Generative Responsibility in the Anthropocene. Perspectives for psychoanalytic enlightenment

The article hinges on the concept of generative responsibility and its analysis. The author begins by describing responsibility challenges for subsequent generations and the blockades this responsibility is subject to. She then proceeds to a psychoanalytic-sociopsychological definition of generativity as concern and accountability for the descendants. The third main topic is the enlightenment potential inherent in psychoanalytic perspectives. One of the author's central theses is that the New Enlightenment called for from so many quarters in the Anthropocene can only fully develop its potential impact by way of the systematic analysis of the various forms of resistance pitted against generative responsibility. Here, the possibility of enlightenment stems not from individual psychic work alone, but also from the corresponding self-enlightenment on the part of society with regard to matters it has expunged from its collective awareness.