Main description:

Andrew Samuels has established an international practice as a political consultant, working with senior politicians, political parties and activist groups. His lectures and workshops on the application of 'therapy thinking' to social and political issues attract wide interest. His previous books in this area, such as The Political Psyche and Politics on the Couch, have been widely appreciated. Now, in a long-anticipated tour-de-force that is both compassionate and intellectually stimulating, this book deepens in a new and innovate style his engagement with themes such as economics, ecopsychology, leadership, aggression and violence, the role of the individual in progressive politics, and sexuality and spirituality in political contexts. The reader is encouraged to move beyond conventional professional or academic discourse by the inclusion of experiential exercises in the text. In this way, activism and analysis, public and private, therapeutic and more-than-personal are all brought together in a satisfying yet challenging synthesis.

Contents:

Introduction , Therapy thinking and political process-possibilities and limitations , Aggression and leadership , The economic psyche , Against nature , Making a difference-what can an individual do? , Promiscuities: politics, psychology, imagination, and spirituality (and a note on hypocrisy) , Political anatomy of spirituality , The fascinations of fundamentalism , The plural father , First catch your child , Jung and anti-Semitism: definitely not a therapy for politics*