Psychoanalysis and Social Involvement : Interpretation and Action

This book considers psychoanalysis as an ethical enterprise, both on the level of the individual in analytic psychotherapy, and on the level of society in the global struggle for human and civil rights. Hadar examines the struggle against the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lives from a Lacanian psychoanalytical perspective.

What is the ethical anchoring of psychoanalysis? What does it mean to be a subject and how is it different from being a self? Is analytic psychotherapy doomed to promote individualism? Psychoanalysis and Social Involvement conducts a comparative investigation of psychoanalytic psychotherapy and activism, especially as it manifests in the Israeli-Palestinian arena. The basis for this comparative analysis is laid by means of a critical look at what it means to be a subject across social levels; the manner in which subjecthood develops and its inherent reliance on ethical positioning. Methodologically, the book interfaces theory with the empirical fields of psychotherapy and social activism, further strengthening its rooting in psychosocial studies. This book will appeal to professionals including mental health workers, social workers, political scientists, and socio-political activists, especially those with liberal and radical agendas.