Psychoanalytic Political Theory
About the Book Series
The Psychoanalytic Political Theory series is dedicated to providing a publishing space for the highest quality scholarship at the intersection of psychoanalysis and normative political theory. In sum, the series offers a forum for texts that deepen our understanding of the complex relationships between the world of politics and the inner world of the psyche.
As we hope to broaden, rather than to narrow, the range and reach of this field, the series welcomes contributions from all foci within political theory (classical, contemporary, democratic, etc.). Similarly, the series is not beholden to a particular psychoanalytic orientation, such that projects rooted in a variety of approaches (Lacanian, object relations, self psychology, etc.) are welcome.
We are particularly interested in proposals that demonstrate potential to advance both political and psychoanalytic theory while remaining accessible to scholarly audiences of diverse backgrounds. Although the series is devoted to works of theory, works informed by qualitative analyses, case studies, or related methodologies may also be appropriate.
The series will publish individual and co-authored scholarly monographs, collaborative edited volumes, and texts appropriate for advanced university courses.
To submit book proposals, please contact the Editor, Natalja Mortensen ([email protected]) or the Series Editors, Matthew H. Bowker ([email protected]) and David W. McIvor ([email protected]).
We look forward to hearing from you!
José Luis Villacañas and Political Theory in the 21st Century: Political Theology, Empire, Republic, Populism and Beyond
1st Edition
Edited
By Nicol A. Barria-Asenjo
April 03, 2026
With this book, Nicol A. Barria-Asenjo and her team of experts introduce in a systematic and comprehensive way the work of political philosopher, José Luis Villacañas, in the fields of political theory, philosophy, and psychoanalysis. Considered one of the most prolific contemporary philosophers in...
Rethinking Property: Drive Theory, Fanon, and Environmental Philosophy
1st Edition
By Elliott Schwebach
December 25, 2025
In this eye-opening study at the intersection of psychoanalytic theory and political organization and thought, Elliott Schwebach explores why property can be understood to be oppressive and how political theory overlooks its unique significance as a pillar of social violence. Synthesizing insights ...
Powers of Abjection: Politics and Lacanian Ontology
1st Edition
By Ricardo Laleff Ilieff
January 20, 2025
In this book, Ricardo Laleff Ilieff presents a new ontological understanding of politics through the writings of Julia Kristeva’s notion of “abjection” in dialogue with Sigmund Freud’s concept of “Unheimlich” and Jacques Lacan’s ontology “du rél”. Aimed at those who are interested in the ...
Winnicott and Labor’s Eclipse of Life: Work is Where We Start From
1st Edition
By Nathan Gerard
September 28, 2023
Nathan Gerard draws upon the pathbreaking insights of pediatrician and psychoanalyst D. W. Winnicott to offer a new set of ideas in the novel domain of contemporary work life and its discontents. Locating Winnicott within a broad landscape of critical scholarship that dissects work’s perils, the ...
Revisiting State Personhood and World Politics: Identity, Personality and the IR Subject
1st Edition
By Bianca Naude
September 25, 2023
Breathing fresh air into debates surrounding foreign policy and interstate relations, Bianca Naude presents a holistic theory of states as collectives of people that cannot be reduced to their individual constituents. Moving among current research on the ontological status of the state alongside ...
Individuality and Ideology in British Object Relations Theory
1st Edition
By Gal Gerson
May 31, 2023
Following the work of prominent object relations theorists, such as Fairbairn, Suttie and Winnicott, Gal Gerson explores the correlation between analytical theory and intellectual environment in two ways. He notes the impact that the British object relations school had on both psychology and wider ...
The Psychopathology of Political Ideologies
1st Edition
By Robert Samuels
May 31, 2023
Inspired by Freud’s The Psychopathology of Everyday Life, this book examines the unconscious processes shaping contemporary political ideologies. Addressing ten fundamental questions, Robert Samuels identifies four basic political ideologies: liberal, conservative, Left, and Right, which are often ...
Psychoanalysis Under Occupation: Practicing Resistance in Palestine
1st Edition
By Lara Sheehi, Stephen Sheehi
January 09, 2023
Heavily influenced by Frantz Fanon and critically engaging the theories of decoloniality and liberatory psychoanalysis, Lara Sheehi and Stephen Sheehi platform the lives, perspectives, and insights of psychoanalytically inflected Palestinian psychologists, psychiatrists, and other mental health ...
The Lucid Vigil: Deconstruction, Desire and the Politics of Critique
1st Edition
By Stella Gaon
September 30, 2020
Winner of the Canadian Society for Continental Philosophy 2020 Annual Symposium Book Award Stella Gaon provides the first fully philosophical account of the critical nature of deconstruction, and she does so by turning in an original way to psychoanalysis. Drawing on close readings of Freud and ...