Sally Swartz – författare

Ruthless Winnicott is an extended exploration of the role of ruthlessness in psychic development. That survival is of no use unless it is preceded by a ruthless attack is one of D. W. Winnicott’s most resonant paradoxes. The book links this with the search for subjective freedom for those traumatized by colonialism, and in doing so draws on the work of Algerian psychiatrist and revolutionary psychoanalytic thinker Frantz Fanon.

Sally Swartz examines essential pieces of Winnicott’s work on ruthlessness as central to the emergence of concern for the Other. She illustrates, with clinical examples, ways in which the ruthless use of the psychoanalytic psychotherapeutic space allows the patient either to enter fully into a process that allows growth, or to defend ruthlessly against the anxieties provoked by psychic change. Ruthless Winnicott also maps decolonial challenges to psychoanalytic theory, and the role of ruthlessness in protest movements demanding radical subjective change. Swartz’s exploration of ruthlessness as both zest and defense in individual development and in protest movements illuminates processes of psychological collision and change. It traces links between individual trauma and collective turbulence, and maps ways in which ruthlessness is essential to subjective change.

Ruthless Winnicott will be of great interest to psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists, as well as scholars of colonialism, decolonization and post-colonialism.

Ruthless Winnicott is an extended exploration of the role of ruthlessness in psychic development. That survival is of no use unless it is preceded by a ruthless attack is one of D. W. Winnicott’s most resonant paradoxes. The book links this with the search for subjective freedom for those traumatized by colonialism, and in doing so draws on the work of Algerian psychiatrist and revolutionary psychoanalytic thinker Frantz Fanon.

Sally Swartz examines essential pieces of Winnicott’s work on ruthlessness as central to the emergence of concern for the Other. She illustrates, with clinical examples, ways in which the ruthless use of the psychoanalytic psychotherapeutic space allows the patient either to enter fully into a process that allows growth, or to defend ruthlessly against the anxieties provoked by psychic change. Ruthless Winnicott also maps decolonial challenges to psychoanalytic theory, and the role of ruthlessness in protest movements demanding radical subjective change. Swartz’s exploration of ruthlessness as both zest and defense in individual development and in protest movements illuminates processes of psychological collision and change. It traces links between individual trauma and collective turbulence, and maps ways in which ruthlessness is essential to subjective change.

Ruthless Winnicott will be of great interest to psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists, as well as scholars of colonialism, decolonization and post-colonialism.

Within this important and insightful book, Sally Swartz introduces readers to early entanglements of psychoanalytic theory with colonialism and how it has led to significant and long-lasting implications for psychoanalysis.

Psychoanalysis and Colonialism is unique in drawing together a wide array of sources and a span of history from the beginnings of psychoanalysis to current theory and practice. The book explores ways in which Freudian theory incorporated the idea of the primitive into the centre of mapping the untamed territories of the unconscious, via notions of taming instinctual excess, civilizing the primitive and conquering and bringing order to wildness. The text describes the influences of colonialism on the thinking of Freud and Jung and goes on to describe anti-colonial voices, including Césaire and Mannoni, Memmi and Fanon, and their contribution to psychoanalytic theory. It concludes with thoughts on the challenges of decolonizing psychoanalysis.

This book is an accessible account of the links between colonialism and psychoanalysis and is suitable for general readers with an interest in the topic, as well as all psychoanalytic practitioners grappling with the ways in which issues of race, class, gender and sexuality affect their ways of working and writing.

Within this important and insightful book, Sally Swartz introduces readers to early entanglements of psychoanalytic theory with colonialism and how it has led to significant and long-lasting implications for psychoanalysis.

Psychoanalysis and Colonialism is unique in drawing together a wide array of sources and a span of history from the beginnings of psychoanalysis to current theory and practice. The book explores ways in which Freudian theory incorporated the idea of the primitive into the centre of mapping the untamed territories of the unconscious, via notions of taming instinctual excess, civilizing the primitive and conquering and bringing order to wildness. The text describes the influences of colonialism on the thinking of Freud and Jung and goes on to describe anti-colonial voices, including Césaire and Mannoni, Memmi and Fanon, and their contribution to psychoanalytic theory. It concludes with thoughts on the challenges of decolonizing psychoanalysis.

This book is an accessible account of the links between colonialism and psychoanalysis and is suitable for general readers with an interest in the topic, as well as all psychoanalytic practitioners grappling with the ways in which issues of race, class, gender and sexuality affect their ways of working and writing.