Description
Book SynopsisBuilding on the bestselling The Unconscious in Social and Political Life, the first book in the Political Minds series, A Deeper Cut investigates such vital issues as left and right populisms, colonialism and racism, social care for the mentally ill, manipulation of the masses in the third world, Alice Miller on family politics, diversity, Orwellian thinking, trade unions, religious fundamentalism, NHS politics, activism, and tyranny. Featuring compelling contributions from Lord John Alderdice, Elizabeth Cotton, Tomasz Fortuna, Stephen Frosh, Samir Gandesha, Mary Joan Gerson, Liz Greenway, Roger Hartley, Luisa Passalacqua, Kate Pugh, Marco Puricelli, Edgard Sanchez Bernal, Elisabeth Skale, Mark Stein, and Margot Waddell.
Galvanised by events outside of his consulting room, David Morgan began The Political Mind seminars at the British Psychoanalytical Society in 2015 and their successful run continues today. A series of superlative seminars that examine the effects of the current upheaval going on worldwide, this book is the second to bring these seminars from leading thinkers to a wider audience.
Leading politicians, writers, educators, psychoanalysts, psychologists, philosophers, psychotherapists, and psychologists are gathered together in this fascinating volume that investigates social upheaval on the worldwide stage. Stimulating and thought-provoking, this is a must-read for every citizen asking just what is happening in the world today.
Trade ReviewA Deeper Cut, with its studies of race, anti-Semitism, populism, and the New Right, illuminates the power of the unconscious in group life. It shows that psychoanalysis, once relegated to therapeutic practice, has become an exciting form of social thought.
-- Eli Zaretsky, Professor of History, New School for Social Research
The focus of this book is on a deeper understanding of the world in which we live. Societal and political events examined and explained include colonialism, racism, societal and national divisions, the emergence of right-wing parties in Europe, religious fundamentalism, street gangs, trade union activities, and mental health services. Psychoanalysts and psychoanalytically informed contributors also explore the psychology of whistle-blowers, how certain traumatic experiences in childhood affect the development of cruel political leaders' personality organisation, the impact of different losses on societal movements, the relationship between internal values and external rules, and psychoanalytic activism. Reading this far-reaching book will be an enriching experience and I believe it will help the reader think about how the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic will influence shared human behaviour.
-- Vamik D. Volkan, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, President Emeritus of International Dialogue Initiative, past President of International Society of Political Psychology
‘As with the first volume, this book offers us a valuable way to approach politics and delivers – as the title says – a deeper cut.’
-- Rachael McKeown, psychodynamic counsellor, SCAP no. 141 (Summer 2021) sussex-counselling.co.uk
I highly recommend this book; it has helped me to keep thinking while listening to the news, to recognise projective patterns in political events, to value complexity over splitting, and, above all, to treasure negative capability – the capacity to tolerate uncertainty.
-- Jane Cooper, former senior counsellor at the University of Cambridge – Therapy Today Oct 2021
Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION
David Morgan
CHAPTER ONE
Understanding right and left populisms
Samir Gandesha
CHAPTER TWO
“Ill fares the land”: reflections on The Merchant of Venice—a tale for modern times
Margot Waddell
CHAPTER THREE
Psychoanalysis, colonialism, racism
Stephen Frosh
CHAPTER FOUR
Consultancy on deregistration to a care home for the long-stay mentally ill: you can take Stig out of the dump, but can you take the dump out of Stig?
Liz Greenway
CHAPTER FIVE
Power and the manipulation of the masses: Third World perspectives
Edgard Sanchez Bernal
CHAPTER SIX
Whistle-blowers—moral good or self-interest? The psychological dimensions of defying a perverse or corrupt authority
David Morgan
CHAPTER SEVEN
Alice Miller on family, power, and truth
Luisa Passalacqua and Marco Puricelli
CHAPTER EIGHT
Diversity: notes from the inside and from the outside
Tomasz Fortuna
CHAPTER NINE
George Orwell: politics and the avoidance of reality
Roger Hartley
CHAPTER TEN
In the union: the psychodynamics of solidarity
Elizabeth Cotton
CHAPTER ELEVEN
On the psychology of religious fundamentalism
Lord John Alderdice
CHAPTER TWELVE
The politics of NHS psychiatry
Kate Pugh
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Psychoanalytic activism: historical perspective and subjective conundrums
Mary-Joan Gerson
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The rise of the new right: psychoanalytic perspectives
Elisabeth Skale
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Lord of the flies: a psychoanalytic view of the gang and its processes
(Winner of the 2020 Gavin Macfadyen Memorial Essay Prize)
Mark Stein
INDEX
