Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society

We are writing to invite you to submit an article for a special issue of Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society entitled Donald Winnicott: Subjectivity, culture and democracy

The aim of the special issue is to probe the intersection of Winnicott's psychoanalysis with political theory and cultural studies, and delve into various themes, including but not limited to:

1) Exploring the ideological and social-theory consequences of the evolutionary and developmental dimension found in Winnicott's psychoanalysis. This will involve investigating how Winnicott's ideas on vitality and development can contribute to our understanding of ideology and social theory.

2) Examining Winnicott's potential role in reimagining Frankfurt-School based thinking, with a specific focus on the notion of intersubjectivity and its relationship to play. This will involve inquiring into how Winnicott's ideas can challenge neoliberal logic and contribute to a new understanding of critical theory.

3) Investigating the relationship between critical thought on the one hand, and the notions of aggression, negativity as they appear in Winnicott's psychoanalysis. This will involve examining how Winnicott's theories on the aggressive drive and the relationship between concern and ruthlessness can enhance (or otherwise) the synthesis of critical theory and object relations psychoanalysis.

4) Exploring Winnicott's notion of transition and play and its applicability to concepts of privacy, publicity, and the division of spheres. This will involve investigating how Winnicott's ideas can help us understand and define the boundaries between different spaces such as the home, workplace, economy, culture, and politics.

5) The implications of Winnicott's thought for care theory, with a particular focus on feminist and gender themes. This will involve examining how Winnicott's ideas can challenge and reshape older perceptions of family and identity.

The points above are meant as place-holders for further elaboration rather than as confining boundaries. We therefore look forward to proposals that address these points as well as to proposals that transcend them. We believe that this research project has the potential to make significant contributions to the fields of psychoanalysis, political theory, and cultural studies.

Submissions should conform to PCS guidelines in terms of style, should not exceed 8,000, and will be peer-reviewed in accordance with the journal's policy.

Please send abstracts to Gal Gerson (gerson@poli.haifa.ac.il); Petr Urban (urban@flu.cas.cz); Alice Koubová (alicekoubova@seznam.cz) by the 1^st March 2024. Abstracts should be no more than 500 words long.

Articles due: 30^th August 2024.