Stephen Frosh, 'Psychoanalysis and Social Violence'

Psychoanalysis has always been concerned with violence, both theoretically and as a consequence of its engagement with personal and social hurt. In violent contexts, particularly those involving state violence, psychoanalysis can be haunted by the impact of past and present destructiveness in ways that creep into clinical work as well as institutional practices. 

    This paper explores the relationship between psychoanalysis and state violence through an example of a psychoanalytic relationship that founders on a history of violence that has personal and social ramifications. I argue that this story reveals how unresolved social violence can haunt a psychoanalytic encounter, and also references how political violence blocks acknowledgement and reparation. Complications from this include the problem of how to make material of this kind public, in the light of concerns about preserving the confidentiality of the analytic relationship.