Psychoanalysis and the Administration of Hope

Abstract

The social administration of 'hope' emerged as a particular governmental problem in post-war Britain, not least of all, in the case of 'difficult children'. Winnicott made a decisive contribution to these administrative developments in terms of what he called the "antisocial tendency". The seminar aims to explore the strategic implication of administered hope in the treatment of deprivation and delinquency - that is, beyond the more traditional governmental formations of moral pedagogy and coercive legislation. We shall also consider how far the administrative task tests the limits of psychoanalysis and its clinical resources.

Speaker biography

Steven Groarke is Professor of Social Thought at Roehampton University and a member of the British Psycho-Analytical Society and the International Psychoanalytical Association. His most recent book, Managed Lives: Psychoanalysis, Inner Security and the Social Order, was published in 2014. He works in private practice in London.