Vaia Tsolas – författare

This interdisciplinary collection of essays explores the malaise of the contemporary individual by returning the economic point of view of Freudian thinking, the concept of satisfaction, libido, and pleasure–unpleasure principle to their rightful place as the motivating forces of human existence.For Freud, pleasure stands apart from other human experiences, side by side with unpleasure, always a bonus in the search for satisfaction of the pleasure principle and beyond. Along with libido, emotional fulfillment, and the capacities for sublimation and play, pleasure has not been given enough attention in the psychoanalytic literature. The editors of this book address this lack and highlight the importance of examining today’s social and individual malaise through these specific lenses of inquiry. It is particularly timely and important today to address this lack, and thereby examine the impact of the social phenomena of the pandemic, the crises of ideals and virtuality on the subject who feels in a state of constant emergency, overwhelmed, addicted, and delibidinalized.With contributions from across psychoanalysis, this book is essential reading for psychoanalysts in training and in practice who want to understand how the modern world has shaped our understanding of pleasure.

This interdisciplinary collection of essays explores the malaise of the contemporary individual by returning the economic point of view of Freudian thinking, the concept of satisfaction, libido, and pleasure–unpleasure principle to their rightful place as the motivating forces of human existence.For Freud, pleasure stands apart from other human experiences, side by side with unpleasure, always a bonus in the search for satisfaction of the pleasure principle and beyond. Along with libido, emotional fulfillment, and the capacities for sublimation and play, pleasure has not been given enough attention in the psychoanalytic literature. The editors of this book address this lack and highlight the importance of examining today’s social and individual malaise through these specific lenses of inquiry. It is particularly timely and important today to address this lack, and thereby examine the impact of the social phenomena of the pandemic, the crises of ideals and virtuality on the subject who feels in a state of constant emergency, overwhelmed, addicted, and delibidinalized.With contributions from across psychoanalysis, this book is essential reading for psychoanalysts in training and in practice who want to understand how the modern world has shaped our understanding of pleasure.

Le Soldat’s Voluntary Servitude. Masochism and Morality presents an extraordinary analysis of masochism, the subject, death drive and sexual discourse inspired by Freudian drive theory, philosophy, gender theory, political science and mythology.This book will certainly evoke the reader’s curiosity, but even more than that it will encourage readers critical reflection on the clandestine defensive formations between the psyche and reality that, in the author’s view, obscure pleasure principle by corrupting the death drive and the body. Le Soldat presents an unprecedented formulation in psychoanalytic literature to date, one of incomparable significance not only for our clinical work, but also for critical theoretical reflection on society and its vicissitudes. As a result of their defensive stances, we encounter ‘masochistic subjects of servitude’ enclosed in a world of wars, economical rivalries, regressive brutality of consumerism, religious dependency and political mania.Drawing on the work of Freud and Adorno, and balancing theoretical and clinical material, this is essential reading for psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, and anyone who seeks to understand the concept of voluntary servitude.

Le Soldat’s Voluntary Servitude. Masochism and Morality presents an extraordinary analysis of masochism, the subject, death drive and sexual discourse inspired by Freudian drive theory, philosophy, gender theory, political science and mythology.This book will certainly evoke the reader’s curiosity, but even more than that it will encourage readers critical reflection on the clandestine defensive formations between the psyche and reality that, in the author’s view, obscure pleasure principle by corrupting the death drive and the body. Le Soldat presents an unprecedented formulation in psychoanalytic literature to date, one of incomparable significance not only for our clinical work, but also for critical theoretical reflection on society and its vicissitudes. As a result of their defensive stances, we encounter ‘masochistic subjects of servitude’ enclosed in a world of wars, economical rivalries, regressive brutality of consumerism, religious dependency and political mania.Drawing on the work of Freud and Adorno, and balancing theoretical and clinical material, this is essential reading for psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, and anyone who seeks to understand the concept of voluntary servitude.

A Psychoanalytic Exploration of the Body in Today's World: On the Body examines the importance of the body in everyday psychoanalytic practice and beyond. Written by world leading clinicians and international scholars, this important book aims to relocate the psychoanalytic body in the modern, more challenging world. Bringing together perspectives from across the range of psychoanalytic schools of thought, it covers essential analytic topics such as family and parenting, sex and gender, illness and psychosomatics, and concepts of the body in infancy.Though in Freud’s writing the intertwining of body and psyche is fundamental, psychoanalytic thought has sometimes downplayed or ignored this idea. This book returns the body to its rightful place in psychoanalysis, and brings the body into the contemporary world of technology and change, offering fresh insight into the sick body, the sexual body, the speaking body, the body of the changing family in which the traditional gendered labels no longer fit seamlessly, gender dynamics and much more.A Psychoanalytic Exploration of the Body in Today's World gives renewed and increased emphasis to an essential tenant of psychoanalysis. With contributions from some of the most important modern psychoanalysts, this book will prove an essential work for both psychotherapists and academics.