Anxiety, Psychoanalysis and Law examines the challenges of maintaining a psychoanalytic stance when working in chaotic times, with international contributors reflecting not only on their work with severely disturbed patients, but also during times of massive disturbances in society.
Presented in five parts, the book considers war, violence, society, pandemics and the family, with chapters reflecting on environmental destruction, new technologies, women’s healthcare, digital media and racial injustices. This cutting-edge collection also considers whether it is possible to make sense of these ambiguous and confusing times by looking at the issues from individual clinical work with patients who have had contact with the judicial process – from the bottom up.
Anxiety, Psychoanalysis and Law will be essential reading for psychoanalysts in practice and in training, as well as psychiatrists, psychologists and social and political scientists interested in global anxiety and the challenges facing society.
Edited by:
Ronald Doctor,
Adrienne Harris,
Plinio Montagna
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Weight: 410g
ISBN: 9781041086130
ISBN 10: 104108613X
Series: IPA in the Community
Pages: 204
Publication Date: 22 January 2026
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Primary
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Contents 1. War and its Impact Chapter 1: The malaise of the 21st Century: The return of the wars - Eliana Mello Chapter 2: Psychoanalysis in the time of war: continuity of mental life and Oedipal situation - Igor Romanov Chapter 3: The mind of the psychoanalyst on the frontline: Limits, frontiers and beyond - Alejandro Bègue, Claudia Borensztejn, Olga Cartañá, María Cristina Fernández, Laura Orsi, Sonia Sandleris and Vivian Secco 2. Violence and the Law Chapter 4: The work of desymbolisation and disidentification in some forms of individual and group violence - Louis Brunet Chapter 5: Mind, psychoanalysis and law in the line of fire - Plinio Montagna Chapter 6: Radicalisation and delusions of sanity? Carine Minne Chapter 7: Oedipal Complex: collective conspiracy theories and individual delusional beliefs - Ronald Doctor 3. Society and the Law Chapter 8: The crime of being a stranger - Massimo De Mari Chapter 9: Rules, poetry and truth-telling in psychoanalysis - Alex Winter Chapter 10: Voyeuristic photography (Tosatsu): Liberation in the claustrum - S. Kudo Chapter 11: My ‘back-alley’ abortion - Adrienne Harris 4. Pandemic and the Law Chapter 12: COVID, control and rule of law: the unconscious and irrational at play - Rakesh Shukla Chapter 13: Domestic violence and pandemic: Horror and hope - Cândida Sé Holovko and Jurenice Picado Alvares Chapter 14: COVID-19 and Japanese tragedies: Looking forward to our happy endings - Osamu Kitayama and Kai Ogimoto 5. Family and Relationships Chapter 15: Pandemic and marital relationship – Gley P. Costa Chapter 16: Disillusionment and destructiveness in severe high conflict divorce and other social maladies - Arthur Leonoff Chapter 17: The betrayal of tradition: The death of the only son and the empty nest - Ruth Axelrod
Ronald Doctor is a Training Analyst of the British Psychoanalytical Society and the Association of Child Psychotherapy. He was a past consultant psychiatrist in psychotherapy at the West London NHS Trust, UK. He is Chair of the IPA Psychoanalysis and Law Committee. Adrienne E. Harris was a past faculty and supervisor at both New York University and the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California as well as being an editor of Psychoanalytic Dialogues, and Studies in Gender and Sexuality. Plinio Montagna, MD, is a psychoanalyst and past president of the Brazilian Society of Psychoanalysis of São Paulo and the Brazilian Federation of Psychoanalysis. He was the past chair of the Committee of Psychoanalysis and Law for the International Psychoanalytical Association and former member of its Board of Representatives. He also works as a psychiatric and psychoanalytic expert in family courts in São Paulo, Brazil.
Reviews for Anxiety, Psychoanalysis and Law: Confronting Chaos
""Anxiety, Psychoanalysis and Law: Confronting Chaos, edited by Ronald Doctor , Adrianne Harris and Plinio Montagna is a remarkable second book produced by the IPA Psychoanalysis and Law Committee. It is published at a dramatic moment of the world, full of anxiety, wars, uncertainty, generalized fear of the future, environmental disasters strongly connected with human attacks to nature, and the increasing presence of totalitarian leaders who threaten the law and the global geopolítics established and maintained after the end of the Second World War. What has psychoanalysis to say about the world we live in and which are the áreas in which it is contributing with analytic listening, thinking and intervening? I strongly recommend this ensemble of contributions from some of our most distinguished authors who bring their thoughts and experience and show the vitality and strong presence of our discipline in order to face current challenges and confront the prevailing chaos."" -- Cláudio Laks Eizirik, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Former IPA President, Training and Supervising Analyst, Porto Alegre Psychoanalytic Society ""With a new Dark Ages descending on us, no book is more crucially needed than this for confronting the chaos of a world in which unbridled power, greed and hatred have been unleashed. Psychoanalysis has no greater contribution to make these days than such an incisive and brilliantly thoughtful inquiry and approach as is in this remarkable and desperately needed work. Deeply thoughtful and wise, it is eminently readable, not merely to be recommended, but to be prescribed. It is clear, it is profound, and it is essential."" -- Warren Poland, author of Intimacy and Separateness in Psychoanalysis