Singularities are isolated social bonds. They lack a common language with one another and express themselves with certainty. Strangeness is therefore no longer constitutive to the social bond. It has become elevated to the very principle of social order. Our social world has become strange. Duane Rousselle explores this new theory of the social bond while accounting for recent developments in the cultural logic of capitalism. Each chapter offers a different and compelling perspective on broader phenomena and notions of estrangement within civilization through explorations of the evil empire, rogue states, the master-slave dialectic, and the new status of knowledge that is at stake in the era of singularities. This book offers enriched and novel dialogues across Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis, Marxist and anarchist theory, and theoretical sociology with illustrative contemporary examples. Psychoanalytic Sociology argues that our current social crises are exemplified by the way social groups project their own inhumanity onto others. Written in Russia during the outbreak of the Ukrainian crisis, it prophesied new uncompromising and aggressive wars, the confluence of 'foreign agent' laws and 'cancel culture.' The war among singularities runs very deep and exists on every scale (e.g., interpersonal, institutional, and cultural). This book navigates this strange new social world and invents a language capable of articulating it.

In The Psychoanalytic Ear and the Sociological Eye: Toward an American Independent Tradition, Nancy J. Chodorow brings together her two professional identities, psychoanalyst and sociologist, as she also brings together and moves beyond two traditions within American psychoanalysis, naming for the first time an American independent tradition. The book's chapters move inward, toward fine-tuned discussions of the theory and epistemology of the American independent tradition, which Chodorow locates originally in the writings of Erik Erikson and Hans Loewald, and outward toward what Chodorow sees as a missing but necessary connection between psychoanalysis, the social sciences, and the social world. Chodorow suggests that Hans Loewald and Erik Erikson, self-defined ego psychologists, each brings in the intersubjective, attending to the fine-tuned interactions of mother and child, analyst and patient, and individual and social surround. She calls them intersubjective ego psychologists—for Chodorow, the basic theory and clinical epistemology of the American independent tradition. Chodorow describes intrinsic contradictions in psychoanalytic theory and practice that these authors and later American independents address, and she points to similarities between the American and British independent traditions. The American independent tradition, especially through the writings of Erikson, points the analyst and the scholar to individuality and society. Moving back in time, Chodorow suggests that from his earliest writings to his last works, Freud was interested in society and culture, both as these are lived by individuals and as psychoanalysis can help us to understand the fundamental processes that create them. Chodorow advocates for a return to these sociocultural interests for psychoanalysts. At the same time, she rues the lack of attention within the social sciences to the serious study of individuals and individuality and advocates for a field of individuology in the university.

(Originally published as: Hitler's Ideology: A Study in Psychoanalytic Sociology) Why did Hitler initiate the Final Solution and take Germany to war? Based on analysis of Hitler’s rhetoric—the words, images and metaphors contained within his writing and speeches—Koenigsberg’s study reveals the “hidden narratives” that were the source of Hitler’s ideology and the Holocaust. Koenigsberg’s book was the first to study political rhetoric from the perspective of embodied metaphor. Conceiving of the Jew as a “force of disintegration,” parasite, and as a bacteria within the German body politic, the Final Solution represented a struggle to destroy the source of Germany’s disease—and thereby to save the nation. Hitler often is thought of as an anomaly. Koenigsberg’s classic study demonstrates that Hitler acted based on the conventional ideology of nationalism: devotion to one’s nation and a desire to destroy its enemies; willingness to die and kill—to sacrifice lives—in the name of a sacred object. Hitler’s actions—the history he created—followed as a logical consequence of the ideology that he promoted. Hitler imagined that by destroying the Jewish disease—source of death—Germany might live forever. The Final Solution grew out of a fantasy about an immortal body (politic). Richard Koenigsberg received his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research. He has been writing and lecturing on Hitler, Nazism and the Holocaust for nearly forty years. Formerly a Professor of Behavioral Science, he presently is Director of the Center for the Study of War, Genocide and Terrorism. His online writings have generated excitement throughout the world.

Essays discuss the relations among gender, self, and society, the significance of women's mothering for gender personality and gender relations, and how the psychodynamics of gender create and sustain individualism

Although Freud’s impact on social science – and indeed 20th century social thought – has been extraordinary, his impact on American sociology has been left relatively unexplored. This ground-breaking book aims to fill this knowledge gap. By examining the work of pioneers such as G.H.Mead, Cooley, Parsons and Goffman, as well as a range of key contemporary thinkers, it provides an accurate history of the role Freud and psychoanalysis played in the development of American social theory. Despite the often reluctant, and frequently resistant, nature of this encounter, the book also draws attention to the abiding potential of fusing psychoanalytic and sociological thinking. Freud and American Sociology represents an original and compelling contribution to scholarly debate. At the same time, the clarity with which Manning develops his comprehensive account means that the book is also highly suitable for adoption on a range of upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses, including sociology, social theory, social psychology, and related disciiplines.

For several decades the writings of sociologist Neil J. Smelser have won him a vast and admiring audience across several disciplines. Best known for his work on social movements, economic sociology, and British social history, Smelser's psychoanalytic writings are less familiar to his readers. In fact, many people are completely unaware of Smelser's formal psychoanalytic training and ongoing counseling practice. With the publication of The Social Edges of Psychoanalysis, Smelser's thought-provoking essays on psychoanalytic concepts are finally brought together in one book. Psychoanalytic theory has had an ambivalent relationship with sociology, and these essays explore that ambivalence, providing arguments about how and why psychoanalytic approaches can deepen the sociological perspective. One of Smelser's main tenets is that human social behavior always contains both social-structural and social-psychological elements, and that psychoanalytic theory can bridge these two dimensions of human social life. Many of the issues Smelser addresses—including interdisciplinarity, the macro-micro link in research, masculinity and violence, and affirmative action—have generated considerable scholarly interest. This collection paves the way for further articulation of the relationship between sociology and psychoanalysis at a time when many sociologists are looking for interdisciplinary links in their work. Presented with clarity and grace, and free of the murkiness often found in both sociological and psychoanalytic writing, Smelser's new book will excite reflection and research on the less visible dynamics of social existence.

This two-volume work presents a selection of articles on the inter-relations between psychoanalysis and sociology. Recent developments are reviewed in a new introductory chapter. Topics include the place of Freud in sociological theory, feminism and the critique of the family and more.

(Dover thrift editions).