Unconscious Politics

R. D. Hinshelwood brings together social science and psychoanalysis. His creation of a psychosocial model to develop new insights into politics and society acknowledges the differences and commonalities and highlights the circularity between individual and society and the need to acknowledge both factors interacting at an unconscio

The social sciences and psychology see the origins of human experience from opposite directions: the inner world of the individual vs demands by society to conform. Politicians tend to follow the ideas of the social scientists and mostly ignore unconscious factors. Psychoanalysts, on the other hand, tend to focus on the human unconscious and mostly ignore the complexities of society, economics, and history. Yet, both disciplines are rooted in humanity. Social forces impact on individuals; and society is but the creation of individuals themselves. Thus, factors from both sources have validity and must impact on each other. Hinshelwood has turned to psychoanalysis as the subjective science, to balance the attempted objectivity of social sciences. The creation of a psychosocial model to bring the sparring disciplines together has been attempted many times on a conceptual level but Hinshelwood starts with a singularly interesting convergence at the level of observation. At a time where we face the imminent collapse of human civilisation, and possible extinction of the human species, it is important we attempt to understand the processes that have led us here. We need to find out where the forces of society and the imperatives of our individual selves converge in these particular threats. In order to regenerate some real optimism for our future, we need psychoanalysis to investigate the unconscious dynamics in where we went wrong. A predominant theme identified by Hinshelwood is the gradual, long-term dehumanisation of humans, which has led to widespread alienation from both society and the self. This takes place alongside the convergence of the value of money with the value of a person. Hinshelwood’s use of the psychoanalytic theory of the unconscious mind to investigate humanity, society, and capitalism brings fresh insight to the intractable fractures we see in our social systems worldwide and hope for change.

Acknowledgements About the author Introduction Part I: Introduction 1. Politics and representation 2. Discovery: Self-alienation Part II: Humanity 3. Comparisons and origins 4. Labour process: Alienation process 5. Projective identification: Dumping and sharing 6. Mental steady-states 7. Producing humans: Some conclusions Part III: And society 8. Complexity theory and complex psychoanalytic theory 9. The model simplified as a diagram 10. Drivers, good or bad 11. Another matching 12. Another anxiety: guilt 13. The intergroup dynamic 14. Leadership, and followers Part IV: Commodities 15. Indifference at Auschwitz 16. Gifts and trading 17. Money 18. Stereotyping 19. The law is blind 20. Transition from steady-state to steady-state 21. Alienation: Socially driven Part V: What to do 22. Political action: Collaboration 23. What to do: Psychoanalytic action? Epilogue Appendix. The betrothal of two disciplines Glossary References Index,

List of Figures
Acknowledgements
About the author
Foreword by David Morgan
Introduction
Part I: Introduction

1. Politics and representation

2. Discovery: Self-alienation

Part II: Humanity

3. Comparisons and origins

4. Labour process: Alienation process

5. Projective identification: Dumping and sharing

6. Mental steady-states

7. Producing humans: Some conclusions

Part III: And society

8. Complexity theory and complex psychoanalytic theory

9. The model simplified as a diagram

10. Drivers, good or bad

11. Another matching

12. Another anxiety: guilt

13. The intergroup dynamic

14. Leadership, and followers

Part IV: Commodities

15. Indifference at Auschwitz

16. Gifts and trading

17. Money

18. Stereotyping

19. The law is blind

20. Transition from steady-state to steady-state

21. Alienation: Socially driven

Part V: What to do

22. Political action: Collaboration

23. What to do: Psychoanalytic action?

Epilogue
Appendix. The betrothal of two disciplines
Glossary
References
Index

• By (author) R. D. Hinshelwood

'Drawing on years of NHS work involving the development of therapeutic community treatment of mental illness, R. D. Hinshelwood has done a great job in providing with Unconscious Politics an emancipatory version of Marxism and psychoanalysis. In doing so, he applies to a wide variety of social phenomena the contrast between the baneful effects of self-alienating “dumping” projection of aspects of oneself onto others with the beneficial effects of interpersonal “sharing” and containment of what is projected.'

— Janet Sayers, emerita professor of psychoanalytic psychology, University of Kent, Canterbury; retired NHS clinical psychologist; author of Mothering Psychoanalysis and Freudian Tales

'R. D. Hinshelwood, one of the most influential and prolific writers in psychoanalysis today, brings his long-standing approach to individuals within their social context to provide a humble yet sophisticated psychoanalytic way to understand the close correlation between mental health issues and sociopolitical problems. In this rich, timely, and vitally important book, the role of the unconscious influences in social and political movements helps to answer why rationality and conscious psychology alone fail to explain the human psyche in the social domain. Most significantly, the author’s multifactorial psychosocial model offers possible psychoanalytic contributions to political action during today’s turbulent times.'

— Michael J. Diamond, PhD, training and supervising analyst, Los Angeles Institute and Society for Psychoanalytic Studies; author of Ruptures in the American Psyche: Containing Destructive Populism in Perilous Times

'With the expert clinician's sensitivity to the nuances of psychic experience within psychoanalytic concepts, R. D. Hinshelwood retains their integrity while adeptly applying them to pressing social and political realities. In so doing, he revitalises the Kleinian contribution to radical politics, alerting those seeking meaningful change to key unconscious dimensions of our collective struggles.'

— Luke Ali Manzarpour, The Red Clinic

'R. D. Hinshelwood’s Unconscious Politics is an enviable model of lucidity and insight as he sifts through Marxist and psychoanalytic traditions in order to integrate their most profound contributions and thereby illuminate the plights we are caught in today – and ways out. Anyone in the social sciences can benefit from reading this stellar explanation, and example, of applied dialectical reasoning.'

— Kurt Jacobsen, University of Chicago and co-editor of Free Associations Journal

'R. D. Hinshelwood’s book builds upon the exceptional ways of writing, thinking, and, most of all, teaching, that he has made his own. That is, he is widely known as an exceptional teacher of psychoanalysis and allied disciplines and, as you read this book, you almost immediately get a sense not so much that you a reading a book but that you are in a seminar with a brilliant teacher. A seminar that starts off with an examination of the fundamentals as regards the nature of what it is to be human, to have a mental life, and to engage with others, and then, from these foundations, brings us a panorama of our “psychosocial life”. Hinshelwood manages to achieve enormous breadth whilst never compromising on depth. He brings to his subject his vast scholarship of psychoanalysis, group psychology, and psychosocial processes, whilst all the time wedded to an exceptional philosophical understanding. Through this, he establishes a deep understanding of the relation of the mind to the social world around us, brought under the beam of these different perspectives. His approach is critical in the sense of always problematising and deeply probing that which is so often taken for granted. This book will have of enormous appeal to psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, sociologists, and political theorists. But it can also be immediately engaged with by those who have little knowledge of these disciplines; those seeking to deepen their understanding of the mind in its relation to the social, cultural, and political living that is at the core of our human life.'

— David Bell, consultant psychiatrist and past president of the British Psychoanalytical Society

'The author explains complex analytical and political ideas in straightforward language and shows how these are central to democratic society. This is helpful for therapists seeking to understand how therapeutic and political ideas converge. The book challenges therapists who are of the view that politics has no space in the therapy room. The ‘container’ in the context of this book can be understood as societal structure, and therefore it’s beneficial for therapists to understand how the political impacts the personal. This book argues powerfully that defences worked within the therapy room are the same defences exploited by those in power, and this matters if we accept that how an individual fits into the societal whole forms part of our therapeutic work.'

— Wendy Padley MBACP (Accred), Therapy Today, May 2025, Volume 36, Issue 4.