Psychoanalysis and Governance

Discourse and Decisions, Identities and Futures

Kristof Van Assche, Monica Gruezmacher

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English

Routledge
12 February 2025

Urban communities; Sociology; Psychoanalytical theory (Freudian psychology); Political science & theory; Psychotherapy

Psychoanalysis and Governance makes a cogent argument for the use of psychoanalytic perspectives in the understanding of governance, the process of collective decision-making that maintains and reshapes communities.

This book is highly relevant to those interested in the ever-expanding field of applications of psychoanalysis and for all those willing to observe the discursive and affective underpinnings of public policy, administration, and planning. It locates the potential for self-analysis and self-transformation within governance, yet also indicates governance as the confluence of diverging understandings of the ideas of community and governance itself, as the place where competing desires and variegated patterns of fears and hopes collide and hold the transformational potential to destabilize the community.

Building on Freudian, Lacanian, and other psychoanalytic traditions, the book enriches our understanding of governance, the way communities remember and forget, are haunted by the past, remain untransparent to themselves yet also retain the possibility of reinvention, of imagining alternative selves, new futures, and discover paths to move in that direction. This book will be a suitable for psychoanalysts, planners, and all those interested in informed governance.

By: Kristof Van Assche, Monica Gruezmacher
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
Weight: 380g
ISBN: 9781032696683
ISBN 10: 1032696680
Pages: 196
Publication Date: 12 February 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

1. Introduction: Governance and psychoanalysis 2. Memory and identity 3. Governance routines and exceptional situations 4. Reality and reality testing in governance 5. Affect in governance 6. Inclusion, exclusion and diversity 7. Incoherence and ambivalence 8. Governance paths enabling and limiting 9. Power, drives and drivers in governance 10. Futures imagined and feared 11. Therapy?

Kristof Van Assche, a professor at the University of Alberta, is interested in evolution and innovation in governance. He explores the relations between knowledge, affect, and organization in their implications for sustainability thinking and collective strategy. He is one of the proponents of Evolutionary Governance Theory (EGT). Monica Gruezmacher is an associate researcher at the University of Alberta and an adjunct professor at Memorial University. In the past she worked as a policy advisor. She is interested in the challenges of managing long-term relationships between communities and their environment, especially in rural, remote, and challenging settings.

Reviews for Psychoanalysis and Governance: Discourse and Decisions, Identities and Futures

'Studies of governance, with the exception of those inspired by Foucault, have largely been dominated by institutional and statist approaches and typically have only examined the state side of civil society-state relationships. These approaches often adopt a technocratic stance, analyzing governance relations in terms of their capacity to undermine or support state aims. In this innovative text, Van Assche and Gruezmacher argue persuasively that analyzing governance regimes and arrangements using insights from the field of psychoanalysis can improve our understanding of what governance is all about, as a needed antidote to more orthodox approaches.' Michael Howlett, Simon Fraser University 'Lacanian and other psychoanalytically inspired ideas are highly apposite to our socio-political present. Kristof van Assche and Monica Gruezmacher offer an accessible, innovative framework for empirical understanding of governance strategies and for formulating principles for reinterpretation and potential evolution of communities. Presuming no prior knowledge of psychoanalytic concepts, the authors of this stimulating book emphasise the role of narratives in exploring governance paths and in conceiving new pathways through processes of self-analysis, visioning and strategizing. With the planet facing catastrophe, can we afford not to question ourselves, our certainties and desires?' Jean Hillier, RMIT 'Kristof Van Assche and Monica Gruezmacher have made a decisive contribution not just to our understanding of governance but also to how we think of the political value of psychoanalysis. Their book shows us in breathtaking detail how psychoanalysis can contribute to a positive theory of self-rule. Through the idea of self-analysis, they unleash the positive political valence of psychoanalysis in a completely new way. In the process, they produce what will surely be the work of reference for any consideration about the relationship between psychoanalysis and how we govern ourselves.' Todd McGowan, University of Vermont