D.W. Winnicott and Political Theory: Recentering the Subject (original) (raw)

2016, Palgrave

While the work of British psychoanalyst D.W. Winnicott is not unknown to students of political theory, it has received relatively sparse consideration in this field. Instead, political theorists have profited from sustained attention to the thought of Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, Melanie Klein, and others. Perhaps Winnicott’s deceptively simple language, compared, for instance, with the complexity of a Lacan, has made Winnicott’s work less tempting for cross-disciplinary theoretical extrapolation. But we believe that the fundamental insights guiding Winnicott’s thought are far from simple. Indeed, this volume’s central premise is that Winnicott’s psychoanalytic contribution holds extraordinary value in traversing the impasses faced by contemporary political theorists. Political theory is most vital today where it exceeds its disciplinary boundaries, and where it reconsiders both ancient orthodoxies and today’s fashions. Those familiar with D.W. Winnicott consider him a rare thinker whose psychoanalytic insights challenge the governing assumptions of several academic fields and professional practices. In this volume, we show, for the first time, that Winnicott’s most notable contributions to object-relations theory and to the practice of psychoanalysis — particularly his theorization of transitional phenomena, his conception of the role of destruction in the use of objects, his emphasis on the significance of creativity in facilitating subjectivity, his understanding of the functions and failings of political environments of all sizes, and his resistance to trends that threatened to reify psychoanalysis — speak directly to the fundamental political question of what it takes for contemporary persons and groups to thrive. This volume brings together some of world’s leading scholars in the growing field of psychoanalytic political theory, offering readers diverse perspectives as well as a thorough introduction to the individuals and approaches guiding this area of research.