Socio-Analytic Dialogue

Bruno Boccara has written an important and highly original work. With telling and well-explained examples, he shows that country-level psychological issues, especially at the unconscious level, should play a major role in both the formulation of public policies and the understanding of their consequences. Socio-Analytic Dialogue opens a new window in the social sciences and especially in economics. Boccaras achievement is based on deep expertise in many disparate areas, based on PhDs from MIT in both economics and civil engineering, in-depth psychoanalytic study at NYU, and extensive international experience in finance and economic development. -- George Akerlof, Nobel laureate in economics, 2001 This is a ground-breaking book that is must reading for politicians, government officials and political scientists as well as psychoanalysts. Demonstrating the key role played by unconscious myths and fantasies in the fate of nations, it forges an important link between the fields of psychoanalysis and political science. -- Theodore Jacobs, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, author of "The Use of the Self: Countertransference and Communication in the Analytic Situation This far-reaching and highly innovative book shows that inadequate understanding of psychosocial dynamics is always a significant impediment to leadership and international relations. Socio-Analytic Dialogue is a groundbreaking approach because it incorporates large group unconscious dynamics in the formulation and implementation of public policy. As such, this book should be of great interest to public policy makers seeking to implement change. -- Gonzalo Snchez de Lozada, President of Bolivia (19931997, 20022003) This book provides a startling demonstration of its central thesis about the effects of unconscious dynamics on national policies. Bruno Boccara has extended the work of social scientists and socioanalysts on organizations developing crippling structures and cultures in response to anxieties to a much broader field, and the implications are immense for us all. His bold and thorough examination uses a variety of country case studies, where he shows how governments at times, through the development of unconscious defensive strategies by policy makers, enact country romances that increase the propensity for delusional policies. Beyond such an examination, the book raises the possibility of how countries could reflect on the psychosocial effects of their histories using Socio-Analytic Dialogue. The message of this book should go to all involved in policy formulation and implementation. -- Susan Long, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, author of "The Perverse Organisation and its Deadly Sins This remarkable book opens a door for applying psychoanalytically informed thinking to economic and social transformations. It illustrates well that public policies also have psychosocial functions, something key for policy makers to appreciate if they wish to improve their understanding of worldwide discontent and resistance to change. It also shows psychoanalysts that psychoanalysis can play a fundamental role in helping societies understand and address their issues. -- Vamk D. Volkan, University of Virginia, author of "Enemies on the Couch: A Psychopolitical Journey Through War and Peace"

Bruno Boccara is the founder of Socio-Analytic Dialogue. He has a Ph.D. in Economics and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has worked at the World Bank, UBS, and Standard & Poors. He completed his psychoanalytic studies at the NYU School of Medicine Psychoanalytic Institute in New York.

Chapter 1: Policies in the Age of Contempt Chapter 2: Policy Making and its Emotional Underpinning Chapter 3: Narcissistic Denial in Foreign Aid Chapter 4: Undoing Traumas in Bolivia Chapter 5: Understanding the Past; Creating the Future End Notes