The Political Psyche

What can depth psychology and politics offer each other? In The Political Psyche Andrew Samuels shows how the inner journey of analysis and psychotherapy and the passionate political convictions of the outer world are linked. He brings an acute psychological perspective to bear on public themes such as the market economy, environmentalism, nationalism, and anti-semitism. But, true to his aim of setting in motion a two-way process between depth psychology and politics, he also lay bare the hidden politics of the father, the male body, and of men's issue generally. A special feature of the book is an international survey into what analysts and psychotherapists do when their patients/clients bring overtly political material into the clinical setting. The results, including what the respondents reveal about their own political attitudes, destabilize any preconceived notions about the political sensitivity of analysis and psychotherapy.

Andrew Samuels is recognised internationally as a leading commentator from a psychotherapeutic perspective on political and social problems. His work on the father, sexuality, spirituality and ethics has also been widely appreciated. Over forty years, he has evolved a unique blend of post-Jungian, relational psychoanalytic and humanistic approaches to clinical work. A past chair of the UK Council for Psychotherapy, he was co-founder of Psychotherapists and Counsellors for Social Responsibility and also of the Alliance for Counselling and Psychotherapy. He is Professor of Analytical Psychology at Essex University and holds visiting chairs at New York, London, Roehampton and Macau universities. His books have been translated into 19 languages. For Routledge, he is the author of Jung and the Post-Jungians (1985), A Critical Dictionary of Jungian Analysis (1986), The Plural Psyche (1989), The Political Psyche (1993), Relational Psychotherapy, Psychoanalysis and Counselling (edited with Del Loewenthal, 2014), and Passions, Persons, Psychotherapy,Politics (2014).

www.andrewsamuels.com