Psychoanalytic Framework for Civic Renewal

A Psychoanalytic Framework for Civic Renewal: Reimagining Democracy from the Ground Up offers a compelling and original thesis: that the global crisis of democracy is not a purely political or economic problem but a deeply rooted psychological and relational one.

The book synthesizes key psychoanalytic and psychological concepts to argue that the health of a democracy is directly tied to the citizenry’s capacity for mentalization—the foundational ability to understand ourselves and others in terms of our inner thoughts, feelings, and intentions. It methodically builds its argument, beginning with the developmental origins of mentalization in infancy and linking it to attachment theory and the cognitive function of theory of mind. It then expands this framework to the societal level, demonstrating how a collective failure to mentalize leads to the collapse of epistemic trust and a dangerous regression to primitive psychological defenses like splitting and "us vs. them" thinking. The work presents a powerful, integrated solution: a new educational model that cultivates not only mentalization and its core social–emotional skills but also the complementary intellectual capacity for critical thinking.

This book serves as a vital resource for educators, policy makers, and mental health professionals, offering an interdisciplinary framework that bridges the divide between abstract political theory and practical, psychological solutions.

Karyne E. Messina is a psychologist and psychoanalyst. She is on the medical staff of Suburban Hospital, which is part of Johns Hopkins Medicine. She is Chair of the American Psychoanalytic Association’s Scholarship and Writing committee, which is part of the Department of Psychoanalytic Education. She is also a member of the President’s Commission on Artificial Intelligence.

Dr. Messina has also written eight books and has three additional publications to be released in 2026 and 2027, focusing on applying psychoanalytic ideas to complex real-world issues we all face. She is currently writing a book, to be released this year, about the connection between mechanisms of defense—projection and projective identification—and AI bias, titled Using Psychoanalysis to Understand and Address AI Bias: Refractions in the Digital Mirror.