Psychoanalysis, Society and Culture

This book looks at the intersection of psychoanalytic thinking, society and culture, using examples drawn from literature, clinical practice and everyday life.Informed by deep clinical understanding but written in a highly accessible way, this is key reading for psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, cultural studies scholars.

Dr Roger Kennedy is a consultant child psychiatrist and adult psychoanalyst and a past president of the British Psychoanalytical Society. He was an NHS consultant at the Cassel Hospital for 30 years and is now chair of the Child and Family Practice where he sees children and families. He has had 15 books, and many papers, published on psychoanalysis, interdisciplinary studies and child work.

1. Introduction: What will emerge? The relevance of Freud in today's culture 2. Tolerance and the arts, the example of Shakespeare 3. Musical journeys: A psychoanalytic exploration of music 4. History, memory and the unconscious 5. Some thoughts on psychoanalysis and art 6. Shakespeare and evil: Macbeth's dagger of the mind 7. Jewish identity and musical modernism: Mahler, Schoenberg and their complex relationship with Judaism 8. The importance of a psychic home in the life and work of William Wordsworth 9. Power, conflict and leadership: NHS at breaking point 10. The politics of delivering psychiatric services: Treating the mind through relationships 11. Happiness and misery: An essay