Ian Miller – författare

This book focuses on Samuel Beckett's psychoanalytic psychotherapy with W. R. Bion as a central aspect both of Beckett's and Bion's radical transformations of literature and psychoanalysis. The recent publication of Beckett's correspondence during the period of his psychotherapy with Bion provides a starting place for an imaginative reconstruction of this psychotherapy, culminating with Bion's famous invitation to his patient to dinner and a lecture by C.G. Jung. Following from the course of this psychotherapy, Miller and Souter trace the development of Beckett's radical use of clinical psychoanalytic method in his writing, suggesting the development within his characters of a literary-analytic working through of transference to an idealized auditor known by various names, apparently based on Bion. Miller and Souter link this pursuit to Beckett's breakthrough from prose to drama, as the psychology of projective identification is transformed to physical enactment.

On Minding and Being Minded explores links between depictions of lived experience written by Samuel Beckett and the experience of psychoanalytic psychotherapy pioneered in the writings of W.R. Bion. These robust literary and clinical intersections are made explicit within the demanding culture of twenty-first century psychotherapy as patient demand for time-limited, result-driven therapeutic outcomes conflicts sharply with the contours of intensive, long-term psychotherapy. Bion and Beckett present elements of familiarity to the practicing psychoanalyst which emerge tantalizingly, out of explicit reach, yet become knowable through interpersonal engagement. These stutterings and intimations are thick with meaning, suggestively presented in passing. They hint at how it is for the patient, provoking excitations of thinking; and, like the mental constructions of us all, their articulation conceals deep artistry. On Minding and Being Minded provides a therapeutic link bridging the single session with multiple session psychotherapy focused upon the dynamic engagement of patient and therapist.

The empirical baseline of today's psychoanalytic vernacular may be inferred from what psychoanalysts read. Contemporary information aggregation provides us with a unique moment in "reading" today's psychoanalytic vernacular. The PEP Archive compiles data on journal articles analogous to radio stations' "hit parades" of contemporary favorites. Defining Psychoanalysis: Achieving a Vernacular Expression provides a close reading of this contemporary assemblage, including three "strong" readings by Winnicott and two by Bion. It pursues the elements generated by these papers as an indication of contemporary psychoanalytic "common sense", our consensual building blocks of theory and practice.

Reforming food in post-famine Ireland: Medicine, science and improvement, 1845–1922 is the first dedicated study of how and why Irish eating habits dramatically transformed between the famine and independence. It also investigates the simultaneous reshaping of Irish food production after the famine. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, the book draws from the diverse methodological disciplines of medical history, history of science, cultural studies, Irish studies, gender studies and food studies. Making use of an impressive range of sources, it maps the pivotal role of food in the shaping of Irish society onto a political and social backdrop of famine, Land Wars, political turbulence, the First World War and the struggle for independence. It will be of interest to historians of medicine and science as well as historians of modern Irish social, economic, political and cultural history.This book is relevant to United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 2, Zero hunger.

This book explores Irish experiences of medicine and health during the First and Second World Wars, the War of Independence and the Civil War. It examines the physical, mental and emotional impact of conflict on Irish political and social life, as well as medical, scientific and official interventions in Irish health matters. The contributors put forward the case that warfare and political unrest profoundly shaped Irish experiences of medicine and health, and that Irish political, social and economic contexts added unique contours to those experiences not evident in other countries. In pursuing these themes, the book offers an original and focused intervention into a central, but so far unexplored, area of Irish medical history.

A scythe is one of the most elegant and efficient hand tools available. It is ideal for harvesting many types of crops and is quieter and pleasanter to use than a strimmer.  There is a graceful, rhythmic quality to scything that once mastered can provide the ultimate mind and body workout. In this book, Ian Miller teaches you how to scythe from scratch including assembly, perfecting the stroke, honing, peening, uses and aftercare. A scythe can be used for mowing the lawn, harvesting small grain, and cutting back wildflower meadows without disrupting wildlife. The hay and straw can be used in the garden for mulching and composting or for food and bedding for household pets while small grains can used for making bread and feeding poultry. The Scything Handbook will delight all gardeners, allotmenteers and smallholders who are tired of their noisy, heavy, fuel-dependent machines and looking for better ways to take care of themselves and their land.

Discovering Spinoza's early modern psychology some 35 years into his own clinical practice, Ian Miller now gives shape to this connection through a close reading of Spinoza's key philosophical ideas. With a rigorous and expansive analysis of Spinoza's Ethics in particular, Miller explores how Spinozan thought simultaneously empowered the original conceptual direction of psychoanalytic thinking, and anticipated the field's contemporary theoretical dimensions. Miller offers a detailed overview of the philosopher's psychoanalytic reception from the early work of German-langauge psychoanalytic thinkers, such as Freud and Lou Andreas-Salomé, forward into its Anglophone reception, influencing both mid-century humanistic American psychoanalysis as well as anticipating thinkers such as Bion and Winnicott. Covering key concepts in psychoanalytic theory and clinical practice, this book demonstrates how knowledge of Spinoza's philosophical work can help to both illulminate and improve modern psychoanalytic therapies.

Discovering Spinoza's early modern psychology some 35 years into his own clinical practice, Ian Miller now gives shape to this connection through a close reading of Spinoza's key philosophical ideas. With a rigorous and expansive analysis of Spinoza's Ethics in particular, Miller explores how Spinozan thought simultaneously empowered the original conceptual direction of psychoanalytic thinking, and anticipated the field's contemporary theoretical dimensions. Miller offers a detailed overview of the philosopher's psychoanalytic reception from the early work of German-langauge psychoanalytic thinkers, such as Freud and Lou Andreas-Salomé, forward into its Anglophone reception, influencing both mid-century humanistic American psychoanalysis as well as anticipating thinkers such as Bion and Winnicott. Covering key concepts in psychoanalytic theory and clinical practice, this book demonstrates how knowledge of Spinoza's philosophical work can help to both illulminate and improve modern psychoanalytic therapies.

This collection is a four volume set of primary sources on British food history in the long nineteenth century (c.1789-1914). It will make the compelling case that food is central to understanding all aspects of nineteenth-century Britain, as food permeates every aspect of our society, economy, politics and culture. Food acquired special importance in Britain because of the Industrial Revolution, controversial famines in the colonies, rapid developments in food technologies that revolutionized production and the increasing influence of medicine, science and public health in our understandings of eating, digesting, diet and nutrition. Intertwined with these dramatic changes were reactions against modern ways of eating and a surge in interest in alternatives such as vegetarianism. The collection will offer a welcome, and vital, introduction to the rich primary source base available for students, educators and researchers.

In the long nineteenth century, significant developments occurred in science, technology and medicine which transformed food production and consumption. Coupled with this was the impact of the Industrial and Agricultural Revolutions. Developments in agricultural production meant that the rapidly growing British population conglomerated around urban areas could be fed. However, worsening public health conditions in British towns and cities, combined with social problems such as poverty, meant that nutritional and dietary health declined. This volume explores the foods that were eaten in nineteenth-century Britain.

For all classes, British eating habits changed dramatically in the long nineteenth century. Volume two offers a collection of sources that shed light on what people ate and cooked at home, and also while they were out and about. Cookery books are an obvious primary source, and these range from popular books aimed largely at servants responsible for providing meals to middle- and upper-class families to less lavish recipes contained in books intended for school cookery classes which would then be prepared at home.

A curious phenomenon occurred in British food writing from around the 1860s. Publishers began printing books dedicated to specific meals. Breakfast. Luncheons. Afternoon Tea. Dinners. Until this time, most cookbooks had been hefty tomes containing hundreds of pages of recipes, but the new recipe books were slimmer and more accessible, catering for a broader readership. The appearance of focused cookbooks reveals the growing influence of advanced printing technologies and rising literacy levels combined with changes in social life and class relations that coalesced around food, granting mealtimes great importance. The sources reprinted in this volume were produced in response to the changing social dynamics that accompanied industrialisation, urbanisation and socio-economic modernisation.

Volume 4 examines the British diet from its colonial and global perspectives. Colonialism, combined with rapidly improving global transport networks, introduced the British introduced to a plethora of unfamiliar foods from overseas. Changing economic trading patterns also impacted massively on the changing British diet. Emigration (inwards and outwards), and military service, further encouraged a global inter-mingling of diets and palates. The British stomach was introduced to new spices and herbs, either at home or abroad, although fears persisted that the British constitution was ill-suited to rich, foreign foods. A selection of sources will bring to life how the increasingly globalised world changed British eating habits, while introducing readers to the many debates surrounding this transition.

This is the first exploration of the relationship between the abdomen and British society between 1800 and 1950. Miller demonstrates how the framework of ideas established in medicine related to gastric illness often reflected wider social issues including industrialization and the impact of wartime anxiety upon the inner body.

This introductory textbook presents medical history as a theoretically rich discipline, one that constantly engages with major social questions about ethics, bodies, state power, disease, public health and mental disorder. Providing both instructors and students with an account of the changing nature of medical history research since it first emerged as a distinct discipline in 19th century Germany, this essential guide covers the theoretical development of medical history and evaluates the various approaches adopted by doctors, historians and sociologists.Synthesising historiographical material ranging from the 19th to 21st centuries, this is an ideal resource for postgraduate students from History and History of Medicine degrees taking courses on historiography, the theory of history and medical history.

This introductory textbook presents medical history as a theoretically rich discipline, one that constantly engages with major social questions about ethics, bodies, state power, disease, public health and mental disorder. Providing both instructors and students with an account of the changing nature of medical history research since it first emerged as a distinct discipline in 19th century Germany, this essential guide covers the theoretical development of medical history and evaluates the various approaches adopted by doctors, historians and sociologists.Synthesising historiographical material ranging from the 19th to 21st centuries, this is an ideal resource for postgraduate students from History and History of Medicine degrees taking courses on historiography, the theory of history and medical history.

By the end of the twentieth century, the idea of self-esteem had become enormously influential. A staggering amount of psychological research and self-help literature was being published and, before long, devoured by readers. Self-esteem initiatives permeated American schools. Self-esteem became the way of understanding ourselves, our personalities, our interactions with others. Nowadays, however, few people think much about the concept of self-esteem—but perhaps we should.Self-Esteem: An American History is the first historical study to explore the emotional politics of self-esteem in modern America. Written with verve and insight, Ian Miller’s expert analysis looks at the critiques of self-help that accuse it of propping up conservative agendas by encouraging us to look solely inside ourselves to resolve life’s problems. At the same time, he reveals how African American, LGBTQ+, and feminist activists have endeavored to build positive collective identities based on self-esteem, pride, and self-respect.This revelatory book will be essential reading for anyone with an interest in the history of mental health and well-being, and in how the politics of self-esteem is played out in today’s US society and culture.

This book focuses on Samuel Beckett's psychoanalytic psychotherapy with W. R. Bion as a central aspect both of Beckett's and Bion's radical transformations of literature and psychoanalysis. The recent publication of Beckett's correspondence during the period of his psychotherapy with Bion provides a starting place for an imaginative reconstruction of this psychotherapy, culminating with Bion's famous invitation to his patient to dinner and a lecture by C.G. Jung. Following from the course of this psychotherapy, Miller and Souter trace the development of Beckett's radical use of clinical psychoanalytic method in his writing, suggesting the development within his characters of a literary-analytic working through of transference to an idealized auditor known by various names, apparently based on Bion. Miller and Souter link this pursuit to Beckett's breakthrough from prose to drama, as the psychology of projective identification is transformed to physical enactment. They also locate Bion's memory and re-working of his clinical contact with Beckett, who figures as the 'patient zero' of Bion's pioneering postmodern psychoanalytic clinical theories.This reading of Beckett and Bion is not simply interpretive but a construction that has arisen from a very dynamic process, full of hypothesis and surprise. Far from negating other readings, it adds density to the textured understanding of these two brilliant thinkers, each formally in different lines of work but joined through what Bion himself might call a 'reciprocal perception' of psychoanalysis. It is reciprocal because Beckett transformed psychoanalytic thinking into a literary genre while Bion transformed psychoanalytic thinking into process understanding. Each utilized the same object, but with different attentions to different ends. The structure of the book is divided into two parts. Part I begins with a biographical introduction of Beckett and includes a discussion of Beckett's early metapsychological monograph, Proust. It presents Beckett's two years in psychotherapy, between 1934 and 193, and addresses the institutional contexts in which this psychotherapy took place, and also discusses of Wilfred Bion's history and background. Part II addresses Beckett's radical use of free association as a literary form and examines Beckett's Novellas, the Trilogy, and his creative transition from prose to drama. It concludes with an exploration of Bion's theoretical use of his work with Beckett.

Featuring over 300 pieces of artwork spanning decades of Ian's work, this collection is a treat for all lovers of great fantasy art - from Lovecraft novel covers to Tolkien bestiaries to Warhammer 40,000 concept art, through a veritable trove of gothic humour, fantasy battles, dragons, beasts and a world of nightmarish visions.

On Minding and Being Minded explores links between depictions of lived experience written by Samuel Beckett and the experience of psychoanalytic psychotherapy pioneered in the writings of W.R. Bion. These robust literary and clinical intersections are made explicit within the demanding culture of twenty-first century psychotherapy as patient demand for time-limited, result-driven therapeutic outcomes conflicts sharply with the contours of intensive, long-term psychotherapy.Bion and Beckett present elements of familiarity to the practicing psychoanalyst which emerge tantalizingly, out of explicit reach, yet become knowable through interpersonal engagement. These stutterings and intimations are thick with meaning, suggestively presented in passing. They hint at how it is for the patient, provoking excitations of thinking; and, like the mental constructions of us all, their articulation conceals deep artistry. On Minding and Being Minded provides a therapeutic link bridging the single session with multiple session psychotherapy focused upon the dynamic engagement of patient and therapist. This is the social workshop within which Bion's "learning from experience" occurs. Not only does the analyst supply the requirements for its construction in provision of space, time, and boundary, but also bears in mind the psychoanalytic object itself, its feel, tang, and experiential shape, initially unknowable to the patient.

The empirical baseline of today's psychoanalytic vernacular may be inferred from what psychoanalysts read. Contemporary information aggregation provides us with a unique moment in "reading" today's psychoanalytic vernacular. The PEP Archive compiles data on journal articles analogous to radio stations' "hit parades" of contemporary favorites. Defining Psychoanalysis: Achieving a Vernacular Expression provides a close reading of this contemporary assemblage, including three "strong" readings by Winnicott and two by Bion. It pursues the elements generated by these papers as an indication of contemporary psychoanalytic "common sense", our consensual building blocks of theory and practice.

On The Daily Work of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy focuses on elaborations of the contemporary psychoanalytic "vernacular" (Miller, 2016), within the challenges of psychotherapy both with difficult patients and with the "worried well" and in time-scales of one and two weekly meetings.Its goal is to illustrate consensual paths recognized by clinicians along which the daily conduct of psychodynamic psychotherapy proceeds. At the core of this enterprise is the construction,through clinical dyadic interaction, of a consensual matrix of meaningful plausibility, useful to the patient in recognizing both dimensions of self and interactions with others.