoanalysis for Revolutionary Futures will be released by Pluto Press in May 2026.

🔑 In this conversation, we explore

→ Growing up in Lebanon during civil war

→ Racism inside Western psychology classrooms

→ The Zionist disruption at a Palestine panel

→ Psychic intrusion and reality bending

→ Edward Bernays, propaganda, and psychological warfare

→ Frantz Fanon and liberation psychology

→ De-specializing knowledge and reclaiming theory

→ Why neutrality protects power

→ What psychic militancy actually demands

⏱ Chapters

00:00 Opening message

01:00 Introducing Lara Sheehi

03:00 From Lebanon to U.S. psychology

08:30 Racism and misattunement in therapy

12:00 The Palestine panel confrontation

18:00 Psychological operations and propaganda

27:00 Reality bending and psychic intrusion

41:30 Frantz Fanon and revolutionary practice

52:00 De-specializing psychology

01:05:00 Psychic militancy explained

01:20:00 Message to comrades

Sponsored by The Karate Attorney (@karateattorney) fighting for justice inside and outside the courtroom. Visit KarateAttorney.com

🎬 Full episode on https://sumudpod.com

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