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Papers by Harriet Mossop
British Journal of Psychotherapy, 2024
The nature of Anna Freud and Dorothy Burlingham's 5-decade-long personal and professional relatio... more The nature of Anna Freud and Dorothy Burlingham's 5-decade-long personal and professional relationship has always been subject to speculation. This paper considers the historiography of this important and enigmatic relationship from 1920s Vienna to today. Drawing on Sara Ahmed's Queer Phenomenology, which theorises sexual orientation and whiteness in spatial terms, I illustrate how the relationship was seen as deviating from the 'straight lines' of mid-20th century heteronormative society. I extend this queer phenomenological approach to think about cultural orientations to the relationship through an examination of its depiction in biographies published in the 1980s, the collections at the Freud Museums in London and Vienna, and a fictionalised account of Anna Freud's life published in 2014. Extending Ahmed's queer phenomenological vocabulary, I identify examples of 'straightening up', 'straightening devices' and 'straightening up by queering'. The possibility of finding 'queer angles' in Anna Freud's early clinical writings, in contrast to the normative tendencies of her later writing on ego psychology, is explored as a counterbalance to discussions about nonnormative sexuality and gender in psychotherapy which typically position these as something new. The relevance for clinical practice today is considered through the lens of an ethical imperative to find space for queer angles in the history of psychoanalysis.
Stillpoint Magazine, 2022
Why would a group of queer women and non-binary people get together to read and discuss Freud? Ma... more Why would a group of queer women and non-binary people get together to read and discuss Freud? Many queer people have little time for Freud, who is seen as both misogynistic and homophobic. Some psychotherapists share this view of Freud, whilst others believe it is time to move on from the
Book Reviews by Harriet Mossop
Psychoanalytic Review, 2024
Feminism and Psychology, 2023
British Journal of Psychotherapy, 2024
Conference Presentations by Harriet Mossop
The predominantly liberal-leaning institutions in the UK and US want to "move on" from the issue ... more The predominantly liberal-leaning institutions in the UK and US want to "move on" from the issue of homosexuality; indeed, this phrase was included in the title of the British Psychotherapy Council's 2012 conference on sexuality. But the BPC's recent failed attempt to issue an apology to LGBT people for past harms, and the refusal of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis to publish an article which acknowledged this harm, suggest that psychoanalytic institutions are still finding it
University of Essex, Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies PGR Conference, 2023
This paper explores what contemporary questions about the nature of Anna Freud and Dorothy Burlin... more This paper explores what contemporary questions about the nature of Anna Freud and Dorothy Burlingham's relationship mean for the institutions of British psychoanalysis, which have deeply homophobic histories. It draws on Ahmed's (2006) queer phenomenology to demonstrate how Anna and Dorothy oriented towards each other during their lifetimes, creating queer effects that unsettled the heterosexual ground around them. It also examines how and why we orient ourselves towards their relationship in seeking to classify it as queer or straight. Oren Gozlan's concept of a "trans state of mind" is proposed as a means to explore how a position which tolerates unknowing in relation to gender and sexual identities may be useful, both when thinking about Anna and Dorothy’s relationship, and also in the psychoanalytic clinic today.
Is there space for queer female sexuality in psychoanalysis? Whether we take the word 'space' in ... more Is there space for queer female sexuality in psychoanalysis? Whether we take the word 'space' in a physical, psychological or metaphorical sense, this is one of the underlying questions which I am exploring in my ongoing research, and which feels resonant with the scope of this conference, which proposes an enquiry into feminisms and space. Another question came to mind as I thought about the title for this conference: who is welcome in female and feminist spaces today? Gender critical feminists argue that trans women are a threat in all-female spaces such as toilets, changing rooms and the sports field. Some also claim that lesbians are being erased by trans male and non-binary identities. Trans men and women are seen as closing down feminist and lesbian
BACP Conference , 2022
argued that these difficulties were not, in fact, the patients' fault, but were, instead, due to ... more argued that these difficulties were not, in fact, the patients' fault, but were, instead, due to an 'obliviousness to countertransference problems stem[ing] from the personal and theoretical position of the practitioner' (p. 13). In other words, psychoanalysts didn't understand lesbian sexuality, and lesbian erotic transference was seen as a sort of invisible fire that was likely to burn both patient and therapist. They suggest that the main reason for these problems was that lesbian sexuality was, until the late 1980s or 90s, described in psychoanalytic theory as immature, narcissistic, and an inadequate separation from the mother. There was no positive account of desire between women: it was seen as a failure of normative development. They especially highlighted the silence in psychoanalytic theory about erotic feelings between female psychotherapists and their female patients. Building on the work of Wrye and Welles, they suggested that these feelings can cause a huge amount of anxiety in the psychotherapist, triggering defensive reactions such as guilt, shame, unconscious infantilisation of the patients erotic and sexual feelings, and fear of the patient's infantile merger wishes. Sometimes the therapist's defences can be activated due to unexpectedly having sexual feelings about someone of the same gender, whatever the therapist's conscious sexual orientation. Some of this may occur at a pre-verbal level, for both psychotherapist and patient, making it more challenging to work with. They also felt that training programmes in the early 1990s were not adequately preparing psychotherapists to work with erotic and sexual feelings for people of the same gender. This silence was concerning to O'Connor and Ryan because, by the early 1990s, the importance of working with erotic feelings in psychotherapy was being recognised. Erotic transferential feelings, which are understood in a psychodynamic model to relate largely to earlier life experiences which are 'transferred' into the psychotherapeutic relationship, have been described as 'both goldmine and minefield' (Person, 1985, p. 163): ignoring them can limit the success of psychotherapy; on the other hand, acting them out in a sexual
Talks by Harriet Mossop
Queer Encounters, 2023
Some members of the Queer Encounters network attended the first in a series of events by ‘Beyond ... more Some members of the Queer Encounters network attended the first in a series of events by ‘Beyond Radical: Queer theory and the UK’. Beyond Radical is an AHRC-funded research network for UK-based scholars, artists and activists interested in the continued interrogation and development of queer theory. There was a lively panel of discussions and breakout groups on the topic of ‘Rethinking Radicality in Queer Theory’, and the event was a great chance to catch up with old friends and meet other researchers.
The conference centred the radicality of queer theory in the UK, asking whether radicality is something that we currently inhabit, have already passed through, or should still be aspiring to (or not). Many speakers responded to the challenges set out in the conference pre-readings from US-based queer theorists, which questioned the future of queer theory in a supposedly homonormative world, and the limits of anti-normativity. The conference took place in the context of the recent violent incursions by Hamas into Southern Israel and Israel’s blockading and bombing of Gaza. The need for radical politics therefore presented itself as both urgent and immediate. The speakers responded to this call in different ways.
FreePsy Newsletter, 2024
What does psychoanalysis say to radical psychiatry and vice versa? This question permeated the se... more What does psychoanalysis say to radical psychiatry and vice versa? This question permeated the second major conference of the UKRI-funded FREEPSY project, which studies free and low-cost psychoanalytic clinics around the world. The conference was organised in collaboration with the Psychosis Therapy Project and Usemi Racial Trauma Clinic, with founder and clinical director, Dorothée Bonnigal-Katz.
British Journal of Psychotherapy, 2024
The nature of Anna Freud and Dorothy Burlingham's 5-decade-long personal and professional relatio... more The nature of Anna Freud and Dorothy Burlingham's 5-decade-long personal and professional relationship has always been subject to speculation. This paper considers the historiography of this important and enigmatic relationship from 1920s Vienna to today. Drawing on Sara Ahmed's Queer Phenomenology, which theorises sexual orientation and whiteness in spatial terms, I illustrate how the relationship was seen as deviating from the 'straight lines' of mid-20th century heteronormative society. I extend this queer phenomenological approach to think about cultural orientations to the relationship through an examination of its depiction in biographies published in the 1980s, the collections at the Freud Museums in London and Vienna, and a fictionalised account of Anna Freud's life published in 2014. Extending Ahmed's queer phenomenological vocabulary, I identify examples of 'straightening up', 'straightening devices' and 'straightening up by queering'. The possibility of finding 'queer angles' in Anna Freud's early clinical writings, in contrast to the normative tendencies of her later writing on ego psychology, is explored as a counterbalance to discussions about nonnormative sexuality and gender in psychotherapy which typically position these as something new. The relevance for clinical practice today is considered through the lens of an ethical imperative to find space for queer angles in the history of psychoanalysis.
Stillpoint Magazine, 2022
Why would a group of queer women and non-binary people get together to read and discuss Freud? Ma... more Why would a group of queer women and non-binary people get together to read and discuss Freud? Many queer people have little time for Freud, who is seen as both misogynistic and homophobic. Some psychotherapists share this view of Freud, whilst others believe it is time to move on from the
Psychoanalytic Review, 2024
Feminism and Psychology, 2023
British Journal of Psychotherapy, 2024
The predominantly liberal-leaning institutions in the UK and US want to "move on" from the issue ... more The predominantly liberal-leaning institutions in the UK and US want to "move on" from the issue of homosexuality; indeed, this phrase was included in the title of the British Psychotherapy Council's 2012 conference on sexuality. But the BPC's recent failed attempt to issue an apology to LGBT people for past harms, and the refusal of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis to publish an article which acknowledged this harm, suggest that psychoanalytic institutions are still finding it
University of Essex, Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies PGR Conference, 2023
This paper explores what contemporary questions about the nature of Anna Freud and Dorothy Burlin... more This paper explores what contemporary questions about the nature of Anna Freud and Dorothy Burlingham's relationship mean for the institutions of British psychoanalysis, which have deeply homophobic histories. It draws on Ahmed's (2006) queer phenomenology to demonstrate how Anna and Dorothy oriented towards each other during their lifetimes, creating queer effects that unsettled the heterosexual ground around them. It also examines how and why we orient ourselves towards their relationship in seeking to classify it as queer or straight. Oren Gozlan's concept of a "trans state of mind" is proposed as a means to explore how a position which tolerates unknowing in relation to gender and sexual identities may be useful, both when thinking about Anna and Dorothy’s relationship, and also in the psychoanalytic clinic today.
Is there space for queer female sexuality in psychoanalysis? Whether we take the word 'space' in ... more Is there space for queer female sexuality in psychoanalysis? Whether we take the word 'space' in a physical, psychological or metaphorical sense, this is one of the underlying questions which I am exploring in my ongoing research, and which feels resonant with the scope of this conference, which proposes an enquiry into feminisms and space. Another question came to mind as I thought about the title for this conference: who is welcome in female and feminist spaces today? Gender critical feminists argue that trans women are a threat in all-female spaces such as toilets, changing rooms and the sports field. Some also claim that lesbians are being erased by trans male and non-binary identities. Trans men and women are seen as closing down feminist and lesbian
BACP Conference , 2022
argued that these difficulties were not, in fact, the patients' fault, but were, instead, due to ... more argued that these difficulties were not, in fact, the patients' fault, but were, instead, due to an 'obliviousness to countertransference problems stem[ing] from the personal and theoretical position of the practitioner' (p. 13). In other words, psychoanalysts didn't understand lesbian sexuality, and lesbian erotic transference was seen as a sort of invisible fire that was likely to burn both patient and therapist. They suggest that the main reason for these problems was that lesbian sexuality was, until the late 1980s or 90s, described in psychoanalytic theory as immature, narcissistic, and an inadequate separation from the mother. There was no positive account of desire between women: it was seen as a failure of normative development. They especially highlighted the silence in psychoanalytic theory about erotic feelings between female psychotherapists and their female patients. Building on the work of Wrye and Welles, they suggested that these feelings can cause a huge amount of anxiety in the psychotherapist, triggering defensive reactions such as guilt, shame, unconscious infantilisation of the patients erotic and sexual feelings, and fear of the patient's infantile merger wishes. Sometimes the therapist's defences can be activated due to unexpectedly having sexual feelings about someone of the same gender, whatever the therapist's conscious sexual orientation. Some of this may occur at a pre-verbal level, for both psychotherapist and patient, making it more challenging to work with. They also felt that training programmes in the early 1990s were not adequately preparing psychotherapists to work with erotic and sexual feelings for people of the same gender. This silence was concerning to O'Connor and Ryan because, by the early 1990s, the importance of working with erotic feelings in psychotherapy was being recognised. Erotic transferential feelings, which are understood in a psychodynamic model to relate largely to earlier life experiences which are 'transferred' into the psychotherapeutic relationship, have been described as 'both goldmine and minefield' (Person, 1985, p. 163): ignoring them can limit the success of psychotherapy; on the other hand, acting them out in a sexual
Queer Encounters, 2023
Some members of the Queer Encounters network attended the first in a series of events by ‘Beyond ... more Some members of the Queer Encounters network attended the first in a series of events by ‘Beyond Radical: Queer theory and the UK’. Beyond Radical is an AHRC-funded research network for UK-based scholars, artists and activists interested in the continued interrogation and development of queer theory. There was a lively panel of discussions and breakout groups on the topic of ‘Rethinking Radicality in Queer Theory’, and the event was a great chance to catch up with old friends and meet other researchers.
The conference centred the radicality of queer theory in the UK, asking whether radicality is something that we currently inhabit, have already passed through, or should still be aspiring to (or not). Many speakers responded to the challenges set out in the conference pre-readings from US-based queer theorists, which questioned the future of queer theory in a supposedly homonormative world, and the limits of anti-normativity. The conference took place in the context of the recent violent incursions by Hamas into Southern Israel and Israel’s blockading and bombing of Gaza. The need for radical politics therefore presented itself as both urgent and immediate. The speakers responded to this call in different ways.
FreePsy Newsletter, 2024
What does psychoanalysis say to radical psychiatry and vice versa? This question permeated the se... more What does psychoanalysis say to radical psychiatry and vice versa? This question permeated the second major conference of the UKRI-funded FREEPSY project, which studies free and low-cost psychoanalytic clinics around the world. The conference was organised in collaboration with the Psychosis Therapy Project and Usemi Racial Trauma Clinic, with founder and clinical director, Dorothée Bonnigal-Katz.