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A major theme in recent psychoanalytic thinking concerns the use of therapist subjectivity, especially "countertransference," in understanding patients. This thinking converges with and expands developments in qualitative research regarding the use of researcher subjectivity as a tool to understanding, especially but not exclusively in observational and interview-based studies. Psychodynamic or psychoanalytic approaches to research add an emphasis on unconscious motivational processes in both researchers and research participants that impact research experience and data. Building upon Anglo-Saxon and continental traditions, this special issue provides examples of the use of researcher subjectivity, informed by psychoanalytic thinking, in expanding research understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper consists of the online discussion of Nancy Hollander's ‘Psyche, Ideology, and the Creation of the Political Subject’, summarized. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special section of Psychotherapy and Politics International contains an online discussion from October 2006 titled ‘Thinking critically in the midst of the maelstrom: can psychoanalysis help us stay sane in an insane world?’ This discussion, which took place on PsyBC (http://www.psybc.com/) revolved around two target articles by Neil Altman and Nancy Hollander on psychoanalytic understandings of the contemporary crisis in the US. This introduction discusses a few of the issues that emerged during the wide-ranging discussions. Among these issues are: whether war is inevitable; the interaction of psychodynamics and social processes in maintaining the dominant ideology and social structures; the psychodynamics of bystanders in maintaining social problems; and the complicity of many, even most, citizens in the advanced countries in various ongoing forms of oppression. A theme running through the discussion concerns the role of the citizen in a democracy and the need to increase the individual and social ability to remain aware of unpleasant social realities. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper consists of a discussion of Neil Altman's ‘Psychoanalysis and war’, which was conducted online through PsyBC in the fall of 2006. Discussants were a group of psychoanalytically oriented thinkers chosen by the author and Nancy Hollander, the author of the other paper included in the discussion. The paper represents the full discussion with only minor edits to correct typographical errors and improve clarity. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]