Some Notes on the First Attempts of British Psychoanalysts to Apply Psychoanalysis to the Understanding of Sociopolitical Issues

In his lecture, Riccardo Steiner will sketch how some of the pioneers of British psychoanalysis tried to apply psychoanalysis to understand sociopolitical and historical issues during the first decades of the last century. Apart from Freud’s and Ferenczi’s work, he will focus on some papers of Ernest Jones, Edward Glover’s famous book War, Sadism and Pacifism (1932, 1947) and Roger Money-Kyrle’s Psychoanalysis and Politics (1951). The debate between Otto Fenichel and Edward Glover will also be mentioned, and the often ignored influence of Karl Abraham and his pupil Melanie Klein on their British colleagues will be demonstrated, as well. Finally, Riccardo Steiner will discuss the relevance of those interactions and debates up to this day and argue for a cautious and reality-based psychoanalytic input.