About this event

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The Pathologies of International Relations.

Join us for the next instalment of our Political Mind series, with speaker Professor Michael Rustin and chair Guiseppe Caruso. 

This talk considers whether a psychoanalytic perspective can help us understand the current disordered and alarming state of international relations, including the risk that ongoing conflicts could escalate into wider or even nuclear war. It reflects on how nations and governments have arrived at such a point of extreme danger.

While “realist” theories suggest that states act rationally to maximise power and maintain balance, history shows that international laws and agreements—often formed after major crises—have only partially succeeded in limiting conflict. In recent years, these regulatory norms appear to have significantly weakened.

The presentation explores why aggression, war crimes, and genocide have become more prevalent, and why public responses to such events are often muted. It aims to open up deeper questions about the psychological and social forces shaping global instability today.

Michael Rustin is a sociologist who has written widely on psychosocial and psychoanalytical issues, since the publication of his The Good Society and the Inner World in 1991. He is an Associate of the British Psychoanalytical  Society, and has contributed frequently to its Political Mind series. He is currently writing a book on Object-Relations Psychoanalysis and Social Democracy. 

Please note: This event will be recorded, and available to registered participants for 1 week.

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