The Psyche-Pol research project took place at MayDay Rooms in November 2013 and was initiated by Howard Slater and Tine Tvergaard and directly inspired by the Red Therapy activity of East London Big Flame in the mid 70s. Working in the space between politics and psychotherapy many questions were posed: How do we overcome the resistance to talking about and through emotion? Is so-called mental illness a response to the ‘mutual usury’ of capitalist social relations? Does psychotherapy per se have a normative effect? How can we bring the psyche into political struggle as a revolutionary catalyst? Can we find different ways of being together in groups that give space and time to both the singularising force of our ‘componential’ selves and to the ‘common resonance’ of affect? Tine and Howard produced a zine and deposited a box-file of research materials. Over the years a small collection of materials has been continuously gathered for the MDR Reading Room.
