Psychoanalytic Political Theory – serie

Winner of the Canadian Society for Continental Philosophy 2020 Annual Symposium Book AwardStella Gaon provides the first fully philosophical account of the critical nature of deconstruction, and she does so by turning in an original way to psychoanalysis. Drawing on close readings of Freud and Laplanche, Gaon argues that Derridean deconstruction is driven by a normative investment in reason’s psychological force. Indeed, deconstruction is more faithful to the principle of reason than the various forms of critical theory prevalent today. For if one pursues the classical demand for rational grounds vigilantly, one finds that claims to ethical or political legitimacy cannot be rationally justified, because they are undone by logical undecidability. Gaon’s argument is borne out in the cases of Kantian deontology, Deweyan pragmatism, progressive pedagogy, Habermasian moral theory, Levinasian ethics and others. What emerges is the groundbreaking demonstration that deconstruction is impelled by a quasi-ethical critical drive, and that to read deconstructively is to radicalize the emancipatory practice of reason as self-critique.This important volume will be of great value to critical theorists as well as to Derrida scholars and researchers in social and political thought.

Following the work of prominent object relations theorists, such as Fairbairn, Suttie and Winnicott, Gal Gerson explores the correlation between analytical theory and intellectual environment in two ways. He notes the impact that the British object relations school had on both psychology and wider culture, and suggests that the school’s outlook involved more than a clinical choice.Gerson first interprets the object relations model as a political theory that completes a certain internal development within liberalism. He later outlines the relationship between the analytical theory and the historical setting in which it formed and took root. By engaging with these questions, Gerson demonstrates the deeper structure and implications of object relation theory for social philosophy. This allows him to answer questions such as: ‘What kind of social arrangements do we endorse when we accept object relations theory as a fair description of mind?’; ‘What beliefs about power, individuality, and household structure do we take in? What do we give up when doing so?’; and, lastly, ‘What does it say about contemporary advanced societies that they have taken in much of the theory’s content?’Proposing a novel rethinking of human nature, Individuality and Ideology in British Object Relations Theory provides much-needed insight into how this school of psychoanalytic theory has impacted contemporary social and political life.

Inspired by Freud’s The Psychopathology of Everyday Life, this book examines the unconscious processes shaping contemporary political ideologies.Addressing ten fundamental questions, Robert Samuels identifies four basic political ideologies: liberal, conservative, Left, and Right, which are often placed in the structure of a logical square, determined by two binary oppositions, with a fifth structure of centrism complicating the square. He turns to psychoanalysis to explain the unconscious defense mechanisms that structure these political ideologies. Each chapter uses a recent, influential title as a gateway to the analysis of the ideologies and structures identified. Through this analysis, Samuels argues that belief in ideological structures is tied to triumvirates of institutions and ideals; conservatives being tied to premodern institutions of religion, feudalism, and monarchy, while modern liberals are tied to ideals of universality, objectivity, and empiricism. He concludes that this investment in universality shapes the ethics of modern globalization and democratic liberalism. Unlike other books, conclusions are reinforced through examples drawn from current events with an integrated model of different psychopathologies.The Psychopathology of Political Ideologies moves beyond providing an understanding of what drives different political investments, to offer a more rational and conscious comprehension of subjectivity and social organization. This book will be a great resource for those interested in politics, political science psychology, social psychology, globalization, and ideology.

Inspired by Freud’s The Psychopathology of Everyday Life, this book examines the unconscious processes shaping contemporary political ideologies.Addressing ten fundamental questions, Robert Samuels identifies four basic political ideologies: liberal, conservative, Left, and Right, which are often placed in the structure of a logical square, determined by two binary oppositions, with a fifth structure of centrism complicating the square. He turns to psychoanalysis to explain the unconscious defense mechanisms that structure these political ideologies. Each chapter uses a recent, influential title as a gateway to the analysis of the ideologies and structures identified. Through this analysis, Samuels argues that belief in ideological structures is tied to triumvirates of institutions and ideals; conservatives being tied to premodern institutions of religion, feudalism, and monarchy, while modern liberals are tied to ideals of universality, objectivity, and empiricism. He concludes that this investment in universality shapes the ethics of modern globalization and democratic liberalism. Unlike other books, conclusions are reinforced through examples drawn from current events with an integrated model of different psychopathologies.The Psychopathology of Political Ideologies moves beyond providing an understanding of what drives different political investments, to offer a more rational and conscious comprehension of subjectivity and social organization. This book will be a great resource for those interested in politics, political science psychology, social psychology, globalization, and ideology.

Heavily influenced by Frantz Fanon and critically engaging the theories of decoloniality and liberatory psychoanalysis, Lara Sheehi and Stephen Sheehi platform the lives, perspectives, and insights of psychoanalytically inflected Palestinian psychologists, psychiatrists, and other mental health professionals, centering the stories that non-clinical Palestinians have entrusted to them over four years of community engagement with clinicians throughout historic Palestine.Sheehi and Sheehi document the stories of Palestinian clinicians in relation to settler colonialism and violence but, even more so, in relation to their patients, communities, families, and one another (as a clinical community). In doing so, they track the appearance of settler colonialism as a psychologically extractive process, one that is often effaced by discourses of "normalization," "trauma," "resilience," and human rights, with the aid of clinicians, as well as psychoanalysis.Psychoanalysis Under Occupation: Practicing Resistance in Palestine unpacks the intersection of psychoanalysis as a psychological practice in Palestine, while also advancing a set of therapeutic theories in which to critically engage and "read" the politically complex array of conditions that define life for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.

Breathing fresh air into debates surrounding foreign policy and interstate relations, Bianca Naude presents a holistic theory of states as collectives of people that cannot be reduced to their individual constituents.Moving among current research on the ontological status of the state alongside important arguments in support of the state personhood thesis, Naude begins by exploring Freud’s personality theory and the ways in which this theory has evolved over time in response to newer insights from the field of experimental psychology. Recognizing that Freud’s work is in many ways outdated, she considers more recent literature on narcissism as an aspect of self-esteem rather than a form of psychopathology, drawing specifically on Kohut’s expansion of the concept of narcissism as a normal feature of personality development. Using the South African state as a case study, Naude demonstrates the various ways in which the state presents itself to the outside world on the one hand, and how it wishes to see itself on the other. She further considers how narcissistic defenses help protect the state's ego from criticism and self-judgments.Revisiting State Personhood and World Politics will help readers understand how the state sees itself, why or when the state experiences shame, humiliation, guilt or pride, and how it responds to these self-conscious emotions. It will be a valuable resource to researchers and students of International Relations.

Breathing fresh air into debates surrounding foreign policy and interstate relations, Bianca Naude presents a holistic theory of states as collectives of people that cannot be reduced to their individual constituents.Moving among current research on the ontological status of the state alongside important arguments in support of the state personhood thesis, Naude begins by exploring Freud’s personality theory and the ways in which this theory has evolved over time in response to newer insights from the field of experimental psychology. Recognizing that Freud’s work is in many ways outdated, she considers more recent literature on narcissism as an aspect of self-esteem rather than a form of psychopathology, drawing specifically on Kohut’s expansion of the concept of narcissism as a normal feature of personality development. Using the South African state as a case study, Naude demonstrates the various ways in which the state presents itself to the outside world on the one hand, and how it wishes to see itself on the other. She further considers how narcissistic defenses help protect the state's ego from criticism and self-judgments.Revisiting State Personhood and World Politics will help readers understand how the state sees itself, why or when the state experiences shame, humiliation, guilt or pride, and how it responds to these self-conscious emotions. It will be a valuable resource to researchers and students of International Relations.

Nathan Gerard draws upon the pathbreaking insights of pediatrician and psychoanalyst D. W. Winnicott to offer a new set of ideas in the novel domain of contemporary work life and its discontents.Locating Winnicott within a broad landscape of critical scholarship that dissects work’s perils, the book positions Winnicott as both a radical critic and creative advocate for building a different kind of work life—one that might make room for the presence of self. By shuffling the discourse on neoliberal subjectivity to reclaim what Winnicott calls “unit status” of the separate self, Gerard differentiates Winnicott from the relational tradition by advocating for Winnicott’s non-relational aspects. Through such analysis, the book reveals how work and home have become two sides of the same impoverished coin, each contributing to a legitimately “bad environment” that perpetuates self-absence and annihilates one’s unique sense of “feeling real” and alive.Winnicott and Labor’s Eclipse of Lifewill be of interest to readers of Winnicott and psychoanalysis, organization and management studies, and anyone hoping to deepen their engagement with the dynamics of contemporary work life.

Nathan Gerard draws upon the pathbreaking insights of pediatrician and psychoanalyst D. W. Winnicott to offer a new set of ideas in the novel domain of contemporary work life and its discontents.Locating Winnicott within a broad landscape of critical scholarship that dissects work’s perils, the book positions Winnicott as both a radical critic and creative advocate for building a different kind of work life—one that might make room for the presence of self. By shuffling the discourse on neoliberal subjectivity to reclaim what Winnicott calls “unit status” of the separate self, Gerard differentiates Winnicott from the relational tradition by advocating for Winnicott’s non-relational aspects. Through such analysis, the book reveals how work and home have become two sides of the same impoverished coin, each contributing to a legitimately “bad environment” that perpetuates self-absence and annihilates one’s unique sense of “feeling real” and alive.Winnicott and Labor’s Eclipse of Lifewill be of interest to readers of Winnicott and psychoanalysis, organization and management studies, and anyone hoping to deepen their engagement with the dynamics of contemporary work life.

In this book, Ricardo Laleff Ilieff presents a new ontological understanding of politics through the writings of Julia Kristeva’s notion of “abjection” in dialogue with Sigmund Freud’s concept of “Unheimlich” and Jacques Lacan’s ontology “du rél”.Aimed at those who are interested in the politics-psychoanalytic “praxis”, Laleff Ilieff argues that the abject enables one to critically read conceptual developments that are central to contemporary thought. Examining the abject in sacrifice, war, and the One as articulated by contemporary thinkers such as Walter Benjamin, Judith Butler, Carl Schmitt, RenéGirard, Pierre Clastres, Giorgio Agamben, and Jacques Rancièe, Laleff Ilieff argues that abjection does not operate on the margins of the social but is what unveils the failure of all identity.Powers of Abjection provides new questions and insights into the relation between psychoanalysis and politics and is an invaluable resource to students and scholars.

In this book, Ricardo Laleff Ilieff presents a new ontological understanding of politics through the writings of Julia Kristeva’s notion of “abjection” in dialogue with Sigmund Freud’s concept of “Unheimlich” and Jacques Lacan’s ontology “du rél”.Aimed at those who are interested in the politics-psychoanalytic “praxis”, Laleff Ilieff argues that the abject enables one to critically read conceptual developments that are central to contemporary thought. Examining the abject in sacrifice, war, and the One as articulated by contemporary thinkers such as Walter Benjamin, Judith Butler, Carl Schmitt, RenéGirard, Pierre Clastres, Giorgio Agamben, and Jacques Rancièe, Laleff Ilieff argues that abjection does not operate on the margins of the social but is what unveils the failure of all identity.Powers of Abjection provides new questions and insights into the relation between psychoanalysis and politics and is an invaluable resource to students and scholars.

In this eye-opening study at the intersection of psychoanalytic theory and political organization and thought, Elliott Schwebach explores why property can be understood to be oppressive and how political theory overlooks its unique significance as a pillar of social violence.Synthesizing insights from Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Sigmund Freud, Ives Hendrick, and Frantz Fanon, Schwebach investigates human activity as shaped by the effects of property regimes and traces broader implications for understanding the legacies of colonial domination. He then shifts focus to contemporary eco-theory, challenging the Lockeanism that continues to characterize premodern Indigenous environmental engagements and presenting novel frameworks for understanding healthy ecopolitical activity based upon the trajectories of psychological drives.This unique perspective validates creative expressions of decolonial resistance and offers fruitful alternatives to customary positions in psychoanalytic and environmental political philosophy. The book will be an indispensable resource for scholars of property, Freudian psychology, political ecology, and the visionary thought of Frantz Fanon.

In this eye-opening study at the intersection of psychoanalytic theory and political organization and thought, Elliott Schwebach explores why property can be understood to be oppressive and how political theory overlooks its unique significance as a pillar of social violence.Synthesizing insights from Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Sigmund Freud, Ives Hendrick, and Frantz Fanon, Schwebach investigates human activity as shaped by the effects of property regimes and traces broader implications for understanding the legacies of colonial domination. He then shifts focus to contemporary eco-theory, challenging the Lockeanism that continues to characterize premodern Indigenous environmental engagements and presenting novel frameworks for understanding healthy ecopolitical activity based upon the trajectories of psychological drives.This unique perspective validates creative expressions of decolonial resistance and offers fruitful alternatives to customary positions in psychoanalytic and environmental political philosophy. The book will be an indispensable resource for scholars of property, Freudian psychology, political ecology, and the visionary thought of Frantz Fanon.

With this book, Nicol A. Barria-Asenjo and her team of experts introduce in a systematic and comprehensive way the work of political philosopher, José Luis Villacañas, in the fields of political theory, philosophy, and psychoanalysis.Considered one of the most prolific contemporary philosophers in Spain, with both national and international impact, Villacañas' scholarship is characterized by social and political critique with elements of Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis and its links to populist perspectives. Divided into two parts, short and succinct chapters examine various aspects of Villacañas' intellectual production that spans over four decades.

In this book, Chyatat Supachalasai offers a reinterpretation of Marx’s concept of the proletariat through a Lacanian lens, drawing on the works of Karl Marx and Jacques Lacan.Building on the intellectual connection between Marx and Lacan, Supachalasai proposes “proletariat discourse”, which arises from a re-reading of Marx’s proletariat through Lacanian psychoanalysis, drawing on key concepts such as the hysteric, alienation, enjoyment, anxiety, and trauma. Supachalasai argues that Lacan’s notion of capitalist discourse, developed in the 1970s, reveals an inherent “non-relationship” aspect within this discourse, indicating the position of proletariat discourse. This proletariat discourse encapsulates three essential components. First, it establishes an agreement and disagreement between Marxist political theory and Lacanian psychoanalysis. Second, it posits that Marx’s understanding of the proletariat can be redefined and comprehended through a Lacanian psychoanalytic framework. Lastly, while portraying Marx’s proletariat as a subject of resistance to capitalism, this discussion connects with Lacan’s goal of seeking an “exit from capitalism”. However, from a Lacanian perspective, this connection also highlights the limitations inherent in Marx’s concept of the proletariat.The Proletariat Discourse will be of great interest to scholars and readers interested in Lacanian-Marxist partnership, psychoanalysis, political thought, Lacanian studies, and critical theory.

Following the work of prominent object relations theorists, such as Fairbairn, Suttie and Winnicott, Gal Gerson explores the correlation between analytical theory and intellectual environment in two ways. He notes the impact that the British object relations school had on both psychology and wider culture, and suggests that the school’s outlook involved more than a clinical choice.Gerson first interprets the object relations model as a political theory that completes a certain internal development within liberalism. He later outlines the relationship between the analytical theory and the historical setting in which it formed and took root. By engaging with these questions, Gerson demonstrates the deeper structure and implications of object relation theory for social philosophy. This allows him to answer questions such as: ‘What kind of social arrangements do we endorse when we accept object relations theory as a fair description of mind?’; ‘What beliefs about power, individuality, and household structure do we take in? What do we give up when doing so?’; and, lastly, ‘What does it say about contemporary advanced societies that they have taken in much of the theory’s content?’Proposing a novel rethinking of human nature, Individuality and Ideology in British Object Relations Theory provides much-needed insight into how this school of psychoanalytic theory has impacted contemporary social and political life.

Heavily influenced by Frantz Fanon and critically engaging the theories of decoloniality and liberatory psychoanalysis, Lara Sheehi and Stephen Sheehi platform the lives, perspectives, and insights of psychoanalytically inflected Palestinian psychologists, psychiatrists, and other mental health professionals, centering the stories that non-clinical Palestinians have entrusted to them over four years of community engagement with clinicians throughout historic Palestine.Sheehi and Sheehi document the stories of Palestinian clinicians in relation to settler colonialism and violence but, even more so, in relation to their patients, communities, families, and one another (as a clinical community). In doing so, they track the appearance of settler colonialism as a psychologically extractive process, one that is often effaced by discourses of "normalization," "trauma," "resilience," and human rights, with the aid of clinicians, as well as psychoanalysis.Psychoanalysis Under Occupation: Practicing Resistance in Palestine unpacks the intersection of psychoanalysis as a psychological practice in Palestine, while also advancing a set of therapeutic theories in which to critically engage and "read" the politically complex array of conditions that define life for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.