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This book, by the Director of the Centre for Critical Theory at the University of West of England, sets out to argue that psychoanalytic theory is an inherently critical, political discourse. Elliott suggests that psychoanalysis involves the mixing of repressed desire and power relations, unconscious passion and cultural reproduction. Although he says that the cultural and institutional processes of modernization, including global expansion have ‘reached into the heart of selfhood and created new forms of personal identity’, his argument for extending the theory of psychoanalysis (of the self) to cultural and social issues relies on quoting statements from cultural critics such as Christopher Lasch and other critical theorists, to the effect that in our contemporary cultural condition the self has narcissistically turned back upon itself. Elliott posits that the waning of political life in the modern world has led to a shrinkage of the self. However, I would have liked to see a fuller argument vindicating the application of psychoanalytic theory to explain current social experiences.
In his introduction, Elliott explains that he has expanded on his first edition by incorporating detailed biographical accounts of some of the main psychoanalytic theorists, that is Freud, Klein, Winnicott and Lacan. Indeed, he provides some interesting background information which, as a psychiatrist myself, I found insightful when thinking on their particular theories. Also included in the second edition is new material on the psychodynamics of race and post-colonialism, as well as a newly reorganized chapter, ‘Psychoanalytic Feminism’. I found the added section on the writings of queer theorist Judith Butler both concise and comprehensive. A further new addition is the lucid summary of the works of the neo-Lacanian, Slavoj Zizek. Elliott obviously admires this Slovene theorist, and his enthusiasm shows itself to the reader in a lively manner.
I was somewhat surprised at the scope of the