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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 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]

An account of the aims and genesis of Psychoanalysis, Class and Politics: Encounters in the Clinical Setting (Layton et al., 2006). The editors of the collection aim to convey a sense of what social and political concerns have shaped them as editors and why they were moved to produce the book. They each offer a personal piece that highlights particular themes in the book and in their lives as psychoanalyst-activists. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with the emergence of psychoanalysis in Buenos Aires, Argentina. During the Spanish colonial period, Buenos Aires emerged as Latin America's most cosmopolitan capital dominated by the representatives of the country's oligarchy. By the turn of the twentieth century, most of the city's inhabitants were foreign-born. Its culture was textured by the immigrant experience. But a military coup in 1930 has made the politics in the presidential palace a blend of fascistic and anti-Semitic ideas. This forced the Argentine culture to adjust to the abrupt halt in the immense flow of immigration and foreign capital. Psychoanalysis made its appearance in Buenos Aires during these times. There had been an interest in psychology and psychoanalysis among social scientists and philosophers since the turn of the century, especially from 1923 on following the translation into Spanish of the complete works of Freud.

This paper shows how in an interdisciplinary context psychoanalysis can illuminate the interface between ideology and mental states that produces citizens' identification with repressive political trends. It argues for a socially conscious clinical psychoanalysis that includes an awareness of and respectful exploration of the social as well as the psychic origins of patients' deep anxieties and conflicts. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]