The analytic literature has heretofore been silent about the issues inherent in the nuclear threat. As a groundbreaking exploration of new psychological terrain, Psychoanalysis and the Nuclear Threat will function as a source book for what, it is hoped, will be the continuing effort of analysts and other mental health professionals to explore and engage in-depth nuclear issues. This volume provides panoramic coverage of the dynamic and clinical considerations that follow from life in the nuclear age. Of special interest are chapters deling with the developmental consequences of the nuclear threat in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, and those exploring the technical issues raised by the occurrence in analytic and psychotherapeutic hours of material related to the nuclear threat. Additional chapters bring a psychoanalytic perspective to bear on such issues as the need to have enemies; silence as the "real crime"; love, work, and survival in the nuclear age; the relationship of the nuclear threat to issues of "mourning and melancholia"; apocalyptic fantasies; the paranoid process; considerations of the possible impact of gender on the nuclear threat; and the application of psychoanalytic thinking to nuclear arms strategy. Finally, the volume includes the first case report in the English language - albeit a brief psychotherapy - involving the treatment of a Hiroshima survivor. A noteworthy event in psychoanalytic publishing, Psychoanalysis and the Nuclear Threat betokens analytic engagement with the most pressing political and moral issue of our time, a cultivating of Freud's "soft voice of the intellect" in an area where it is desperately needed.

A timely interdisciplinary study that applies psychoanalysis and the rhetorical tradition of the sublime to examine the cultural aftermath of the Atomic Age Every culture throughout history has obsessed over various “end of the world” scenarios. The dawn of the Atomic Age marked a new twist in this tale. For the first time, our species became aware of its capacity to deliberately destroy itself. Since that time the Bomb has served as an organizing metaphor, a symbol of human annihilation, a stand-in for the unspeakable void of extinction, and a discursive construct that challenges the limits of communication itself. The parallel fascination with and abhorrence of nuclear weapons has metastasized into a host of other end-of-the-world scenarios, from global pandemics and climate change to zombie uprisings and asteroid collisions. Desiring the Bomb: Communication, Psychoanalysis, and the Atomic Age explores these world-ending fantasies through the lens of psychoanalysis to reveal their implications for both contemporary apocalyptic culture and the operations of language itself. What accounts for the enduring power of the Bomb as a symbol? What does the prospect of annihilation suggest about language and its limits? Thoroughly researched and accessibly written, this study expands on the theories of Kenneth Burke, Jacques Lacan, Sigmund Freud, and many others from a variety of disciplines to arrive at some answers to these questions. Calum L. Matheson undertakes a series of case studies—including the Trinity test site, nuclear war games, urban shelter schemes, and contemporary survivalism—and argues that contending with the anxieties (individual, social, cultural, and political) born of the Atomic Age depends on rhetorical conceptions of the “real,” an order of experience that cannot be easily negotiated in language. Using aspects of media studies, rhetorical theory, and psychoanalysis, the author deftly engages the topics of Atomic Age survival, extinction, religion, and fantasy, along with their enduring cultural legacies, to develop an account of the Bomb as a signifier and to explore why some Americans have become fascinated with fantasies of nuclear warfare and narratives of postapocalyptic rebirth.

This book brings together for the first time many if the leading writers and thinkers from the psychological and mental health fields. Contributes include Robert Jay Lifton, Joanna Macy, Roger Walsh and others.

The world is a different place today.* Much of this has to do with the increasing volume and clarity of the people's collective voice. The power and pressing desire in man for autonomy, self-determination, and change are emerging as a demand. As a consequence, Communist governments are giving way to democratic re structuring, Europe is being recrafted, and the Cold War is slowly thawing. Simultaneously, back home, our government is becoming increasingly bogged down by media-created political images and psychodramas lacking in substance and value-the degree of exposure somehow determined more by commercial appeal (inherent sensationalism) than merit. The newborn child (Le., the budding democracies) is looking eagerly to Uncle Sam as a role model: throughout the world, people are quoting our political scriptures, our proclamations, our Bill of Rights, and yet as models we seem sorely lacking. Given this climate, this book intends to address a number of contemporary themes: the role of the media-symbolization, idealization, and projection---on political choice; the roles of group fantasy; and the more rational force of II group governance" on political elections; the personalities of our presidents and leaders, their psychic vulnerabilities, their public versus private personas and how this division interacts with the complex unraveling of historical events (for example, Jimmy Carter's response to crises in Afghanistan and Iran, Michael Dukakis and the 1988 campaign, George Bush's emergence as president, John F. Kennedy and his private versus public personas, Anwar Sadat as myth and symbol).

Van Wyck (communication, Concordia U., Montreal, Quebec) uses the example of one specific government nuclear waste burial program the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in Carlsbad, New Mexico to search for a modern new way of thinking about ecological threats. Coverage includes an overview of several basic points what waste is, what nuclear wastes

A long-time editor of the new Penguin Modern Classics translations of Sigmund Freud offers a fresh look at the father of psychoanalysis.

This book provides an extensive introduction and theoretical background to the field, situating psychoanalysis itself in contemporary culture. It shows the relevance of psychoanalysis beyond the consulting room to the understanding of human affairs in general.

For three decades Jeremy Holmes has been a leading figure in psychodynamic psychiatry in the UK and across the world. He has played a central role in promoting the ideas of John Bowlby and in developing the clinical applications – psychiatric and psychotherapeutic – of Attachment Theory in working with adults. Drawing on both psychoanalytic and attachment ideas, Holmes has been able to encompass a truly biopsychosocial perspective. As a psychotherapist Holmes brings together psychodynamic, systemic and cognitive models, alert to vital differences, but also keenly sensitive to overlaps and parallels. This volume of selected papers brings together the astonishing range of Holmes' interests and contributions. The various sections in the book cover: An extended interview – covering Holmes’ career and philosophy as a psychodynamic psychiatrist 'Juvenilia' – sibling relationships, the psychology of nuclear weapons, and the psychodynamics of surgical intervention. Psychodynamic psychiatry: Integrative and Attachment-Informed A psychotherapy section in which he develops his model of psychotherapeutic change 'Heroes' – biographical pieces about the major influences including, John Bowlby, Michael Balint, David Malan, Jonathan Pedder and Charles Rycroft. 'Ephemera' – brief pieces covering such topics as frequency of psychodynamic sessions and fees. Attachments: Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, Psychoanalysis - The Selected Works of Jeremy Holmes will be essential and illuminating reading for practitioners and students of psychiatry and psychotherapy in all its guises.

Many of the themes which were elaborated in Hanna Segal's earlier work return in this volume of her most recent papers. Two act as connecting strands and give the book its unity: the clinical usefulness of the concept of the death instinct and the relationship between fantasy and reality. A past mistress at capturing the vitality of the clinical session on the page, Segal shows how the same conflicts between life and death instincts, fantasy and reality, are experienced in the consulting room, reflected in literature, and played out by nations in their attitudes to war. Edited by John Steiner, this collection of writings by a leading psychoanalytic thinker provides a rich source of clinical insights and challenging theory for all analysts practising today.