2nd Edition
Subject to Ourselves An Introduction to Freud, Psychoanalysis, and Social Theory
The revised edition of Subject to Ourselves, a lively and provocative book that was a leader on its topic in England, uses psychoanalytic theory as the basis for a fresh reassessment of the nature of modernity and postmodernism. Analyzing changing experiences of selfhood, desire, interpersonal relations, culture and globalization, the author develops a novel account of postmodernity that supplants current understandings of "fragmented selves." Subject to Ourselves includes a diverse set of case studies, including the power of fantasy in military violence and war, the debate over sexual seduction in psychoanalysis, and the cultural uses of media and new information technologies. The book will be essential reading for students and professionals of social and political theory, psychoanalytic studies, psychology and cultural studies, as well as those with an interest in the modernity/postmodernity debate. Praise for the First Edition: 'This book not only fills an important gap in the literature, for it summarises a debate that is scattered across a decade of rather difficult texts, but also offers a resolution that is sensible and grounded in the best current thinking. It will be widely read by graduate students, faculty, and professionals in the humanities and social sciences.' Choice 'This is an informative and enjoyable book, which will be of use to students and academics...It is accessibly written and provides useful summaries of the different theories and debates in cultural and psychoanalytic theory. Recommended.' Radical Philosophy
Biography
Anthony Elliott, Zygmunt Bauman
PRAISE FOR THE FIRST EDITION
"This book not only fills an important gap in the literature, for it summarises a debate that is scattered across a decade of rather difficult texts, but also offers a resolution that is sensible and grounded in the best current thinking. It will be widely read by graduate students, faculty, and professionals in the humanities and social sciences"
--Choice
"The book is acute, multiform and provocative. It strikes an independent path that it also offers as exemplary."
The Australian
"Dismissing more fashionable postmodern accounts that describe the fragmentation of modern society, Elliott with considerable style deliberates on how recent cultural transformations offer opportunities for the creation of new subjectivities"
--Psychoanalytic Studies
"Elliott presents a bold and compelling argument regarding the links between the unconscious imagination and its elaboration in the broader public sphere of knowledge, politics and social relations....This is an informative and enjoyable book, which will be of use to students and academics...It is accessibly written and provides useful summaries of the different theories and debates in cultural and psychoanalytic theory. Recommended."
--Radical Philosophy
"Anthony Elliott is quickly emerging as a one-person industry, intent in all of his writings to demonstrate both the relevance and importance of psychoanalytic theory for critical social analysis."
--Thesis Eleven
"Subject to Ourselves is one of the most lucid and persuasive expositions of a creative alignment of psychoanalysis and postmodernism in the analysis of unconscious imagination at work at the level of selfhood, interpersonal relations, culture and society."
--Human Relations
