Danse Macabre and Other Stories

An intriguing work using psychoanalytic and systemic perspectives, theories, and concepts to explain troubling global patterns and phenomena.

Danse Macabre and Other Stories: A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Global Dynamics examines the world using a systemic and psychoanalytic lens, including concepts of splitting, separation, projection, displacement, and the return of the repressed. They consider what impact the disappearance of some iconic and psychic containers has on individuals’ functioning and why we choose populist leaders to shore up our own social defences. They question why the world feels so threatening to the twenty-first-century linked-in citizens when the objective facts suggest that overall much is improving for the global citizen. Building on their previous work, Halina Brunning and Olya Khaleelee have created a coherent framework in order to conceptualise global dynamics within a matrix form. The matrix contains dialectic dynamic forces for both good and evil, love and hate, creation and destruction. They take a closer look at the plethora of phenomena which they see arising therein. Whilst the matrix holds steady, inside it is a world in constant flux, reconfiguring and rearranging itself, as if in a kaleidoscope, with inevitable and unavoidable turbulence, but – Brunning and Khaleelee hypothesise – with an underlying pattern that is available to be discerned and studied. Aware of this turbulence, Brunning and Khaleelee wish to share their view of the world in the hope of offering a containing reflection, capable of calming the nerves of the readers as well as their own.

Acknowledgements About the authors and contributors Why this book now? Introduction by Richard Morgan-Jones CHAPTER ONE Eros and Thanatos in a danse macabre: a glimpse at the contemporary world CHAPTER TWO Story about the disappearing containers Story within a story by Jennifer Bean CHAPTER THREE Story about splitting separation and the centre that does not hold Story within a story by Claudia Nagel CHAPTER FOUR Story about troubling leadership in turbulent times Story within a story by Leslie Brissett CHAPTER FIVE Story about the return of the repressed: the impact of colonisation and migration Story within a story by Huseyin Oezdemir CHAPTER SIX Story about globalisation and its discontents Story within a story by Ella C. Smith CHAPTER SEVEN Story about social defences in a volatile world Story about a story by Andrzej Leder CHAPTER EIGHT What are these stories telling us about our world today? Final thoughts Conclusions: The future we are in by Tim Dartington Notes References Index,

Acknowledgements
About the authors and contributors
Why this book now?
Introduction by Richard Morgan-Jones

CHAPTER ONE
Eros and Thanatos in a danse macabre: a glimpse at the contemporary world

CHAPTER TWO
Story about the disappearing containers
Story within a story by Jennifer Bean

CHAPTER THREE
Story about splitting separation and the centre that does not hold
Story within a story by Claudia Nagel

CHAPTER FOUR
Story about troubling leadership in turbulent times
Story within a story by Leslie Brissett

CHAPTER FIVE
Story about the return of the repressed: the impact of colonisation and migration
Story within a story by Hűseyin Oezdemir

CHAPTER SIX
Story about globalisation and its discontents
Story within a story by Ella C. Smith

CHAPTER SEVEN
Story about social defences in a volatile world
Story about a story by Andrzej Leder

CHAPTER EIGHT
What are these stories telling us about our world today?

Final thoughts

Conclusions: The future we are in by Tim Dartington

Notes
References
Index

• By (author) Halina Brunning
• By (author) Olya Khaleelee

A wonderful book offering depth insights into the dynamics of a troubled world. It reveals how psychological and social forces dance unconsciously together, shaping the emotions and thinking which impact on our collective lives. Whether working with individuals, or working to change organisations and wider society, the learning from this deeply thoughtful book will be profound. A must-read for all who desire to 'create the good society'.

— Simon Western, CEO of Analytic-Network Coaching and Adjunct Professor at University College Dublin

A book that demonstrates how psychoanalytically informed thinking can throw light on such issues as immigration, political leadership, climate change, colonisation, and globalisation. Moreover, interspersed through the chapters are stories that illustrate the more personal impacts of these global events, bringing such concerns home to us all.

— Professor Susan Long, Director of Research at the National Institute of Organisation Dynamics Australia and associate of the Tavistock Institute

Together with a number of great colleagues, Halina Brunning and Olya Khaleelee bring a wealth of experience and thought to the telling of stories with meaning, purpose, and insight. This is an excellent and intriguing volume, and I thoroughly recommend it.

— Professor Mark Stein, Chair in Leadership and Management, University of Leicester, UK

Psychodynamic experts and scientists Halina Brunning and Olya Khaleelee offer precious unconscious assumptions about recent social, religious, and political phenomena in a variety of countries. By exploring the fight between Eros and Thanatos in society, where social defences, disappearing containers, splitting, threats on identity, perverse leaders, and vulnerability play a major role, they meaningfully follow Freud’s attempt to explore clinically our world and possibly give way to a better form of civilisation.

— Gilles Amado, Dr Psych, Emeritus Professor of Psychosociology (HEC Paris), founding member of the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations

The book is a hard but rewarding read. Its scope is vast, and the writers’ knowledge about global politics and history is impressive.

— Melanie Kinross, counsellor and supervisor – Therapy Today Nov 2021