An Introduction to Fairbairn’s Psychology of Dynamic Structure

The Analysis of Cultural Objects

This work introduces Fairbairn’s original object relations theory (his psychology of dynamic structure) and applies it to a number of cultural objects. Namely, a perplexing mannerist painting by Bronzino; an award-winning TV series by Dennis Potter; a celebrated anime from Studio Ghibli; and the award-winning film Everything Everywhere All at Once.

An Introduction to Fairbairn’s Psychology of Dynamic Structure: The Analysis of Cultural Objects describes W. R. D. Fairbairn’s model of endopsychic structure and includes his thoughts on the social and the aesthetic. It offers a modified version of Fairbairn’s model based upon his thinking about the moral defence, psychic growth, and mature dependence. The model is brought to life by its application to the analysis of a number of cultural objects: Bronzino’s An Allegory of Venus and Cupid, Dennis Potter’s trailblazing miniseries The Singing Detective, the enchanting anime Spirited Away directed by Hayao Miyazaki, and the mind-bending cinematic experience that is Everything Everywhere All at Once.

Author Graham S. Clarke also considers the current conditions affecting psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic theories: a society with increasing opposition to depth thinking of any sort and the rise of populism and the neoliberal notion of the ‘self as entrepreneur’. He offers suggestions as to how these trends might be understood and challenged. In particular, he describes how Fairbairn’s theory might be considered as, and provide a basis for, a critical realist personal relations approach to psychoanalysis.

This book is ideal reading for all psychoanalysts and those interested in the cultural impact of the arts.

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