In this groundbreaking book, Renee Lertzman applies psychoanalytic theory and psychosocial research to the issue of public engagement and public apathy in response to chronic ecological threats. By highlighting unconscious and affective dimensions of contemporary ecological issues, Lertzman deconstructs the idea that there is a gap between what people care about and what is actually carried out in policy and personal practice. In doing so, she presents an innovative way to think about and design engagement practices and policy interventions.　

Based on key qualitative...

Wish-fulfilment as a singular means of satisfying ineluctable desire is a pivotal concept in classical psychoanalysis. Freud argued that it was the thread that united dreams, daydreams, phantasy, omnipotent thinking, neurotic and some psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions, art, myth, and religious illusions. The concept's theoretical exploration has been largely neglected within psychoanalysis since, but contemporary philosophers have recognised it as providing an explanatory model for much of the kind of irrational behaviour so problematic for psychiatry, social...

The outcomes of psychoanalysis, as with other psychotherapies, vary considerably. Psychoanalytic Treatment in Adults examines the results of a longitudinal study of change during psychoanalysis, illuminating the characteristics of patients, analysts and analyses which can help to predict outcomes of treatment.

Written by experienced psychologists and psychoanalysts, chapters in the book draw upon sixty case studies to consider how patients with very different analytic outcomes respond at both the beginning and end of their analysis. Psychoanalysts used a clinician...

Psychoanalytic Studies of the Work of Adam Smith blends the rich intellectual heritage of the hermeneutic tradition with the methods and concepts of psychoanalysis, in order to examine the seminal works of Adam Smith. This is the first book on Smith to analyse the works of the groundbreaking moral theorist and founding father of economics from a psychoanalytic perspective, whilst also examining the human capacities and skills that are necessary to put Smith's ideas into practice.

Starting with a detailed discussion of the psychological difficulties that afflicted Smith,...

The Unconscious explores the critical interdisciplinary dialogue between psychoanalysis and contemporary cognitive neuroscience. Characterised by Freud as the science of the unconscious mind, psychoanalysis has traditionally been viewed as a solely psychological discipline. However recent developments in neuroscience, such as the use of neuroimaging techniques to investigate the working brain, have stimulated and intensified the dialogue between psychoanalysis and these related mental sciences. This book explores the relevance of these discussions for our understanding of...