The tradition of calling a psychotherapist shrink started with an ironic reference to the head shrinker: In this savage practice, some ancient Latin American warriors collected the heads of their human victims’ dead bodies in an illusory attempt to bind their spiritual power to themselves by enveloping them with a sacrificial aura. It was admittedly a savage practice but head shrinking was nothing other than a spiritual digestion system.

The irony of this term was nicely preserved in the 20th century by imagining the modern psychotherapist as an ego shrinker which may refer to either (or both) of the following:
1) Therapy helps the patient adapt to social mores (shrinking ego in the name of superego).
2) Therapy lets the patient realize his/her own desires (shrinking ego in the name of id).

In the 21th century, considering the conflictual ascend of feminism, it is tempting to rename the therapist a phallus shrinker: Now that every assertion of masculine authority has become suspect of toxicity, the duty of the contemporary psychotherapist has become to help the patient hunt all phallic imposture wherever it rears its ugly head.

Phallus shrinking is the postmodern way of upholding authenticity and sincerity. Perhaps the ultimate phallus shrinker is the so-called “intimacy coordinator” who “is a staff member who ensures the well-being of actors who participate in sex scenes or other intimate scenes in theater, film and television production” (Wikipedia).

Although phallus shrinking contributed somewhat to social progress, it must be acknowledged that its principal result has been the relentless erosion of people’s fidelity to the social necessities that condition worldly possibilities, in the name of enjoying more contingencies and more impossibilities [1].

The main problem with phallus shrinking is that:
1) It is driven by envy.
2) It serves to block gratitude.
This characteristic is clearly visible in the phallus shrinking practice of cancel culture: The urge to destroy the person’s prestige is due to the canceller’s deep fear of owing gratitude and thankfulness for what the person has achieved to give to the society. Examples: Joss Whedon was cancelled to erase his creation of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. J. K. Rowling was cancelled to erase her creation of Harry Potter [2].

Two aspects of phallus shrinking must be considered separately:
1) The infinitely stubborn efforts to “give it to her”: This is the religious construction of the Phallic Woman in an illusory attempt to resuscitate the Primal Father.
2) The antisocial fact that envy is perceived as “cool” whereas gratitude is perceived as “cute” (uncool) [3].

(Turkish)

Işık Barış Fidaner is a computer scientist with a PhD from Boğaziçi University, İstanbul. Admin of Yersiz Şeyler, Editor of Žižekian Analysis, Curator of Görce Writings. Twitter: @BarisFidaner

Notes:

[1] See “Lacancı Özne: Kök Salma ve Uzanım: Sütur ve Südur”

[2] See “The Artemis of Ephesus: Being Seized by Mamilla Envy and Being Turned into a Data Breast of the Virtual Lord”, “Make Gratitude Cool Again”, “Genuine Analysis is Beyond Criticism: Criticism Reveals Imposture, Analysis Reveals Self-Sabotage”, “The Religion of Phallic Woman: Penis or Child or Success or Identity”, “No can ‘give it to her’: Whedon and Rowling”

[3] See “Rebel Without a Cause: the making of cool-special and unchicken-chick”