Joanna Ryan, Class and Psychoanalysis: Landscapes of Inequality. Routledge, 2017

I regard myself as psychoanalytically well-read, yet I found this book daunting. Worth it, mind you, but demanding. I am glad to be able to begin with a very helpful guide. The author gave a half-hour talk on the book at the Freud Museum followed by a discussion with Barry Watt: podcast.freud.org.uk

One thing this event shows is how hard it is to think clearly about this topic. I back up my admiration with an evaluation by Professor Stephen Frosh. ‘Class and Psychoanalysis is a text of great importance. Joanna Ryan writes in a clear and objective way about the neglect of social class in psychoanalysis, yet behind this objectivity is a passionate involvement that will strike a chord with all concerned psychoanalysts and psychotherapists. The book presents the best available overview of the history, theory and practice of psychoanalysis in relation to social class, combining this with interview material from the author's own studies of psycho-therapists to give a detailed and compelling picture of how class enters the consulting room. Engaging with this profound yet accessible book is essential for all who care about class injuries and how we might find ways to respond to them.’

I have known Jo Ryan since we were both students at the Department of Experimental Psychology at Cambridge in the 1960s. There is an intriguing set of reflections on her academic trajectory in a conversation with a long-term colleague and friend, Martin Richards, at

Having, I hope, already provided ample evidence of the quality of the volume under review, I shall go off on a related tack, one that I am in a good position to pursue. That is, I shall focus here on information bearing on her class location, which I will compare with my own. I am interested in illuminating why people with our class backgrounds should have pursued the paths we have. We have devoted ourselves to overlapping and adjacent political projects