The Unconscious in Social and Political Life

This excellent book is a must for analysts and for readers interested in understanding our troubled world in a contemporary frame. […It] shows that psychoanalysis has to take an ethical stance when confronted with the dehumanisation tendency in our contemporary world.

-- Virginia Ungar, MD, President of the International Psychoanalytical Association

This collection of articles on urgent contemporary topics reflects a growing awareness of the meaning of a psychoanalytic perspective for understanding political and social processes. […] I found ‘The Unconscious in Social and Political Life’ very useful in providing a deepened analysis of what I see as a contemporary regressed state of the culture, in which both phenomena take place: the activation of post-traumatic fragments and the challenges to our identities and psychological states of mind in liquid modernity. While in different branches of contemporary psychoanalysis the cultural and social is increasingly appreciated, we are also increasingly aware of the impossibility of neutrality when both analyst and patient are so strongly influenced by what is taking place in the world.

-- Malgorzata Kalinowska * Journal for Analytic Psychology 65, 2: 423-430, 2020 *

This book shows that the radical spirit of the British tradition in psychoanalysis is alive and well and haunts the social and political institutions that house it. The contributions illuminate the cultural contexts which make psychoanalysis possible, throwing a particular uncanny light on who we are now and what we do to each other.

-- Professor Ian Parker, Emeritus Professor of Management, University of Leicester School of Business; President, The College of Psychoanalysts – UK

This wonderfully scintillating volume powerfully addresses the key questions of our troubled times, from the relation between polis and psyche, psychoanalysis and feminism, alterity and prejudice, to problems of resurgent authoritarian populism, neo-liberalism, market and religious forms of terror as well as the looming challenge of climate change. It shows beyond a shadow of a doubt the utter indispensability of psychoanalysis not just in a clinical setting—increasingly dominated in this age of austerity by quick pharmacological fixes and band-aid solutions such as CBT—but, relatedly, to thoughtful, sustained, and rigorous practices of critique and engagement within the wider public sphere.

-- Samir Gandesha, Professor of Humanities and Director of the Institute for the Humanities at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver

This insightful anthology explores the effects of social and political turbulence on the individual and social unconscious with invigorating verve.
Based on a series of progressive “The Political Mind” seminars established by David Morgan of the British Psychoanalytical Society, this collection is underpinned by Morgan’s belief that psychoanalysis “makes a valuable contribution” to the “important endeavour” of redeveloping “a culture that preserves the importance of humanity”, as opposed to embracing neoliberalism “with its emphasis on market forces over human love and joy”. To this end, the fourteen essays contained herein offer measured discussions of a broad range of pertinent socio-political matters from a psychoanalytical perspective.
From exploring the rise of the far-right and the debilitating “we’re all in it together” myth of austerity, to examining the psychologies of prejudice and tolerance in relation to attitudes towards refugees and migrants, this provides those looking for fresh takes on today’s troubled – and troubling – political turmoil with stimulating sagacity from preeminent experts in their fields.

-- Joanne Owen * LoveReading.co.uk *

‘intriguing […] a welcome book, demonstrating a commitment by members of the British Psychoanalytical Society to engage with critical politics and also a willingness to expose this not just in print, but also in the “Political Mind” seminar series from which the book derives.’

-- Stephen Frosh, 'The International Journal of Psychoanalysis', 101:5,