Psychology/History
Book Details

History on the Couch

Essays in History and Psychoanalysis

Joy Damousi and Robert Reynolds (eds)

Highlights the ways in which the emotional life, identity formation and the relationship between self and society can inform histories both of individuals and of nations.

Opinion

'This thought-provoking collection offers a variety of trajectories on the issues and controversies surrounding history and the use of psychoanalysis as a research method grounded in an historical context . . . These essays ask us questions we may not have thought of, nor had the courage to ask or even answer . . . They show us the value of the evidence to be found between the 'cracks and crevices' of the past, and reveal the history of the unconscious and its role in forming individual and collective histories.' (Australian Book Review, October 2003)

'Whether to support a concept of national identity or modernity, shed light onto a historical text or to breathe life into a new or existing biography, History on the Couch offers an impressive line up of what psychoanalysis can offer. In the case of writing intimate, personal histories, it can hardly be ignored by historians as it has in the past.' (Campus Review, October/November 2003)

About this Title

'memory is the bridge shared by both psychoanalysis and history, for the processes of remembering and forgetting are central to both'

So why have historians been reluctant to use the tools of psychoanalysis, one of the most influential developments in thought of the last century?

This collection of essays puts history on the couch, exploring how psychoanalytic thought might enhance our exploration of the past. Drawing on the work of Freud and later theorists, the authors tackle this complex and sometimes uneasy relationship through theory and historical practice. Such issues as class, race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality are inextricably tied up in this dialogue between disciplines.

History on the Couch highlights the ways in which the emotional life, identity formation and the relationship between self and society can inform histories both of individuals and of nations.

Contributors:
Bain Attwood * Judith Brett * John Cash * Catharine Coleborne * Miriam Dixson * Esther Faye * Christopher E. Forth * Rose Lucas * Nicola Nixon * Maggie Nolan * Marjorie O'Loughlin * John Rickard * Christina Twomey * kylie valentine

About the Author

Joy Damousi is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Melbourne. Her previous books include Living with the Aftermath: Grief, Trauma and Nostaligia (2001). Robert Reynolds is an Australian Research Council Fellow in the School of Policy and Practice at the University of Sydney. His publications include From Camp to Queer: Remaking the Australian Homosexual (MUP 2002)

978-0-522-85057-4