Journal Article•
The Good Society and the Inner World : Psychoanalysis, Politics and Culture, Michael Rustin : book review
01 Jan 1993-Psycho-analytic Psychotherapy in South Africa (Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy in South Africa (PPSA))-Vol. 2, pp 65-72
TL;DR: The collapse of socialism in Eastern Europe is an event that has had profound psychological consequences for left-wing psychologists and social scientists committed to the ideal of democratic socialism as mentioned in this paper, but these events and their psychological expression have not yet emerged explicitly in the psycho-analytic literature.
Abstract: The collapse of socialism in Eastern Europe is an event that has had profound psychological consequences for left-wing psychologists and social scientists committed to the ideal of democratic socialism. So far these events and their psychological expression have not yet emerged explicitly in the psycho-analytic literature. On the other hand, work by left-wing psycho-analytic thinkers, committed to forging personal and intellectual links between marxism and psycho-analysis, are still being regularly published. The most creative and productive of these authors are British, which is not surprising given the co-existence of both an established psycho-analytic community and muscular socialist opposition under a Conservative British government.
Citations
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TL;DR: It is argued that there are psychoanalytic concepts which can be helpful in exploring this 'inscription' of personal subjectivity and thus in explaining the trajectory of individual subjects; that is, their specific positioning in discourse.
Abstract: This paper is concerned with thinking through the cultural construction of personal identities whilst avoiding the classical social-individual division. Our starting point is the notion that there is no such thing as ‘the individual’, standing outside the social; however, there is an arena of personal subjectivity, even though this does not exist other than as already inscribed in the sociocultural domain. Our argument is that there are psychoanalytic concepts which can be helpful in exploring this ‘inscription’ and thus in explaining the trajectory of individual subjects; that is, their specific positioning in discourse. The argument is illustrated by data from a qualitative study of young masculinities, exploring the ways in which some individual boys take up positions in various degrees of opposition to the dominant ideology of ‘hegemonic’ masculinity.
201 citations
Cites background from "The Good Society and the Inner Worl..."
...…the great contribution that discursive psychology has made in emphasizing the ‘performative’ nature of language in constructing identities, because much psychoanalysis lays stress on the irreducibility of the unconscious, as referred to by the Kleinians as an ‘inner world’ (e.g. Rustin, 1991)....
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TL;DR: The author surveys various views of racial and ethnic identity, and proposes a model of thinking about identity aimed at capturing both its oppressive and its facilitating character.
Abstract: The author surveys various views of racial and ethnic identity, and proposes a model of thinking about identity aimed at capturing both its oppressive and its facilitating character. To further elaborate the dual nature of identity, she discusses the way that inequities in the social world, and the ideologies that sustain them, produce narcissistic wounds that are then enacted consciously and unconsciously by both patient and therapist. A variety of such enactments are presented in a summary of the author's work with an Asian American patient, during which she began to recognize unconscious racial and cultural underpinnings of some of the ways she has thought about certain "basics" of psychoanalytic practice: dependence, independence, happiness, and love.
180 citations
Cites background from "The Good Society and the Inner Worl..."
...Dalal (2002), for example, argues that racism precedes the concept of race, and Rustin (1991) asserts that “‘Race’ is both an empty category and one of the most destructive and powerful forms of social categoriza- Psychoanalytic Quarterly, LXXV, 2006 Layton.pmd 1/3/06, 7:35 AM237 tion” (p. 57)....
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TL;DR: In the spheres of political philosophy, sociology and postcolonial criticism, debates about cosmopolitanism have on the whole ignored specific histories of the cosmopolitan imagination and itsverna... as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Debates about cosmopolitanism in the spheres of political philosophy, sociology and postcolonial criticism have on the whole ignored specific histories of the cosmopolitan imagination and its verna...
119 citations
TL;DR: While the ideas of Winnicott and Lacan appear at some points complementary, the goal is not to integrate them into one master discourse, but rather to bring their radically different paradigms into provocative contact.
Abstract: The author, following Andre Green, maintains that the two most original psychoanalytic thinkers since Freud were Donald Winnicott and Jacques Lacan. Winnicott, it has been said, introduced the comic tradition into psychoanalysis, while Lacan sustained Freud's tragic/ironic vision. Years of mutual avoidance by their followers (especially of Lacan by Anglophone clinicians) has arguably diminished understanding of the full spectrum of psychoanalytic thought. The author outlines some basic constructs of Winnicott and of Lacan, including: their organizing tropes of selfhood versus subjectivity, their views of the "mirror stage", and their definitions of the aims of treatment. While the ideas of Winnicott and Lacan appear at some points complementary, the goal is not to integrate them into one master discourse, but rather to bring their radically different paradigms into provocative contact. A clinical vignette is offered to demonstrate concepts from Lacan and Winnicott, illustrating what it might mean to think and teach in the potential space between them.
56 citations
Cites background from "The Good Society and the Inner Worl..."
...Winnicott, it has been said, introduced the ‘‘comic tradition’’ into psychoanalysis, in contrast to Freud’s tragic vision (Phillips, 1988; Rudnytsky, 1991; Schafer, 1976)....
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...For example, Rudnytsky prefers ‘post-modern’ Lacan to ‘humanist’ Winnicott, while Flax (1990), who reviles Lacan, sees Winnicott as post-modern. ª 2009 Institute of Psychoanalysis Int J Psychoanal (2009) 90 I had followed Lacan in the name of freedom of thought, and now he was upbraiding me for thinking for myself....
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...…who rejected the mothering role of the analyst, overvalued the paternal ⁄ phallic function, and whose ‘‘opaque’’ style seemed designed to frustrate the reader (Flax, 1990; Rudnytsky, 1991; Rustin, 1991).4 Have no clinicians set themselves to studying both Middle Group and Lacanian psychoanalysis?...
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...Others campaigned for the delightfully imaginative, guileless, environment sensitive Winnicott over Lacan, the “narcissist” who rejected the mothering role of the analyst, overvalued the paternal/phallic function, and whose “opaque” style seemed designed to frustrate the reader (Flax, 1990; Rudnytsky, 1991; Rustin, 1991)....
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...Others campaigned for the delightfully imaginative, guileless, environment-sensitive Winnicott over Lacan, the ‘‘narcissist’’ who rejected the mothering role of the analyst, overvalued the paternal ⁄ phallic function, and whose ‘‘opaque’’ style seemed designed to frustrate the reader (Flax, 1990; Rudnytsky, 1991; Rustin, 1991).4 Have no clinicians set themselves to studying both Middle Group and Lacanian psychoanalysis?...
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TL;DR: In this article, a well-suited partnership between psychoanalytic clinical research and grounded theory is proposed to provide explanatory mechanisms, findings that are translatable to routine clinical practice, and discover new ways of grouping young people so that they are alike in the most significant aspects of their mental health presentations.
Abstract: Research is a ‘core activity’ of ‘central importance in improving mental health and social care’ (NIME, CAMHS National Conference, 2005). This paper examines the philosophical issues confronted when considering psychoanalytic clinical research. It is argued that a well-suited partnership can be formed between psychoanalytic clinical research and Grounded Theory. The methodological issues encountered when using Grounded Theory to analyse qualitative clinical data are explored. The well-suited partnership formed between Grounded Theory and psychoanalytic clinical research has the capacity to provide explanatory mechanisms, findings that are translatable to routine clinical practice, and to discover new ways of grouping young people so that they are alike in the most significant aspects of their mental health presentations. This makes further clinical trials more reliable. Psychoanalytic clinical findings are used together with a range of material from different sources to develop concepts and theor...
51 citations
Cites background from "The Good Society and the Inner Worl..."
...On the one hand this could be seen a hermeneutic approach being concerned with the ‘elucidation of meaning rather than the determination of causes’ (Rustin, 1991: 122)....
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...…were put forward by Grunbaum (1984) who thought that any evidence produced by analysts working psychoanalytically was ‘contaminated’, the ‘. . . patient’s unconscious appears in forms which are hopelessly subject to the influence and interpretation of the analyst’ (cited by Rustin, 1991: 117)....
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...…than the sum of the observations ‘. . . seems to exactly characterise the theoretical conceptions held in mind by the psychoanalysts when they postulate ‘‘internal worlds’’ and states of ‘‘internal relationships’’ as formulations constraining and shaping everyday experience’ (Rustin, 1991: 126)....
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References
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TL;DR: Nosenography as discussed by the authors is a theoretical and methodological commitment to uncover the presences and practices of smell, an often-ignored sensory feature of market and consumption spaces, drawing on prior social science theorizations of smell as well as contemporary sensory marketing practices.
Abstract: Nosenography is a theoretical and methodological commitment to uncover the presences and practices of smell, an often-ignored sensory feature of market and consumption spaces. Drawing on prior social science theorizations of smell as well as contemporary sensory marketing practices, we develop a framework to understand how smell features in spatial assemblages of bodies, locations and experiences. Extending theorizations of product smells and ambient smells, we show how this framework can guide knowledge of the sensing, practice and management of smell and space. We explain that smell is a dynamic and unruly force that (i) encodes spaces with meaning, (ii) identifies bodies with spaces, and (iii) punctuates the temporal experience of space as it changes. Nosenography reaffirms that spaces of consumption are multisensory and that this quality should be further acknowledged in figuring market spaces as dynamic and contested assemblages of heterogeneous constituents.
49 citations
Book•
24 May 2004
TL;DR: A Brief History of Psychoanalysis Psychoanalysis across cultures Critiques of psychoanalysis and Research Psychoanalysis beyond the Consulting Room Psychoanalysis and the Psychotherapies The Profession: Organization, Communication and Regulation
Abstract: What Is Psychoanalysis? Basics of Psychoanalytic Theory A Brief History of Psychoanalysis Psychoanalysis across Cultures Critiques of Psychoanalysis Psychoanalysis and Research Psychoanalysis beyond the Consulting Room Psychoanalysis and the Psychotherapies The Profession: Organization, Communication and Regulation
49 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors question the adequacy of many of the social constructionist or discursive approaches to racism that have proved influential in critical South African social psychology of late.
Abstract: Treating the analysis of racism as a key critical imperative of South African psychology, this article questions the adequacy of many of the social constructionist or discursive approaches to racism that have proved influential in critical South African social psychology of late (Dixon, 1996; 1997; Dixon Dixon, Foster, Durrheim, & Wilbraham, 1994; Duncan, 1993; 1996; Duncan, van Niekerk, de la Rey, & Seedat, 2001; Durrheim & Dixon, 2000; 2001; Foster, 1993; 1999; Terre Blanche & Seedat, 2001). While such approaches have much to recommend them as means of apprehending institutional, historical, representational and textual forms of racism, and while they offer a vital critique of de-politicising, individualising treatments of racism which reduce it to an internal psychology of sorts (a function of personality variables, perceptions, attributions, attitudes, cognitions, traits, authoritarianism, prejudice, etc.) (see for example Bhana, 1977; Bhana & Bhana, 1975; Duckitt, 1991; Heaven, 1977; MacCrone, 1930; 1932; 1949; Mynhardt, Plug, Tyson & Viljoen, 1979; Orpen, 1973; Simon & Barling, 1983), they nevertheless appear somewhat limited in their ability to grasp those less palpable and more insidious forms of racism, those structures of oppression, that, in Young's (1990a, p. 11) terms, 'lie beneath the level of discursive awareness'. By focusing on racism' overt structural or discursive forms we risk losing sight of the 'psychic density' of this phenomenon, that is, racism's extraordinarily affective and often eruptive quality, its visceral or embodied nature, its apparent stubbornness to social, historical, discursive change, the intensity, in other words of the individual racist's investment in their own racist subjectivity. Julia's Kristeva's notion of abjection has much to recommend it as the basis for a tentative analytics of racism to be able to understand racism's extremities of affect, its visceral, 'pre-discursive' and bodily forms, and its symptomatic aspects of avoidance and aversion. This model is useful in helping us to appreciate that racism is a phenomenon which is as psychical as it is political, affective as it is discursive, subjective as it is ideological.
41 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that there is a pressing need for social policy analysts to come to grips with the mechanisms through which culture comes to be racialized and an object/subject of governance and suggest that current, high-profile articulations of the 'problems' of multiculturalism, profoundly hinder such a development.
Abstract: This article engages a discussion of Raymond Williams claim that culture is ordinary to explore some of the ways in which racializing culture is embedded in everyday interactions and processes of identification that found subjectivity. It argues that there is a pressing need for social policy analysts to come to grips with the mechanisms through which ‘culture’ comes to be racialized and an object/subject of governance and suggests that current, high-profile articulations of the ‘problems’ of multiculturalism, profoundly hinder such a development.
26 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a review of the literature on infant observation as a research method is presented, comparing and contrasting with empirical research in the laboratory with regard to the results which may best be obtained by each method.
Abstract: Infant observation has long been an essential part of many clinical trainings, as well as a component of some academic courses in applied psychoanalysis, but its research potential is just beginning to be tapped. This paper reviews some of the literature on infant observation as a research method. This type of naturalistic observation is compared and contrasted with empirical research in the laboratory with regard to the results which may best be obtained by each method. Strategies for the retrieval of information from process recordings are discussed, and the importance of convergent findings from different lines of enquiry and of theoretical triangulation is considered. Observations illustrating language development are used as an example of the further dimension which naturalistic observations can contribute to formulations deriving from clinical practice and empirical laboratory research. It is argued that convergences with psychoanalytic theory and with formulations from other disciplines, such as li...
22 citations