The Political Mind: A Deeper Cut

Philip is a Psychoanalyst (Fellow of the Institute of Psychoanalysis, Training Analyst with the British Psychotherapy Foundation) in private practice working with adults and couples, and an Organisational Consultant, providing consultation to a wide range of organisations. He worked as a Consultant Social Worker and Senior Lecturer in the Adult Department of the Tavistock & Portman NHS Foundation Trust from 1994 to 2012 finishing as Clinical Director. He writes and teaches on a wide range of topics including Psychoanalytic understanding of society and politics.

In this series, Philip will break down a psychoanalytic way to approach understanding politics and society, into three broad psychoanalytic ideas. He will begin by presenting in more detail a model of how a healthy organisation will function, which includes the way that individuals become caught up in organisational dynamics. Central to his understanding of these processes is the way that anxiety operates to push us all into a fundamentalist state of mind. This raises questions about thinking and the way to speak to somebody or a group who are operating from that position. This reveals the importance of unconscious beliefs and their link to ideologies. Philip will apply this way of understanding politics and society to the particular examples of the NHS and higher education. Finally, he will focus on the issues that lie behind the phenomenon of Brexit, particularly immigration and capital.

The Deeper Cut is part of The Political Mind series, chaired by David Morgan. The Political Mind series will be taking a break next year, so don’t miss out on this opportunity to explore politics through psychoanalysis!

These lectures will take place on Tuesdays from 8.15pm