Ruthless Winnicott is an extended exploration of the role of ruthlessness in psychic development. That survival is of no use unless it is preceded by a ruthless attack is one of D. W. Winnicott's most resonant paradoxes. The book links this with the search for subjective freedom for those traumatized by colonialism, and in doing so draws on the work of Algerian psychiatrist and revolutionary psychoanalytic thinker Frantz Fanon. Sally Swartz examines essential pieces of Winnicott's work on ruthlessness as central to the emergence of concern for the Other. She illustrates, with clinical examples, ways in which the ruthless use of the psychoanalytic psychotherapeutic space allows the patient either to enter fully into a process that allows growth, or to defend ruthlessly against the anxieties provoked by psychic change. Ruthless Winnicott also maps decolonial challenges to psychoanalytic theory, and the role of ruthlessness in protest movements demanding radical subjective change. Swartz's exploration of ruthlessness as both zest and defense in individual development and in protest movements illuminates processes of psychological collision and change. It traces links between individual trauma and collective turbulence, and maps ways in which ruthlessness is essential to subjective change. Ruthless Winnicott will be of great interest to psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists, as well as scholars of colonialism, decolonization and post-colonialism.

Introduction to and overview of colonialism in psychoanalysis. Describes anti-colonial voices, including Fanon, Memmi, Cesaire and Mannon. Concludes with consideration of the challenges of decolonizing psychoanalysis.

Offering a fresh and innovative perspective on psychodynamic psychotherapy, this book captures the possibilities of using psychodynamic theory in service of progressive and socially relevant application. It takes the reader on a journey through the sensitive and often painful realities of contemporary South African life. Psychoanalysis as a long-term modality is inaccessible to the average South African, and in this book the authors describe how psychoanalytically orientated or psychodynamic psychotherapy can be practiced as a short-term endeavor and applied to contemporary issues facing the country. Psychodynamic work is currently undertaken by clinical psychologists, therapists, clinicians, trainers, teachers, clinical supervisors, consultants, and researchers working in university settings, state hospitals, community projects, private practice, and research. The debates, clinical issues, therapeutic practice, and nature of research covered in the book are widely representative of the work being done in the country. The need for shorter term therapy models and evidence-based interventions is as acute in global practice as it is locally. The lessons learned in South Africa have broader implications for international practitioners, and the authors stress the potential inherent in psychoanalytic theory and technique to tackle the complex problems faced in all places and settings characterized by increasing globalization and dislocation.

Introduction to and overview of colonialism in psychoanalysis. Describes anti-colonial voices, including Fanon, Memmi, Cesaire and Mannon. Concludes with consideration of the challenges of decolonizing psychoanalysis.

Ruthless Winnicott is an extended exploration of the role of ruthlessness in psychic development. That survival is of no use unless it is preceded by a ruthless attack is one of D. W. Winnicott's most resonant paradoxes. The book links this with the search for subjective freedom for those traumatized by colonialism, and in doing so draws on the work of Algerian psychiatrist and revolutionary psychoanalytic thinker Frantz Fanon. Sally Swartz examines essential pieces of Winnicott's work on ruthlessness as central to the emergence of concern for the Other. She illustrates, with clinical examples, ways in which the ruthless use of the psychoanalytic psychotherapeutic space allows the patient either to enter fully into a process that allows growth, or to defend ruthlessly against the anxieties provoked by psychic change. Ruthless Winnicott also maps decolonial challenges to psychoanalytic theory, and the role of ruthlessness in protest movements demanding radical subjective change. Swartz's exploration of ruthlessness as both zest and defense in individual development and in protest movements illuminates processes of psychological collision and change. It traces links between individual trauma and collective turbulence, and maps ways in which ruthlessness is essential to subjective change. Ruthless Winnicott will be of great interest to psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists, as well as scholars of colonialism, decolonization and post-colonialism.

There are a number of studies describing colonial lunatic asylums, and more broadly, colonial psychiatry and its operation in Africa. This monograph breaks new ground in tracing the route of people thought to be `of unsound mind' from their homes and families to eventual committal to a lunatic asylum in the Cape Colony in the late nineteenth century. The central concern is with the complex interface between lunacy legislation, colonial government, families and communities, and the ways in which these aspects affected individuals' experiences of treatment both before and after committal to a lunatic asylum. A theme linking each chapter is the movement of the insane: in and out of gaols, asylums and families; in and out of the colony by land or sea; and journeys by ship, cart, train or horse in search of care. The management of the insane in the Cape Colony, and the legal and medical institutions with primary responsibility for delivering humane care to this intensely vulnerable group, gives a unique perspective on the operation of colonialism itself. Recommended for: Medical historians; historians of British colonialism, the history of the family and Jewish history; psychiatrists and psychologists.