“Where there is power, there is resistance.” — Michel Foucault

In this issue of figuremergenti, we will explore the theme of power.

I remember Isha Bloomberg stating: “As a Gestalt therapist, I believe I have only one responsibility when I work: to be effective.”

Is it possible to be effective without being powerful? And is being powerful necessarily a bad thing?

The word power can be frightening, yet it is also fascinating. We fear power, desire it, fight against it, exercise it and experience its effects upon us.

What is power?

In her essay On Violence, Hannah Arendt states: “Power corresponds to the human ability not only to act but to act in concert.” This statement presents power as the ability to act together. Almost a collective good, one that should be managed by the community for the common good.

How different this definition is from Orwell’s, when, in 1984, he has O’Brien declare: “Power is not a means; it is an end. The end of power is power itself.” Here, power becomes fascinating in its own right, not because of what it enables us to do, but because it becomes a possession in itself, something to be accumulated.

The idea of power as a good that has value in itself is widespread and widely embraced. The famous phrase attributed to Giulio Andreotti, “Power wears out those who don’t have it!”, speaks precisely of power as an object of desire.

According to Paulo Freire, this desire can lead “the oppressed, instead of fighting for liberation, to tend to become oppressors themselves.”

This perspective, and the awareness it brings, lead Fabrizio De André’s song L’Impiegato to declare that “you’d have to be a complete idiot not to understand that there is no such thing as good power.” A radical statement that leaves no room for ambiguity.

We find the same radicalism in Simone Weil’s The Iliad, or the Poem of Force, in which she states that “force is that which can turn a human being into a thing, and it degrades not only those who suffer it but also poisons those who wield it.”

Nelson Mandela would also have recognised himself in this idea, having stated that both oppressor and oppressed are robbed of their humanity.

One quotation speaks of power “with”, while so many others speak of power “over”.

Paul Goodman, after all, challenges us by saying: “Our mistake is to give someone power over the community.”

In the pages of this journal, we have often addressed the issue of dominance in human relationships and in therapeutic and counselling practice. Dominance is a typical expression of “power over”: first over ourselves and our emotions, and then over others.

“Power with” should be different. It is the power of participation, unity, acceptance and the encounter between differences: a collective good. But is it possible to achieve this, or is it merely an ideal?

Is it possible to develop a form of power that does not render someone else powerless? Power struggles within couples, and more generally in human relationships, often have precisely this outcome. Experiences of being subjected to another’s power, resignation, emotional dependency and depression all speak of feelings of powerlessness. Turning our original question around, is it possible for someone to experience powerlessness without someone else exercising “power over” them?

These questions run through our work as therapists and counsellors, but they also concern the world of which we are a part. In a present marked by war and the threat of force being used as a response to conflict, the question of power takes on an urgency that affects us all. What room is left for “power with” when the possibility of feeling safe is made dependent on the ability to make others weaker, more fearful and more powerless?

The question of powerlessness, too, needs to be considered from this broader perspective. What we experience in our relationships takes shape within a field of social, economic and political conditions that can either expand or restrict our possibilities. Fear, resignation and the feeling that we cannot influence our own future have a collective dimension. And the possibility of regaining our voice, our capacity to participate and our ability to act can also be collective.

As professionals, we are part of this field. In our work, we encounter the effects of what happens beyond the therapy room, and we can reflect on how our own exercise of power may contribute to reproducing dominance or, alternatively, open up other possibilities. Without equating conflicts between individuals with conflicts between peoples, we can recognise a question that runs through both: can we support differences and seek ways of living together without demanding that others submit to our will?

“Power with” therefore remains a possibility to be built, also through disagreement, resistance and conflict. It requires conditions in which speaking up carries weight and participation can influence decisions. It asks us to consider who gets to choose, who pays the price for other people’s choices, and who is excluded even from the opportunity to make their voice heard.

Let us return to our original question: can we be powerful without needing to make someone else powerless? Perhaps this is precisely where we can look for a meaning of being effective: in the ability to take part in an encounter in which the other person feels their own power to exist, to choose, to enter into relationships and also to leave them grow stronger.

It is with this question that we open the new issue of figuremergenti: how can we contribute, both in spaces dedicated to care and in the wider sphere of collective life, to developing a form of power that expands everyone’s possibilities to exist and to act? What kind of effectiveness are we seeking, and what kind of world are we helping to build through our own efforts to be effective?