Overview

Psychoanalysis in the Age of Totalitarianism provides rich new insights into the history of political thought and clinical knowledge. In these chapters, internationally renowned historians and cultural theorists discuss landmark debates about the uses and abuses of ‘the talking cure’ and map the diverse psychologies and therapeutic practices that have featured in and against tyrannical, modern regimes. These essays show both how the Freudian movement responded to and was transformed by the rise of fascism and communism, the Second World War, and the Cold War, and how powerful new ideas about aggression, destructiveness, control, obedience and psychological freedom were taken up in the investigation of politics. They identify important intersections between clinical debate, political analysis, and theories of minds and groups, and trace influential ideas about totalitarianism that took root in modern culture after 1918, and still resonate in the twenty-first century. At the same time, they suggest how the emergent discourses of ‘totalitarian’ society were permeated by visions of the unconscious. Topics include: the psychoanalytic theorizations of anti-Semitism; the psychological origins and impact of Nazism; the post-war struggle to rebuild liberal democracy; state-funded experiments in mind control in Cold War America; coercive ‘re-education’ programmes in Eastern Europe, and the role of psychoanalysis in the politics of decolonization. A concluding trio of chapters argues, in various ways, for the continuing relevance of psychoanalysis, and of these mid-century debates over the psychology of power, submission and freedom in modern mass society. Psychoanalysis in the Age of Totalitarianism will prove compelling for both specialists and readers with a general interest in modern psychology, politics, culture and society, and in psychoanalysis. The material is relevant for academics and post-graduate students in the human, social and political sciences, the clinical professions, the historical profession and the humanities more widely.

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9781138793897

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Reviews

""This volume is unique in exploring what its editors call ""the two-way traffic between ideas of psychoanalysis and totalitarianism."" We recognize that, whatever its focus on introspection, psychoanalysis is a social and political enterprise. It thrived in postwar Germany because it had a subject, the immediate Nazi past, and a heroic leader, Alexander Mitscherlich, who both interpreted the Nazi movement and lived out his opposition to it. We also learn how psychoanalysis can succumb to its own dogmas and confusions. We emerge with many questions about totalitarianism (""totalism"" better serves us psychologically) but with a deepened sense of psychoanalysis in the world.""-Professor Robert Jay Lifton, author of Witness to an Extreme Century: A Memoir and The Nazi Doctors. ""Among this book’s contributions, two stand out forcefully. It widens and deepens the meaning of both psychoanalysis and totalitarianism, in the context of a history of the Western world from the 1920s to the 1960s. It also evidences the movements of minds at work around these topics, exploring connections between different realms of phantasy and actuality, such as children’s mental health in relation to democratic, authoritarian and totalitarian political attitudes; imagination, belief and transference in relation to freedom; psychoanalysis in relation to intelligence work and political torture; and economic and political oppression, including colonialism, in relation to the loss of subjectivity and unconscious dependency. The result provides fascinating reading and opens up new thoughts in transdisciplinary fields of knowledge.""-Professor Luisa Passerini, European University Institute, Florence, author of Fascism in Popular Memory. ""This important and wide-ranging book explores psychoanalysis, its endeavour to enhance psychic freedom, and the totalitarian forces that aim to make free thought impossible. These essays show us psychoanalysis in radical conflict with dictatorship, discuss the consequences of totalitarian regimes for the psychoanalytic movement, highlight the power of racism and suggest how much political thought and sociology may have to gain from psychoanalytic conceptualisations.""-Dr Franco De Masi, Training analyst, Italian Psychoanalytical Society and former president, Centro Milanese di Psicanalasi, author of Making Death Thinkable . 'This volume is unique in exploring what its editors call ""the two-way traffic between ideas of psychoanalysis and totalitarianism."" We recognize that, whatever its focus on introspection, psychoanalysis is a social and political enterprise. It thrived in postwar Germany because it had a subject, the immediate Nazi past, and a heroic leader, Alexander Mitscherlich, who both interpreted the Nazi movement and lived out his opposition to it. We also learn how psychoanalysis can succumb to its own dogmas and confusions. We emerge with many questions about totalitarianism (""totalism"" better serves us psychologically) but with a deepened sense of psychoanalysis in the world.' Professor Robert Jay Lifton, author of Witness to an Extreme Century: A Memoir. 'Among this book’s contributions, two stand out forcefully. It widens and deepens the meaning of both psychoanalysis and totalitarianism, in the context of a history of the Western world from the 1920s to the 1960s. It also evidences the movements of minds at work around these topics, exploring connections between different realms of phantasy and actuality, such as children’s mental health in relation to democratic, authoritarian and totalitarian political attitudes; imagination, belief and transference in relation to freedom; psychoanalysis in relation to intelligence work and political torture; and economic and political oppression, including colonialism, in relation to the loss of subjectivity and unconscious dependency. The result provides fascinating reading and opens up new thoughts in transdisciplinary fields of knowledge.' Professor Luisa Passerini, European University Institute, Florence, author of Fascism in Popular Memory. 'This important and wide-ranging book explores psychoanalysis, its endeavour to enhance psychic freedom, and the totalitarian forces that aim to make free thought impossible. These essays show us psychoanalysis in radical conflict with dictatorship, discuss the consequences of totalitarian regimes for the psychoanalytic movement, highlight the power of racism and suggest how much political thought and sociology may have to gain from psychoanalytic conceptualisations.' Dr Franco De Masi, training analyst, Italian Psychoanalytical Society and former president, Centro Milanese di Psicanalasi, author of Making Death Thinkable. 'All the chapters in this excellent book demonstrate that the imaginary division that separates the psychic mind from political and social discourse is in fact extremely porous. We are all subject to these socio-political forces that can overwhelm and exert influence on the individual psyche [...] That psychoanalysis provides an extremely important contribution in this social discourse is demonstrated by the wide range of this book's contributors from many disciplines.' David Morgan worked as a consultant psychotherapist for 25 years at Kings College Hospital, Camden Psychotherapy Unit and The Portman Clinic. He is chair of the Political Minds Seminars at the Institute of Psychoanalysis. To read this review in full please visit: Morgan, D. (2023) Psychoanalysis in the Age of Totalitarianism edited by Matt Ffytche and Daniel Pick. Published by Routledge, London and New York, 2016; 287 pp; £120 (hardback); £31.99 (paperback). International Journal of Psychoanalysis 104:967-971.

This volume is unique in exploring what its editors call the two-way traffic between ideas of psychoanalysis and totalitarianism. We recognize that, whatever its focus on introspection, psychoanalysis is a social and political enterprise. It thrived in postwar Germany because it had a subject, the immediate Nazi past, and a heroic leader, Alexander Mitscherlich, who both interpreted the Nazi movement and lived out his opposition to it. We also learn how psychoanalysis can succumb to its own dogmas and confusions. We emerge with many questions about totalitarianism ( totalism better serves us psychologically) but with a deepened sense of psychoanalysis in the world. -Robert Jay Lifton, author of Witness to an Extreme Century: A Memoir. Among this book's contributions, two stand out forcefully. It widens and deepens the meaning of both psychoanalysis and totalitarianism, in the context of a history of the Western world from the 1920s to the 1960s. It also evidences the movements of minds at work around these topics, exploring connections between different realms of phantasy and actuality, such as children's mental health in relation to democratic, authoritarian and totalitarian political attitudes; imagination, belief and transference in relation to freedom; psychoanalysis in relation to intelligence work and political torture; and economic and political oppression, including colonialism, in relation to the loss of subjectivity and unconscious dependency. The result provides fascinating reading and opens up new thoughts in transdisciplinary fields of knowledge. -Professor Luisa Passerini, European University Institute, Florence, author of Fascism in Popular Memory. This important and wide-ranging book explores psychoanalysis, its endeavour to enhance psychic freedom, and the totalitarian forces that aim to make free thought impossible. These essays show us psychoanalysis in radical conflict with dictatorship, discuss the consequences of totalitarian regimes for the psychoanalytic movement, highlight the power of racism and suggest how much political thought and sociology may have to gain from psychoanalytic conceptualisations. -Franco De Masi, Training analyst, Italian Psychoanalytical Society and former president, Centro Milanese di Psicanalasi, author of Making Death Thinkable and The Enigma of the Suicide Bomber.

"""This volume is unique in exploring what its editors call ""the two-way traffic between ideas of psychoanalysis and totalitarianism."" We recognize that, whatever its focus on introspection, psychoanalysis is a social and political enterprise. It thrived in postwar Germany because it had a subject, the immediate Nazi past, and a heroic leader, Alexander Mitscherlich, who both interpreted the Nazi movement and lived out his opposition to it. We also learn how psychoanalysis can succumb to its own dogmas and confusions. We emerge with many questions about totalitarianism (""totalism"" better serves us psychologically) but with a deepened sense of psychoanalysis in the world.""-Professor Robert Jay Lifton, author of Witness to an Extreme Century: A Memoir and The Nazi Doctors. ""Among this book’s contributions, two stand out forcefully. It widens and deepens the meaning of both psychoanalysis and totalitarianism, in the context of a history of the Western world from the 1920s to the 1960s. It also evidences the movements of minds at work around these topics, exploring connections between different realms of phantasy and actuality, such as children’s mental health in relation to democratic, authoritarian and totalitarian political attitudes; imagination, belief and transference in relation to freedom; psychoanalysis in relation to intelligence work and political torture; and economic and political oppression, including colonialism, in relation to the loss of subjectivity and unconscious dependency. The result provides fascinating reading and opens up new thoughts in transdisciplinary fields of knowledge.""-Professor Luisa Passerini, European University Institute, Florence, author of Fascism in Popular Memory. ""This important and wide-ranging book explores psychoanalysis, its endeavour to enhance psychic freedom, and the totalitarian forces that aim to make free thought impossible. These essays show us psychoanalysis in radical conflict with dictatorship, discuss the consequences of totalitarian regimes for the psychoanalytic movement, highlight the power of racism and suggest how much political thought and sociology may have to gain from psychoanalytic conceptualisations.""-Dr Franco De Masi, Training analyst, Italian Psychoanalytical Society and former president, Centro Milanese di Psicanalasi, author of Making Death Thinkable . ""This volume is unique in exploring what its editors call ""the two-way traffic between ideas of psychoanalysis and totalitarianism."" We recognize that, whatever its focus on introspection, psychoanalysis is a social and political enterprise. It thrived in postwar Germany because it had a subject, the immediate Nazi past, and a heroic leader, Alexander Mitscherlich, who both interpreted the Nazi movement and lived out his opposition to it. We also learn how psychoanalysis can succumb to its own dogmas and confusions. We emerge with many questions about totalitarianism (""totalism"" better serves us psychologically) but with a deepened sense of psychoanalysis in the world.""-Professor Robert Jay Lifton, author of Witness to an Extreme Century: A Memoir. ""Among this book’s contributions, two stand out forcefully. It widens and deepens the meaning of both psychoanalysis and totalitarianism, in the context of a history of the Western world from the 1920s to the 1960s. It also evidences the movements of minds at work around these topics, exploring connections between different realms of phantasy and actuality, such as children’s mental health in relation to democratic, authoritarian and totalitarian political attitudes; imagination, belief and transference in relation to freedom; psychoanalysis in relation to intelligence work and political torture; and economic and political oppression, including colonialism, in relation to the loss of subjectivity and unconscious dependency. The result provides fascinating reading and opens up new thoughts in transdisciplinary fields of knowledge.""-Professor Luisa Passerini, European University Institute, Florence, author of Fascism in Popular Memory. ""This important and wide-ranging book explores psychoanalysis, its endeavour to enhance psychic freedom, and the totalitarian forces that aim to make free thought impossible. These essays show us psychoanalysis in radical conflict with dictatorship, discuss the consequences of totalitarian regimes for the psychoanalytic movement, highlight the power of racism and suggest how much political thought and sociology may have to gain from psychoanalytic conceptualisations.""-Dr Franco De Masi, Training analyst, Italian Psychoanalytical Society and former president, Centro Milanese di Psicanalasi, author of Making Death Thinkable."

Author Information

Matt ffytche is Director of the Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies at the University of Essex, and Editor of Psychoanalysis and History. He is an Associate of the British Psychoanalytical Society and has written widely on Freud and American neo-conservatism, psychoanalysis and mid-twentieth century social science, and the relation between psychoanalysis and literature. Daniel Pick is a psychoanalyst and historian. He is Professor of History at Birkbeck College, University of London and a Fellow of the British Psychoanalytical Society and of the Royal Historical Society. An editor of History Workshop Journal, he is also a member of the editorial board of the New Library of Psychoanalysis, as well as the advisory boards of Psychoanalysis and History and Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture.

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