Andrew Samuels has established an international practice as a political consultant, working with senior politicians, political parties and activist groups.
Now, in a long- anticipated tour-de-force that is both compassionate and intellectually stimulating, this book deepens in a new and innovative style his engagement with themes such as economics, ecopsychology, leadership, aggression and violence, the role of the individual in progressive politics, and sexuality and spirituality in political contexts.
‘What could be more important than bringing to politics and the great social issues of our time the profound and clarifying perspective of psychodynamic thinking? Once again Andrew Samuels challenges and inspires us with questions we haven’t dared formulate, and thankfully, at the same time, offers a brilliant analysis of the difficulties that overwhelm and obstruct the pursuit of them.’
—Jessica Benjamin, psychoanalyst and author of Shadow of the Other
‘At a time when policy-makers are looking to psychology for simplistic answers to complex problems, and when psychotherapy is being co-opted in the service of capitalism, A New Therapy for Politics? offers an essential, radically different vision of the interplay between the political and the psychoanalytic. Now that politics seems more stuck than ever, Samuels’ fresh and provocative analysis might help us understand this condition, and what it would take to change it.’
—William Davies, author of The Happiness Industry
‘Andrew Samuels always challenges us. This book extends his themes of the polity and the therapeutic. Every day, political crises emergewhich lend themselves to psychoanalytic analysis and therapeutic interventions. Who will be brave enough to listen?’
—Susie Orbach, psychoanalyst and writer
ANDREW SAMUELS is recognized as a leading commentator from a psychotherapeutic perspective on political and social problems. He was one of the two co-founders of Psychotherapists and Counsellors for Social Responsibility and chair of the UK Council for Psychotherapy. He is Professor of Analytical Psychology at the University of Essex and holds visiting chairs at New York, Macau, Roehampton and Goldsmiths, University of London. His many books have been translated into numerous languages, and include The Political Psyche; Politics on the Couch; and Passions, Persons, Psychotherapy, Politics.
http://www.karnacbooks.com/product/a-new-therapy-for-politics/37170/
Cover image: Malevic, Kasimir (1878-1935): Painterly Realism. Boy with Knapsack Digitale (1) – Color Masses in the Fourth Dimension, 1915. New York, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Oil on canvas, 28 x 17 ½’ (71.1 x 44.5 cm). Acquisition confirmed in 1999 by agreement with the Estate of Kazimir Malevich and made possible with funds from the Mrs. John Hay Whitney Bequest (by exchange). 816.1935 © 2015. Digital image, The Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence.