Resisting the Deradicalization of Psychosocial Analyses

Abstract

This commentary offers some cultural and historical contextualization of the account of psychosocial studies offered by Frosh and Baraitser. In supporting their analysis, it also identifies the role of wider political and institutional conditions, and in particular it considers the role of feminist theory and politics in the therapeutic turn. Overall, it is argued that the tensions between psychoanalytic and social theory are what make psychosocial studies a fruitful arena. Hence, no particular variety of psychoanalysis (and the author also includes group analysis as a possible resource here) could be guaranteed to fulfil this role.