Today I spoke to Dr. Carl Waitz about his new book Youth Mental Health Crises and the Broken Social Link: A Freudian-Lacanian Perspective (Routledge, 2024).
“The kids are not ok” blurbs Patricia Gherovici in her endorsement of Dr. Waitz’ necessary new book. We know this. On the weekend we recorded this interview (February 9, 2025) the New York Times published research[1] showing national trendlines from 1990-2024. Rates of depression and suicide; up. Life expectancy and satisfaction; down. Dr. Waitz cites data from 2015-2020 showing suicide as the second leading cause of death for youth ages 10-14. In discussion with colleagues at other hospitals they recognize that these numbers are “striking”. The topic of youth mental health has been on Dr. Waitz’ mind for a long time starting “as far back as when I first started working with adolescents. Even before I and went to graduate school for psychology.” Dr. Waitz’ clinical experience with this material over the years is evident in this thoughtfully researched book. When he and his wife were expecting their “first kid” he realized that “this was starting to be a personal topic in addition to a professional one.” This is a deeply felt book. So was this interview. No matter where we were in our talk I associated to my current cases. Cases of youth in crisis. They cannot be discussed here. So we weaved in and out of the text. Sometimes exploring theory broadly. Sometimes specifically. All our discussion leading to the clinical question, what does psychoanalysis have to offer? We addressed this by discussing two passages near the end of the book.
“Without the fantasy of a sexual rapport any longer, there is no easily available limit on jouissance and this is precisely why the panoply of solutions called the youth mental health crisis (suicide, self-injury, depression, identification with the stigma of diagnosis, and political polarization are substitutionary, if not contrary to the formation of a social link.” (p.180)
“The challenges of psychoanalysis are greater than merely navigating its own exigencies. If it is to have anything to say about the youth mental health crisis, it must find a way of engaging with a non-psychoanalytic society. With this in mind, how can psychoanalysis a practice focused on a singular subject approach a problem of desire - itself a consequence of a loss of initiation rites at a social level while maintaing it's "non desire to cure" (p.175)
As readers of clinical and theoretical literature recognize, analysts tend to shy away from declarative statements preferring to swim in the open waters of the unknown. I was pleased to end the interview by asking Dr. Waitz about his bold declaration, “There is no question more revealing of one's worldview then why one conceived a child one's religion or economics hold no candle to this question.” (p.100)
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/0...
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