Articles

This list of journal articles (including a few book reviews) and book chapters is grouped under the following broad and overlapping headings:

General psychosocial theory
The emotional public sphere: democracy and nation
The emotional public sphere: leadership
Ideologies and political discourse
Political violence
Popular culture
Therapeutic culture
Historical perspectives on psychology, psychosocial studies, psychoanalysis and psychotherapy

I also include here two sets of articles unrelated to political psychology:

9. Identity and adoption

10. Miscellaneous

Note that full text PDFs of articles in the journal Free Associations are freely available at https://freeassociations.org.uk/FA_New/OJS/index.php/fa

1. General psychosocial theory

2025. Some confusions around authoritarianism today. Journal of Psychosocial Studies 18 (1), 88-93.

2024. The authoritarian/libertarian hybrid. Free Associations 93.

2022. 'With the humble is wisdom': humility as an antidote to humiliation and shame. In Gerodimos, R., ed., Breaking the Cycle of Shame and Violence. Cham, Switz.: Palgrave, 2025.

2020 (with Yates, C. & Sargeant, A.). Psychosocial reflections on fifty years of cultural and political revolution: Editors' introduction. Free Associations 78, 16-18.

2004 (with Figlio, K.). Psychoanalyse und Gesellschaft. Einige neuere Entwicklungen psychoanalytischer Sozialpsychologie in Grossbritannien. Journal fur Psychoanalyse 43, 109-136. [A translation of Figlio & Richards, 2001.]

2004. What is psychoanalysis for? Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society 9, 149-158.

2003 (with Figlio, K.). The containing matrix of the social. American Imago 60(4), 407-428.

2002 (with Froggett, L.). Exploring the bio-psycho-social. European Journal of Psychotherapy, Counselling and Health 5(3), 321-326.

2001 (with Figlio, K.). Psychoanalysis and the public sphere: some recent British developments in psychoanalytic social psychology. In Hinshelwood, R. and Chiesa, M. (eds.), Organisations, Anxiety and Defence: Psychoanalytic Social Psychology, 183-203. London: Whurr.

2000. The anatomy of envy. Psychoanalytic Studies 2(1), 65-76.

1997 (with Brown, J.). The humanist Freud. In Elliott, A. (ed.), Freud 2000, 235-261. Cambridge: Polity.

1989. Psychoanalysis in reverse. In Richards, B. (ed.), Crises of the Self, 41‑56. London: Free Association Books.

1985. The politics of the self. Essay review of Lasch, 'The Minimal Self'. Free Associations 1 (3), 43‑64.

1985. Psychoanalysis and the deconstruction of psychology. Essay review of Henriques et al., 'Changing the Subject'. Free Associations 1(1), 105-112.

1984. Schizoid states and the market. In Richards, B. (ed.), Capitalism and Infancy, 122-166. London: Free Association Books.

1981. Open letter to John Bowlby. New Universities Quarterly 35(4), 460‑464.

1978 (with Waddell, M., McNeil, M. and Levidow, L.). Psychoanalysis, Marxism and feminism. Radical Science Journal 6/7, 107‑117.

2. The emotional public sphere: democracy and nation

2022. Freedom vs belonging: a core ambivalence in contemporary political dynamics. In Frosh, S., Vyrgioti, M. and Walsh, J. (eds.), Palgrave Handbook of Psychosocial Studies. Cham, Switz.: Palgrave. Online at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61510-9_41-1.

2020. The causes of sanity. Free Associations 78, 19-32.

2019. Review of ffytche, M. and Pick, D. (eds.), 'Psychoanalysis in the Age of Totalitarianism'. Psychodynamic Practice 25 (2), 182-187.

2018. The emotional public sphere and its importance: freedom of speech as a case study. International Journal of Communication 12, 2040-2051.

2015. Britain and the US in a world on fire. Unpublished project report on British attitudes towards the US.

2013. News and free speech. In Allan, S. and Fowler-Watt, K. (eds.), Journalism: New Challenges, 349-366. Bournemouth: Bournemouth University.

2011 (with Rees, G.) The management of emotion in British journalism. Media, Culture and Society 33 (6), 851-867.

2010. News and the emotional public sphere. In Allan, S. (ed.), The Routledge Companion to News and Journalism. London, Routledge, 301-11.

1987. Military mobilisations of the unconscious. Free Associations 7, 11‑26.

3. The emotional public sphere: leadership

2021. Love the leader, hate the state: narcissistic protests against democratic rule. Free Associations 83, 1-14.

2019. Beyond the angers of populism: a psychosocial inquiry. Journal of Psychosocial Studies 12 (1-2), 171-183.

2002. Authority and popularity in twenty-first century Britain: a psychosocial analysis. Journal of PsychoSocial Studies 1, nn-nn.

2010. Author's response to Philip Hammond's review of 'Emotional Governance'. Media, War and Conflict 3, 109-111.

2004. The emotional deficit in political communication. Political Communication 21 (3), 339-353.

4. Ideology and political discourse

2018. Psychological underpinnings of post-truth politics. International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics 14 (3), 401-406.

2017 (with Brown, L.). Evidence and ideology: moderating the critique of media Islamophobia. Journalism Education 6 (1), 12-22.

2010 (with Baines, P., O’Shaughnessy, N., Moloney, K., Butler, S. and Gill, M.). The dark side of political marketing: Islamist propaganda, reversal theory and British Muslims. European Journal of Marketing 44 (3/4), 478-95.

2007. Review of Corner & Pels, eds., 'Media and the Restyling of Politics'. Int. J. Media and Cultural Politics 3(1), 102-104.

2003 (with Moloney, K., Scullion, R. and Daymon, C.). Mapping the production of political communications: a model to assist in understanding the relationships between the production and consumption of political messages. Journal of Public Affairs 32, 166-175.

1992. Enterprise and dependency: a psychoanalytic approach to political culture. In Heelas, P. and Morris, P. (eds.), The Values of the Enterprise Culture ‑ The Moral Debate, 194‑213. London: Unwin Hyman.

1990. Masculinity, identification and political culture. In Hearn, J. and Morgan, D. (eds.), Men, Masculinity and Social Theory, 160‑169. London: Unwin Hyman.

1989. Visions of freedom: the subject in market relations. Free Associations 16, 31‑42. (A shorter version of this paper also appeared in Discours social/Social Discourse II (1&2), 111‑120.

1988. The eupsychian impulse: psychoanalysis and politics since 1968. Radical Philosophy 48, 3‑13.

1987. The mass psychology of monetarism. Changes 5 (2), 326‑328.

1984. Civil defence and psychic defence. Free Associations Pilot Issue, 85‑97.

5. Political violence

2021 (with Volkan, V.) Large-group psychology and political conflicts: An introduction to the psychosocial work of Vamik Volkan. Journal of Psychosocial Studies 14 (1), 63-71.

2018. A most brutal and implacable superego. In Kruger, S., Figlio, K. and Richards, B., (eds.), Fomenting Political Violence: Phantasy, Language, Action, 37-56. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

2018. Terror in the mind of the terrorist. In Adlam, J. et al. (eds.), Violent States and Creative States, Vol. 1, 191-203. London: Jessica Kingsley.

2018. Exploring malignancies: narcissism and paranoia today. Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society 23 (1), 15-27.

2017. Collective identities, Breivik and the national container. In Hinshelwood, R. & Mintchev, N. (eds.), The Feeling of Certainty, 165-186. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

2017. A response to Robert M. Young's 'Fundamentalism and terrorism'. Free Associations 71, 86-88.

2016 (with Kapuscinski, G.). News framing effects on destination risk perception. Tourism Management 57, 234-244.

2015. The voices of extremist violence: what can we hear? In Thorsen, E. et al. (eds.), Media, Margins and Civic Agency, 62-76. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

2013. Extreme nationalism and the hatred of the liberal state. In Demertzis, N. (ed.), Emotions in Politics: The Affective Dimension in Political Tension, 124-142. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

2012. Review of Jones, J., 'The Blood that Cries Out from the Earth'. Media, War and Conflict 5 (3), 285-287.

2010. Extremism and its milieux. British Journal of Psychotherapy 26 (4), 465-71.

2009. Explosive humiliation and news media. In Day Sclater, S., et al. (eds.), Emotion: Psychosocial Perspectives, 59-71. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

2007. Terrorism and the microdynamics of trust. In Bakir, V. and Barlow, D. (eds.), Communication in the Age of Suspicion. The Mediation of Mistrust, 64-74. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

2004. Terrorism and public relations. Public Relations Review 30 (2), 169-176.

6. Popular culture

2015 (with Pham, H-C.). Western brands in the minds of Vietnamese consumers. Journal of Consumer Marketing 32 (5), 367-375.

2014. 'Abide with me': mediatised football and collectivised mourning. In Bainbridge, C. & Yates, C. (eds.), Media and the Inner World. Psycho-cultural Approaches to Emotion, Media and Popular Culture, 19-33. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

1996. Popular culture. In Kennard, D. and Small, N. (eds.), Living Together. London: Quartet Books, 73-91.

1993. Technophobia and technophilia. British Journal of Psychotherapy 10(2), 188-195.

1990. Televising psychoanalysis. Review of Bourne, Eichler & Herman, 'Voices: Psychoanalysis'. Free Associations 20, 198-202.

1989. Car bodies. Essay review of Marsh and Collett, 'Driving Passions'. Free Associations 16, 97‑105.

1987. Bruce Springsteen and the crisis of masculinity. Free Associations 9, 91‑94.

7. Therapeutic culture

2020 (with Brown, J.). Living in a therapeutic culture. In Moller, N., et al., (eds.), Understanding Mental Health and Counselling. London: Sage, 577-601.

2011 (with Brown, J.). Media as drivers of the therapeutic trend. Free Associations 62, 18-30.

2000 (with Brown, J.) The therapeutic culture hypothesis. In Johansson, T. and Sernhede, O. (eds.), Lifestyle, Desire and Politics: Contemporary Identities, 97-114. Gothenburg: Daidalos.

2000. The real meaning of spin: compression and containment in the therapeutic age. Soundings 14, 161-170.

8. Historical perspectives on psychology, psychosocial studies, psychoanalysis and psychotherapy

2023. Bob Young and the Free Associations project: a personal recollection. In Jacobsen, K. and Hinshelwood, R. (eds.), Psychoanalysis, Science and Power, 145-153. Abingdon: Routledge.

2022 (with Brown, J.) The emergence of psychosocial studies in East London. In Rustin, M. and Poynter, G. (eds.), Building a Radical University: A History of the University of East London, 298-312. London: Lawrence and Wishart.

2009 (with Jones, D., Yates, C., Price, H. and Day Sclater, S.) Psychosocial studies – a therapeutic project? In Day Sclater, S., Jones, D., Price, H. & Yates, C. (eds.), Emotion: Psychosocial Perspectives, 242-54. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

1996. Psychotherapy and the injuries of class. British Psychological Society Psychotherapy Section Bulletin 17, 21-35.

1994. The cultural predicaments of psychoanalysis. Free Associations 32, 549-569.

1988. Lightner Witmer and the project of psychotechnology. History of the Human Sciences 2, 201‑219.

1986. Psychotherapy and the public domain. British Journal of Psychotherapy 3 (1), 42‑51.

1986. Psychological practice and social democracy. Free Associations 5, 105‑136.

1985. Psychoanalysis and the deconstruction of psychology. Essay review of Henriques et al, 'Changing the Subject'. Free Associations 1, 105‑112.

1977. Psychology, prisons and ideology. Ideology and Consciousness 2, 9‑25.

9. Identity and adoption

2001. Whose identity problem? The dynamics of projection in adoption policy and practice. In Treacher, A. and Katz, I. (eds.), The Dynamics of Adoption, 101-109. London: Jessica Kingsley.

1994. What is "identity"? In Aldridge, J. (ed.), The Best Interests of the Child: Transracial Placements Reexamined. London: Free Association Books, 77-88.

1987. Family, race and identity. Adoption and Fostering 11(3), 10‑13.

10. Miscellaneous

2016 (with Brown, L.). Media representations of Islam in Britain: a sojourner perspective. Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 36 (3), 350-363.

1996. Cultural goods and enrichment in mass higher education. In Managing Poverty, 23-33. London: University of Westminster Counselling and Advisory Service.

1984. Anxiety in the educational process: a psychological perspective on peace and defence studies. In Newman, B. (ed.), Curricula and Course Development in Peace and Conflict Studies, 46‑57. Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Conference of the International Standing Conference on Peace and Conflict Studies, Oxford 1983.

1978. The experience of long term imprisonment. British Journal of Criminology 18, 162-169.

1975 (with J. M. Richer). Reacting to autistic children: the danger of trying too hard. British Journal of Psychiatry 127, 526‑529.

Shorter articles for general readership

For full text of articles in The Conversation, go to my page there.

2025. Southport attacks: why the UK needs a unified approach to all violent attacks on the public. The Conversation 28.1.25.

2024. Review of 'Who’s Afraid of Gender', by Judith Butler. British Journal of Psychotherapy 41(2), 335-337.

2024. Review of 'Outrageous Reason: Madness and Race in Britain and Empire 1780‐2020', by Peter Barham. British Journal of Psychotherapy.

2024. America’s kingdom of contempt. In US Election Analysis 2024: Media, Voters and the Campaign, eds. Jackson, D., et al. Poole, UK: Centre for Comparative Politics and Media Research, Bournemouth University.

2020. Trump the transgressor: the psychological appeal of leaders who break the rules. The Conversation 28.1.20.

2020. Polarization before and after the 2020 election. In Jackson, D., Coombs, D.S., Trevisan, F., Lilleker, D. and Thorsen, E. (eds.), U.S. Election Analysis 2020: Media, Voters and the Campaign, p.42. Poole, UK: Centre for Comparative Politics and Media Research, Bournemouth University.

2019. We should look closely at Britain’s decision to elect a man so renowned for his untrustworthiness. The Conversation 13.12.19.

2019. British people hardly ever thought about the EU before Brexit, now it dominates their lives. The Conversation 9.10.19.

2019. The postmodern election. In Jackson, D., Thorsen, E., Lilleker, D. and Weidhase, N., UK Election Analysis 2019: Media, Voters and the Campaign, p.61. Poole, UK: Centre for Comparative Politics and Media Research, Bournemouth University.

2019. Calling Brexit a national ‘humiliation’ fuels division – political psychologist. The Conversation 1.5.19.

2017. The psychology of protest. In Reilly, P., Veneti, A., and Atanasova, D. (eds.), Politics, Protest, Emotion: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. A Book of Blogs, 13-17. Sheffield, UK: University of Sheffield Information School.

2017. The future of illusions. In Thorsen, E., Jackson, D. and Lilleker, D., UK Election Analysis 2017: Media, Voters and the Campaign, p.17. Poole, UK: Centre for the Study of Journalism, Culture and Community/Centre for Politics and Media Research, Bournemouth University, and Political Studies Association.

2016. The narcissistic capture of American nationalism. In Lilleker, D., Jackson, D., Thorsen, E. and Veneti, A. (eds.), US Election Analysis 2016: Media, Voters and the Campaign, p. 99. Poole, UK: Centre for the Study of Journalism, Culture and Community, Bournemouth University.

2014. What drove Anders Breivik? Contexts 13 (4), 42-47. 20.11.14.

2006 (with Lilleker, D.). Political soap opera. Ideal for the consumer citizen. Bulletin of Public and Corporate Communication 3, 3-4.