Psychoanalysis Identity And Ideology

Since its founding one hundred years ago psychoanalysis has been the focus of contention, controversy, and debate. What has been clear despite all controversies is that the psychoanalytic tradition has created and inspired special modes of critical thinking which have been used to examine both human behavior and corresponding social ideologies. Psychoanalysis, Identity, and Ideology presents papers from a historic two day conference of leading Israeli, Palestinian, and European psychologists held in June of 1999. Sensitive professional and historical dilemmas are discussed with refreshing openness. This collection embodies the tradition of critical thinking applied to ideologies and identities, Zionism in particular, through a non-exclusive prism of psychoanalytic traditions.

Originally published in 1999 Social Theory and Psychoanalysis in Transition is a benchmark critique of Freudian theory in which a dialogue between the Frankfurt School, the Lacanian tradition and post-Lacanian developments in critical and feminist theory is developed. Considering afresh the relations between self and society, Elliot argues for the importance of imagination and the unconscious in understanding issues about the self and self-identity, ideology and power, sexual difference and gender.

This book explores the concept of certainty, a term which is widely used in everyday language to designate a psychological experience or feeling but is rarely considered controversial or politically charged. The Feeling of Certainty argues that conversely this most ordinary of feelings plays a key role in shaping identity formation, social exclusion, prejudice, and commitment to political causes. The authors question what it means for the subject to feel certainty about her or his relationships to self and others. From where does the feeling of certainty originate, and how does it differ from modes of thought that are open to scepticism about the order of things? They draw on a wide range of theories, including those of Freud, Klein, Lacan, Wittgenstein, Bion, and Jung, challenging readers to consider the world of ideologies, symbols, and stereotypes in which certainty is entrenched, as well as the inter- and intra-psychic processes and defence mechanisms which form the unconscious foundation of the experience of certainty. This collection will offer valuable insight to scholars of psychology, politics, social science and history.

Scholarly interest in issues of self-identity has exploded across disciplines within the humanities and social sciences in recent years. Common to these concerns are the assumptions that self-identity is not an a priori, not given or fixed, but created in the process of communication. This also assumes that social institutions and values are produced and reproduced by individuals in interaction. To capture the essential characteristics of a person requires analysis of how the social and psychological intersect in moments of communication. Interaction and Identity contributes, theoretically and empirically, to contemporary scholarly interest in issues of identity. Chapters and contributors to this stand alone volume include: "Part/Whole Discovery: Stages of Inquiry" by Thomas Scheff; "Communication" by Gregory Bateson; "Internal Muzak: An Examination of Intrapersonal Relationships" by Linda Lederman; "The Constitution of Identity as Gendered in Psychoanalytic Therapy: Ideology and Interaction" by Margaret Carr; and "The (Reconstruction and Negotiation of Cultural Identities in the Age of Globalization" by Getinet Belay. The multiple disciplines of social research with contemporary interest in identity are ably reflected in Interaction and Identity. The authors are drawn from eight disciplines: anthropology, communication, information science, linguistics, philosophy, psychoanalysis, psychology, and sociology. This book will be invaluable to scholars in all these areas—above all in communication research as such.

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.

The Identity Reader is a resource of key statements around the question of identity, drawn from cultural studies, sociology and psychoanalytic theory. It compares and contrasts cultural studies approaches with psychoanalytic accounts.