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Ryan LaMothe, PhD
Susan Kassouf, PhD, LP
Ryan LaMothe, PhD, is professor of pastoral care and counseling at St. Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology. Ryan has published 15 books in the areas of psychoanalysis, political pastoral theology and political philosophy. His most recent book is Reimagining Psychoanalysis in the Climate Polycrisis: Thinking with Giorgio Agamben and Indigenous Philosophies (2026). He has also published over 200 articles and book reviews. In 2017, he received a Springer Publishing Award entitled “Transforming the World One Article at a Time.” He has served on three editorial boards of peer-reviewed journals and as president of the Society for Pastoral Theology. Ryan was invited to give the Jacob Neumann lecture at Princeton University in 2022 and the keynote address at the International Association of Practical Theologians conference in 2023.
Susan Kassouf, PhD, is a licensed psychoanalyst in private practice as well as member of the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis (NPAP), Training and Research for Intersubjective Self Psychology (TRISP), the Climate Psychology Alliance, the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsA) and the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA). She writes, presents and consults about climate change and the more-than-human. On the board of The Psychoanalytic Review as well as an acquisitions liaison at ROOM, she has also translated works by and about Erich Fromm. Prior to formal analytic training, she served on the faculty in German Studies at Vassar College and worked in the non-profit / philanthropic sector for almost two decades, where she is still actively engaged.
The question of whether we are alone in the universe is a symptom of Western apparatuses that function to produce an ontological rift between human beings and other species. This rift comprises instrumental, hierarchical ruling epistemologies that depersonalize or reify other species, thus legitimating their exploitation and our indifference to their manifold intelligences and communications. From a psychoanalytic perspective the rift can be understood in terms of a normative and historical unconscious, as well as the defenses of weak dissociation, disidentification, and projection. These defenses operate to secure a conscious and preconscious sense of existential significance while rendering unconscious the terrifying reality of existential insignificance that is projected onto other species. This analysis also provides a partial explanation for the sources of the climate polycrisis and the strong resistance to effective climate action.
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2 CE contact hours will be granted to participants with documented attendance and complete evaluation form. It is the responsibility of the participants seeking CE credits to comply with these requirements. Upon completion, a Certificate of Attendance will be emailed to all participants.