Psychoanalysis and Politics

Lene Auestad, PhD, is Research Fellow in Philosophy at the University of Oslo, and affiliated with the Centre for Studies of the Holocaust and Religious Minorities, Oslo. She moved to the UK to pursue long-standing interests in British psychoanalysis. Working at the interface of psychoanalytic thinking and ethics/political theory, her writing has focused on the themes of emotions, prejudice and minority rights. She is the author of 'Respect, Plurality, and Prejudice: A Psychoanalytical and Philosophical Enquiry into the Dynamics of Social Exclusion and Discrimination', and 'Psychoanalysis and Politics: Exclusion and the Politics of Representation', as well as a number of articles, including 'To Think or Not To Think', in the 'Journal of Social and Psychological Sciences', and 'Splitting, Attachment and Instrumental Rationality', in 'Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society'.

'Drawing on several contemporary forms of psychoanalysis and the social sciences, this collection of original theoretical and empirical contributions to a nascent European object relations perspective helps us to understand the current resurgence of social prejudice against ethnic minority groups and the scapegoating of them in the search for safety and fulfilment in the illusion of perfection. This is the first of a series of volumes building bridges between academic, clinical, and political work.'- Earl Hopper, PhD, former President of the International Association for Group Psychotherapy, and psychoanalyst, group analyst, and organisational consultant in private practice in London'This brilliant collection of essays edited by Lene Auestad articulates diverse strands of psychoanalytic theory and offers lucid interpretations of a wide range of historical experiences of social and political exclusion. The volume widens our understanding of the logics of "othering" and violence that take place in our society. It adds a valuable resource to the growing interdisciplinary field of psychosocial studies, and particularly to the study of the intersection of politics and psychoanalysis.'- Dr Margarita Palacios, Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychosocial Studies, Birkbeck College, University of London'Anyone who doubts psychoanalysis has useful things to say about the social world should read this book. It is, by any measure, an important contribution to our understanding of the politics of social exclusion and reminds us, once again, why the task of psychoanalytically informed social and political analysis remains urgent.'- Peter Redman, Faculty of Social Sciences, The Open University; Editor of Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society'At a time of protracted economic crisis and global insecurity, malignant political developments such as resurgent nationalist extremism cast a shadow across Europe from Norway to Greece. This very timely volume goes beyond traditional forms of political analysis to examine the unconscious phantasies, powerful affects and nonrational dynamics which underpin attempts to establish new forms of national purity and racialised exclusion.'- Paul Hoggett, author of Politics, Identity and Emotion

• ABOUT THE EDITOR AND CONTRIBUTORS -- INTRODUCTION/Lene Auestad -- PART I: THEORETICAL REFLECTIONS -- Editor’s introduction to chapter one -- CHAPTER ONE -- The dread of sameness: social hatred and Freud’s “narcissism of minor differences”/Karl Figlio -- Editor’s introduction to chapter two -- CHAPTER TWO -- Subjectivity and absence: prejudice as a psycho-social theme/Lene Auestad -- Editor’s introduction to chapter three -- CHAPTER THREE -- Metapsychological approaches to exclusion/Jonathan Davidoff -- Editor’s introduction to chapter four 65 -- CHAPTER FOUR -- The excluded in identification/Calum Neill -- PART II: QUESTIONING CASES OF EXCLUSION -- Editor’s introduction to chapter five -- CHAPTER FIVE -- True believer: racism and one Nazi ideologist/Martyn Housden -- Editor’s introduction to chapter six -- CHAPTER SIX -- Staring and phantasy: a speculative attempt to understand and address the widely observed misrepresentation and exclusion of people with disfigurements/Jane Frances -- Editor’s introduction to chapter seven -- CHAPTER SEVEN -- “Who is afraid of DSM?” The place of the subject in the society of therapy/René Rasmussen -- Editor’s introduction to chapter eight -- CHAPTER EIGHT -- Islamism and xenophobia/Sverre Varvin -- Editor’s introduction to chapter nine -- CHAPTER NINE -- Traces of trauma in post-conflict Guatemala: theoretical reflections on the effects of trauma on social organisation/Elisabeth Rohr -- PART III: THE EXCLUSION OF PSYCHOANALYSIS: LIMITS AND EXTENSIONS -- Editor’s introduction to chapter ten 199 -- CHAPTER TEN -- Psychoanalysis behind iron curtains/Ferenc Erős -- Editor’s introduction to chapter eleven -- CHAPTER ELEVEN -- The extensions of psychoanalysis: colonialism, post-colonialism, and hospitality/Julia Borossa -- INDEX.