Lynne Layton | Pacifica Graduate Institute (original) (raw)

Papers by Lynne Layton

Routledge eBooks, Feb 26, 2020

Routledge eBooks, Feb 26, 2020

Lynne Layton, in her interview, discusses the various structures of relational psychoanalysis and... more Lynne Layton, in her interview, discusses the various structures of relational psychoanalysis and places them in conversation with larger social, political, and cultural processes to demonstrate that psychoanalysis often reproduces the very conditions that create the ills we wish to treat. Through her scholarship, Layton exposes the hidden moral and political discourses that live behind the technologies of the DSM-5 and evidenced-based treatments and examines the impact of mass consumerism, neoliberal culture, and social media on the therapeutic relationship. She also examines the ubiquitous presence of power and politics in the context of psychological processes that shape the very connections between the psychic and the social. She invokes political and psychological questions alongside one another by utilizing the revolutionary edge of psychoanalytic discourse.

The Sociological Review, Jun 9, 2016

Springer eBooks, Dec 2, 2022

Psychoanalytic Dialogues, Apr 15, 2004

Drawing on anecdotes that illustrate some European fantasies about the U.S.A. and its citizens, t... more Drawing on anecdotes that illustrate some European fantasies about the U.S.A. and its citizens, this paper suggests that what's American about American psychoanalysis has to do with differing cultural perspectives on human nature and on the relation of self to other. Via the European prejudices and stereotypes conveyed in the anecdotes, the essay delineates certain enviable things about what the U.S. stands for, such as persistent demands for equality and relatively greater possibilities for social mobility, as well as certain unenviable things, such as a superficial niceness and a tendency to deny the individual's embeddedness in social contexts. The paper puts relational analytic theory in its socio-historic context, praising its deconstruction of analytic authority while questioning the way it for the most part maintains the analytic tradition of grounding the individual in no larger social context than that of the family.

Telos, 1977

mediation, once the role of the Party was rejected." Yet this critique hangs in the air, an isola... more mediation, once the role of the Party was rejected." Yet this critique hangs in the air, an isolated observation not methodically pursued in the study. The result is a gap between the author's political and scholarly convictions: whereas she admits the problems of Critical Theory on the political level, her selectively meticulous historical reconstruction is in the end apologetic. This circumstance probably has two causes. First, the author stands close to what might be termed Frankfurt School orthodoxy as represented by Rolf Tiedemann, the editor of Adorno's works. Second, the present situation of the Adorno discussion is itself contradictory. On the one side, it is obvious that the polemics of the early 1970s did not do justice to Adorno's theory; on the other side, we are aware that a return to Critical Theory in its orthodox form is no longer possible. The solution to this dilemma appears to lie in the historical approach, but Buck-Morss does not follow it consistently enough, and thus cannot really clarify the relation between the history of Critical Theory and the present. Her book's achievement consists in its precise analysis of the complex relationships among various members of the Institute, and the bearing of these relationships on their work. As a historical commentary on the early phase of the Frankfurt School, the study is required reading. Peter U. Hohendahl 2. In spite of this care, the author is mislead from time to time in her contentions which are obviously not consistent with the historical facts. As it says in the second chapter about LukScs' literary criticism in the Linkskurve: "The same year Lukacs began writing for the Party journal Die Linkskurve in support of proletarian literature and in protest against all attempts to distinguish art from propaganda." The opposite is true: Lukacs struggles with all means at hand against a form of proletarian literature which apparently no longer knows how to distinguish between reportage and the an of the novel. He struggles for the bourgeois heritage and its concept of the closed art work and against the attempt of Brecht and other authors who want to carry over the concept of socialist art also onto form.

Springer eBooks, 2017

David Fincher’s Fight Club well represents the violent effects of capitalism on psychic structure... more David Fincher’s Fight Club well represents the violent effects of capitalism on psychic structure. While offering a critique of the violence wrought by commodity capitalism and technical rationality, and while empathizing with the pain suffered by the narcissistic character structure it fosters, the film simultaneously presents a narrative whose form mimics the damaging effects of capitalism on the male psyche. The film offers two different solutions to the main character’s suffering: self-help therapy groups and Fight Club. The chapter argues that the incoherence introduced by a narrative rupture that separates the presentation of the two solutions—a rupture blamed on the film’s female protagonist—represents the site of unconscious conflict. Although the film makes it clear that the protagonist’s pain is a result of the meaninglessness of his relationships and the immorality of his job, the film yet proffers re-masculinization as a solution. In so doing, the film suggests that narcissistic wounds are best treated by shoring up male narcissism.

Routledge eBooks, Apr 16, 2023

Psychoanalytic Dialogues, Jan 2, 2021

ABSTRACT In this commentary, I build on Beverly Burch’s (this issue) important analysis of race d... more ABSTRACT In this commentary, I build on Beverly Burch’s (this issue) important analysis of race dynamics in a White-White dyad by exploring the way that the intersection of the overlapping oppressions of racism, classism, and sexism–within a neoliberal context–are enacted. I also argue that the clinical material suggests the limits of models that figure the sociocultural as an add-on to subjectivity and familial dynamics rather than as constitutive of them.

Routledge eBooks, Nov 10, 2022

Routledge eBooks, Feb 26, 2020

Routledge eBooks, Feb 26, 2020

Routledge eBooks, Feb 26, 2020

Routledge eBooks, Feb 26, 2020

Lynne Layton, in her interview, discusses the various structures of relational psychoanalysis and... more Lynne Layton, in her interview, discusses the various structures of relational psychoanalysis and places them in conversation with larger social, political, and cultural processes to demonstrate that psychoanalysis often reproduces the very conditions that create the ills we wish to treat. Through her scholarship, Layton exposes the hidden moral and political discourses that live behind the technologies of the DSM-5 and evidenced-based treatments and examines the impact of mass consumerism, neoliberal culture, and social media on the therapeutic relationship. She also examines the ubiquitous presence of power and politics in the context of psychological processes that shape the very connections between the psychic and the social. She invokes political and psychological questions alongside one another by utilizing the revolutionary edge of psychoanalytic discourse.

The Sociological Review, Jun 9, 2016

Springer eBooks, Dec 2, 2022

Psychoanalytic Dialogues, Apr 15, 2004

Drawing on anecdotes that illustrate some European fantasies about the U.S.A. and its citizens, t... more Drawing on anecdotes that illustrate some European fantasies about the U.S.A. and its citizens, this paper suggests that what's American about American psychoanalysis has to do with differing cultural perspectives on human nature and on the relation of self to other. Via the European prejudices and stereotypes conveyed in the anecdotes, the essay delineates certain enviable things about what the U.S. stands for, such as persistent demands for equality and relatively greater possibilities for social mobility, as well as certain unenviable things, such as a superficial niceness and a tendency to deny the individual's embeddedness in social contexts. The paper puts relational analytic theory in its socio-historic context, praising its deconstruction of analytic authority while questioning the way it for the most part maintains the analytic tradition of grounding the individual in no larger social context than that of the family.

Telos, 1977

mediation, once the role of the Party was rejected." Yet this critique hangs in the air, an isola... more mediation, once the role of the Party was rejected." Yet this critique hangs in the air, an isolated observation not methodically pursued in the study. The result is a gap between the author's political and scholarly convictions: whereas she admits the problems of Critical Theory on the political level, her selectively meticulous historical reconstruction is in the end apologetic. This circumstance probably has two causes. First, the author stands close to what might be termed Frankfurt School orthodoxy as represented by Rolf Tiedemann, the editor of Adorno's works. Second, the present situation of the Adorno discussion is itself contradictory. On the one side, it is obvious that the polemics of the early 1970s did not do justice to Adorno's theory; on the other side, we are aware that a return to Critical Theory in its orthodox form is no longer possible. The solution to this dilemma appears to lie in the historical approach, but Buck-Morss does not follow it consistently enough, and thus cannot really clarify the relation between the history of Critical Theory and the present. Her book's achievement consists in its precise analysis of the complex relationships among various members of the Institute, and the bearing of these relationships on their work. As a historical commentary on the early phase of the Frankfurt School, the study is required reading. Peter U. Hohendahl 2. In spite of this care, the author is mislead from time to time in her contentions which are obviously not consistent with the historical facts. As it says in the second chapter about LukScs' literary criticism in the Linkskurve: "The same year Lukacs began writing for the Party journal Die Linkskurve in support of proletarian literature and in protest against all attempts to distinguish art from propaganda." The opposite is true: Lukacs struggles with all means at hand against a form of proletarian literature which apparently no longer knows how to distinguish between reportage and the an of the novel. He struggles for the bourgeois heritage and its concept of the closed art work and against the attempt of Brecht and other authors who want to carry over the concept of socialist art also onto form.

Springer eBooks, 2017

David Fincher’s Fight Club well represents the violent effects of capitalism on psychic structure... more David Fincher’s Fight Club well represents the violent effects of capitalism on psychic structure. While offering a critique of the violence wrought by commodity capitalism and technical rationality, and while empathizing with the pain suffered by the narcissistic character structure it fosters, the film simultaneously presents a narrative whose form mimics the damaging effects of capitalism on the male psyche. The film offers two different solutions to the main character’s suffering: self-help therapy groups and Fight Club. The chapter argues that the incoherence introduced by a narrative rupture that separates the presentation of the two solutions—a rupture blamed on the film’s female protagonist—represents the site of unconscious conflict. Although the film makes it clear that the protagonist’s pain is a result of the meaninglessness of his relationships and the immorality of his job, the film yet proffers re-masculinization as a solution. In so doing, the film suggests that narcissistic wounds are best treated by shoring up male narcissism.

Routledge eBooks, Apr 16, 2023

Psychoanalytic Dialogues, Jan 2, 2021

ABSTRACT In this commentary, I build on Beverly Burch’s (this issue) important analysis of race d... more ABSTRACT In this commentary, I build on Beverly Burch’s (this issue) important analysis of race dynamics in a White-White dyad by exploring the way that the intersection of the overlapping oppressions of racism, classism, and sexism–within a neoliberal context–are enacted. I also argue that the clinical material suggests the limits of models that figure the sociocultural as an add-on to subjectivity and familial dynamics rather than as constitutive of them.

Routledge eBooks, Nov 10, 2022

Routledge eBooks, Feb 26, 2020

Routledge eBooks, Feb 26, 2020