Politics on the Couch

This is an accessible, lucid and stimulating account of the hidden psychology of politics and the hidden politics of the psyche. It is packed with original and imaginative ideas on economics, nationalism, 'good-enough' leadership, the citizen and the state, women and men, fatherhood, and the citizen as a 'therapist of the world'.

'Andrew Samuels' provocative ideas about the meshing of the internal and external life would be commonsense if they were not so rare. His emphasis on the citizen as well as the politician is an important contribution to thinking about politics today. I found his book moving, insightful, and optimistic.' - Former US Senator Bill Bradley

'This highly original book refreshes our thinking on the meaning and possibilities in political life. Andrew Samuels invites us to investigate reasons why we denigrate not just our political leaders but also our own political selves and gives us potent ways to get out of the current malaise.' - Susie Orbach

Andrew Samuels is recognized internationally as a leading commentator from a psychotherapeutic perspective on political and social problems. His work on the father, sexuality, spirituality, and transference-countertransference has also been widely appreciated. He was co-founder of Psychotherapists and Counsellors for Social Responsibility and chair of the UK Council for Psychotherapy. He is Professor of Analytical Psychology at Essex University and holds visiting chairs at New York, London, Roehampton, and Macau Universities. His many books have been translated into nineteen languages, including Jung and the Post-Jungians (Routledge, 1985); A Critical Dictionary of Jungian Analysis (Routledge, 1986); The Father (New York, 1986); The Plural Psyche: Personality, Morality and the Father (Routledge, 1989); Psychopathology (Karnac, 1989); The Political Psyche (Routledge, 1993); Politics on the Couch (Karnac, 2001); Relational Psychotherapy, Psychoanalysis and Counselling: Appraisals and Reappraisals (edited with Del Loewenthal, Routledge, 2014); and Persons, Passions, Psychotherapy, Politics (Routledge, 2014). His lectures and “rants” are on: www.andrewsamuels.com