Psychoanalytic and Phenomenological Reflections on Masculinity

Gunnar Karlsson is a professor in the department of Education, Stockholm University, Sweden. He is a psychoanalyst and a psychotherapist, and has published widely on psychoanalysis and phenomenology.

Praise for the Swedish edition:'First of all, I would like to express my admiration for Gunnar Karlsson's courage to tackle this difficult, complex, politically charged, and volatile subject. [---] The book contains interesting psychodynamic and phenomenological perspectives on the subject whose rich content cannot be done justice in a review. [---] I would like to thank Karlsson for a book filled with knowledge [---] The book is one of the most important entries in the psychodynamic gender debate in recent times and it should have a good chance to become a Swedish classic. [---] Gunnar Karlsson has given an extremely interesting and thought-provoking contribution to the important discussion about our gender identity.'Tomas Wånge, Psykoterapi [Psychotherapy]'Karlsson’s book is a major contribution to the psychoanalytic discussions on sexes and genders and especially on the challenges of being a man. I find especially important the way Karlsson emphatically makes the distinction between sex and gender, as two ontologically different kinds of structures, the former being something one is, the latter rather as a project [---] There is much to learn from his discussion, I think, and the book should be read not only by psychoanalysts and psychotherapists, but more broadly by people interested in gender questions.'Jussi Kotkavirta, The Scandinavian Psychoanalytic Review

• Introduction  1 The troublesome conceptual apparatus  2 Psychoanalytic theories about masculinity  3 Three forms of masculinity with a focus on phallic masculinity  4 The man's three challenges  5 Ego-identity and the possibility of emancipation  6 The character of care and what phallic masculinity neglects  7 Death as a most reliable counselor