Psychoanalysis and Politics is a conference series that aims to address how crucial contemporary political issues may be fruitfully analysed through psychoanalytic theory and vice versa – how political phenomena may reflect back on psychoanalytic thinking. The series is interdisciplinary; we invite theoretical contributions and historical, literary or clinical case studies from philosophers, sociologists, psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, group analysts, literary theorists, historians and others. Perspectives from different psychoanalytic schools are most welcome. We emphasise room for discussion among the presenters and participants, thus the symposium series creates a space where representatives of different perspectives come together and engage with one another’s contributions, participating in a community of thought.

We aim to be non-discriminatory and egalitarian. Disrespect or discrimination towards the forum or any of its participants on the basis of nationality, skin colour, ethnicity, religion, gender or sexuality will not be tolerated.

We aim to disseminate the knowledge produced in these fora by means of publications.

During the last few years, we have received far more good and relevant abstracts than we are able to accept. To assist in enabling us to uphold a high level of presentations and discussion in a diverse environment, please read these guidelines before sending us your abstract:

EXPLICIT CONNECTIONS

Please make explicit the connection between the domains being addressed in your proposed presentation (psychoanalysis, politics, philosophy, literature…) as well as its relevance for each domain.

Papers and abstracts are expected to address the theoretical perspectives and conceptual meanings at the outset and throughout, make explicit the social and political implications of the ideas discussed as well as reflecting critically on the relations between the domains of knowledge that they engage with.

KEYWORDS

Please include 5 keywords on the areas/theorists the paper covers. You may include a relevant literature list, though we will not print it in the conference programme. Please avoid using footnotes in your abstracts.

COHERENCE

Papers should be coherent, have a structure and narrative form with a beginning, middle and end. Presentations are expected to ‘work as a whole’ (i.e. papers should not be commented PowerPoint presentations). Please write your paper without having PowerPoint in mind, and then consider whether using it is necessary.

FORMAT OF THE PRESENTATIONS

The format is: 30 min for your paper, 20 min for discussion, with a 10 min break in between each paper.

Within the time frame given above, two or more people can present the same paper. However, proposals for panels consisting of two or more separate papers will not be considered.

STAY FOR THE DURATION OF THE CONFERENCE

For the sake of everyone present, respect and consideration for everyone’s ideas, you are expected to attend all the presentations and stay throughout the conference. If you are unable or unwilling to stay throughout for the other presenters, please refrain from sending an abstract.

We look forward to receiving your engaging reflections.