The Other

A meditation on how psychoanalysis, as the "only real discipline of the excessive," has an indispensable contribution to make in fathoming the "causeless hatred" of racism and bigotry that continues to plague the human species. Frosh cites both Lacan and Melanie Klein as theorists whose ideas seem so "breathtakingly mad" that their "continuing existence" can be explained only "as a sign or emblem of the wildness within," but he draws particularly on the work of Jean Laplanche and Judith Butler to propose that the other is formative of the subject, and hence should be accorded primacy both psychologically and ethically. Intriguingly, Frosh utilizes what might appear to be a relational premise to make a postmodernist argument that the consequent "ex-centric" location of psychic life enriches the subject but also-most notably under conditions of insecurity, oppression, and violence-creates an intense internal disturbance in which hatred of the other, felt to be entwined with the self, has a propensity to emerge

Psychosocial Studies and Psychology: Is a Critical Approach Emerging?

This article describes a brand of 'psychosocial studies' that adopts a critical attitude towards psychology as a whole, yet remains rooted in an attempt to theorize the 'psychological subject'. Principles for psychosocial studies work of this kind are discussed, arising out of the actual work of one academic centre within a university department of psychology. These principles are: concern with the human subject as a social entity; interest in the emergence of subjectivity in the social domain; interest in critique, defined as a concern with ideological issues in psychology; methodological pluralism, including an active assertion of the value of qualitative and theoretical research, as well as more traditional quantitative research; theoretical pluralism, including interest in discourses traditionally marginalized in academic psychology (e.g. psychoanalysis, systems theory, feminist theory, phenomenology); interest in inter- and transdisciplinary approaches to psychological theory and research; and interest in personal and social change, including psychotherapy. Some complicating issues relating to the process and content of this kind of work are also outlined

Psychoanalysis, colonialism, racism

Postcolonial theory has been ambivalent towards psychoanalysis, for good reasons. One of them is the general suspicion of psychological approaches, with their individualistic focus and general history of neglect of sociohistorical concerns. Additionally, there are specific elements of psychoanalysis’ conceptual framework that draw upon, and advance, colonialist ideology. Freud’s postulation of the “primitive” or “savage” mind, which still infects psychoanalytic thinking, is a prime example here. On the other hand, psychoanalysis’ assertion that all human subjects are inhabited by such “primitivity” goes some way to trouble developmental assumptions. In addition, psychoanalysis offers a number of tools that provide leverage on postcolonial issues—most notably, the damage done by colonialist and racist thought. This article presents some of these arguments in greater detail and also examines two specific contributions to postcolonial psychology made by psychoanalysis. These contributions address the “colonizing gaze” and the “racist imaginary.

Keeping cool in thinking and psychotherapy

Book synopsis: This book provides a rich collection of the work that has been informed by the ideas of the eminent family therapist and clinical psychologist, Dr David Campbell who died in August 2009. Contributors are drawn from different fields and describe models they have developed for organizational consultation, training, therapy and research. The book includes a range of important topics, key ideas which thread through contemporary theoretical frameworks, a research study into young people’s experience of parental mental illness, and the application of Dr Campbell’s use of semantic polarity theory in supervision, research and clinical practice. The innovative consultancy model developed by David Campbell with Marianne Groenbaek is elaborated here. Personal accounts of work in different contexts include a priest consulting within his community, the use of self in training systemic psychotherapists, the experience of consultation in academic settings, and a narrative of a training course for psychiatrists. Interspersed with these chapters are David Campbell's own reflections concerning the development of his ideas and practice over time. The book shows the value of simply expressed ideas applied in complex circumstances and will be welcomed by many different readers to enrich their thinking and practice

Psychoanalysis, Nazism and "Jewish science"

In this paper the author offers a partial examination of the troubled history of psychoanalysis in Germany during the Nazi period. Of particular interest is the impact on psychoanalysis of its 'Jewish origins'--something denigrated by the Nazis but reclaimed by more recent Jewish and other scholars. The author traces the rapid decline of the pre-Nazi psychoanalytic institutions under the sway of a policy of appeasement and collaboration, paying particular attention to the continuation of some forms of psychoanalytic practice within the 'Göring Institute'. He suggests that a feature of this history was the anti-Semitism evidenced by some non-Jewish psychoanalysts, which revealed an antagonism towards their own positioning as followers of the 'Jewish science'

The future of politics and psychoanalysis

This is a review essay of Eli Zaretsky's 'Political Freud' and Rozine Perelberg's 'Murdered father, Dead Father'

A letter always reaches its destination

This article explores the psychodynamics of writing through an examination of what it means to write 'without direction'

Different trains: an essay in memorialising

Steve Reich’s Different Trains, a work for string quartet and tape written in 1988, is widely recognised as one of the most significant musical compositions of the last thirty years. Built around speech samples that are mimicked by the quartet, alongside recorded sounds of train whistles and sirens, Different Trains can be an overwhelming experience of mechanical power and also of memory and loss. Reich famously wrote about the central conceit of Different Trains: ‘I travelled back and forth between New York and Los Angeles from 1939 to 1942 accompanied by my governess. While these trips were exciting and romantic at the time, I now look back and think that, if I had been in Europe during this period, as a Jew I would have had to ride very different trains.’ The piece is in three sections. The first, America – Before the war, recalls Reich’s experience travelling between his divorced parents. The second, Europe – During the war uses the sampled speech of three Holocaust survivors to evoke the trains that took so many to their deaths. The third section, After the war, offers some kind of integration of these two experiences, but not a reconciliation. The musical strength of Different Trains is immense. In this paper, however, my interest is more psychoanalytic, focusing on what the piece conveys about the complex issue of how to respond to trauma in ways that balance empathic identification and ‘austere’ separateness and resolve into creative forms of memorialisation