Dark Times

Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Politics, History, and Mourning

Sklar, Jonathan

• Publisher: Phoenix Publishing House
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781912691005
• eBook ISBN: 9781912691012
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Psychoanalysis
• Index: Psychology

Today sees the rise of nationalism, the return of totalitarian parties in Europe to electoral success, and the rise of the alt-right and white supremacists in the US. Thus, there is urgency for psychoanalysts, with their understanding of cruelty, sadomasochism, perversion, and other mental mechanisms, to speak out. Jonathan Sklar has risen to the challenge with this timely, thought-provoking, and, at times, upsetting work. Dark Times starts with a look at European history in terms of monuments and mourning, before moving into storytelling and the elision of thought and history at this current time, including harrowing detail of the brutalities inflicted by ISIS on the Yazidi, and concludes with a meditation on the relationship between cruelty in the early environment and hatred of the other within society, with particular focus on racism in the US.

Sklar goes against the grain of brief sound bites, which are an aid to quickly pass over painful knowledge. Instead, he goes into detail to give extremely dark, horrid occurrences, and the human beings on the receiving end, respect and understanding, which enables the reader greater access to allowing unconscious things to be made more conscious, highlighting the quality of humanity in human beings. Also, listening to these stories enables us to become more aware, not only of what is going on over there, but also what is happening here, because in our increasingly joined-up world, here is always implicated and affected too.

By ridding ourselves of the illusions of our political times, we can find greater freedom to think, develop, challenge, and create hope, for the future of our children and our grandchildren, as well as for ourselves. Dark Times is a timely, thought-provoking, and, at times, upsetting work that is a must- read for all those looking for a deeper understanding of today's world.

Index

Abraham, Nicholas, 28

abuse see aggressor, identification with; child abuse

activism, 53, 73, 78

see also protests; revolution; strike action

aggressor, identification with, 18, 48, 54, 56, 58, 60, 62, 65

Akhmatova, Anna, 1, 15–16

alcoholism, 35

see also drug abuse

aliveness, 13, 24, 30, 31, 42, 60

see also freedom; dissonance

Allies, 26–27, 35–36, 38, 39, 75

anti-Semitism of, 36

alt-right, 20, 32, 61, 64

alterity see the other

analyst

death of, 23

freedom of, 2, 13

history of, 5

role of in therapy, 12–13, 16, 22, 50

see also psychoanalysis

anti-fascism, ix–x, 19, 68, 74

see also fascism and under Communism

anti-Semitism

as biphasic attack, 18, 20

countering, ix–x, 19

effect on family, 54, 64

instrumentalising of, 19–20

Islamist, 19

pogroms, ix, xx, 43–44, 64

today, 19–20, 22, 68, 70–71, 76

unconscious, 37

in United Kingdom, ix

see also Holocaust; Jews; and under Allies; Communism; Freud, Sigmund; Nazi Germany; psychoanalysis; Poland; United States

après coup, 24, 42, 49, 78

architecture, 13–14, 39, 51

see also memorials

Arendt, Hannah, 78

art, 71, 72

see also creativity

asylum, 25, 31–32, 41, 47, 78

see also immigration; migration; refugees

austerity politics, 12

see also economics, right-wing; inequality

Baldwin, James, 62, 65, 66

Baldwin, Stanley, ix

Balint, Michael, 10, 40

see also new beginnings

Benjamin, Walter, 26, 49, 50

Black Lives Matter, 73, 74

Bluebeard, 28

Boehm, Felix, 6, 7

Bollas, Christopher, 67

see also horizontalism

Bonaparte, Princess Marie, xx

Brexit, 1, 12, 36, 42, 76

Buckley Jr, William, 62

Busby, Eleanor, 2

Cameron, David, 12

Canaletto, 14

capitalism, 22, 29, 30

see also economics, right-wing

Ceaușescu, Nicholae, 41

censorship, 7, 15, 27, 29, 36

see also under truth

child abuse, 28, 47, 51, 55, 56

Ferenczi on, 17–18

inflicted by ISIS, 31, 32, 33

relation to aggression towards the other, 54, 60, 61, 62

see also aggressor, identification with

China, xix

Chodakiewicz, Marek, 44

Churchill, Winston, 26, 35

climate change, 42

cognitive-behavioural therapy, 4

Cold War, 27, 38

colonialism, 50

Communism

and anti-fascism, ix

anti-Semitism under, 33–34, 43

collapse of, 9, 22, 41

control systems of, 5, 9, 22, 41, 42

International Brigade, ix–x

as Jewish plot, 39

as other, 3, 21, 38–39

see also Eastern Bloc; Germany; USSR; totalitarianism

conformity, see psychological manipulation and under freedom and society

contrapuntal listening, 9, 10, 11

creativity, 9, 67, 42

see also art; dissonance; music; nursery rhymes; stories; writing; and under freedom

death, 23, 26, 58

see also mourning

death drive, 58, 74

death penalty, 64

defence mechanisms see splits/splitting

delusion see patch

democracy, ix, 49, 51, 71

see also totalitarianism

denial, 28, 42, 71

see also post-truth politics; repression; splits/splitting; and under mourning;...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Other Works
• Full Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• About the author
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Europe in dark times: some dynamics in alterity and prejudice
• Thinking on the border: memory and trauma in society
• Cruelty in the early environment and its relationship with racism
• Epilogue
• References
• Index