History and Psychoanalysis

This book explores the conviction that psychoanalysis and history can, through active dialogue, learn from each other, to understand ourselves better as individuals and societies.With a methodological focus, each chapter captures a live dialogue between a psychoanalyst and a historian, enriched by discussion and further refinement. Chapters relate the subjectivity of clinical psychoanalysis to the structuring of social and national groups. Topics range across politics, international conflicts, class and the effects of trauma on the individual and the group.With insights on a wide range of historical and contemporary social and political topics and many aspects of human experience, this is key reading for psychoanalysts, historians, social scientists and anyone wanting a deeper understanding of human nature and experience.