Over 100 years since its origins, psychoanalysis continues to be a key source of insights across the humanities and social sciences. Being well-versed in psychoanalytic concepts is a crucial element in cultural literacy today. Key Concepts in Psychoanalysis accessibly introduces the core psychoanalytic concepts. In contrast to existing dictionaries, the volume does not simply offer cursory definitions, and it is not overly entrenched in a particular psychoanalytic tradition. Providing short, reader-friendly descriptions of each concept, Key Concepts in Psychoanalysis shows both its place in the field as well its more general cultural usage. It is not simply a reference book, but can be read cover to cover to provide an overview of the therapeutic and cultural uses of central terms. Concepts are introduced in ways which make them truly available to a non-expert readership and to beginning students. Examples of concepts introduced unconscious, repression, projection, Oedipus complex, interpretation, resistance, and transference.
Stephen Frosh has worked at Birkbeck from 1979, first in the School of Psychology and since 2008 in the Department of Psychosocial Studies, of which he was a founding member and first Head of Department. From 1982 until 2000 he worked part time at Birkbeck and part time as a clinical psychologist in the NHS. Throughout the 1990s he was Consultant Clinical Psychologist and (from 1996) Vice Dean in the Child and Family Department of the Tavistock Clinic, London. His academic interests are in the applications of psychoanalysis to social issues; gender, culture and ‘race’; and psychosocial studies. He was Pro-Vice-Master of Birkbeck from 2003 to 2017, first with responsibility for Learning and Teaching, then for Research and then for Internationalisation