The War Inside
Psychoanalysis, Total War, and the Making of the Democratic Self in Postwar Britain

A groundbreaking study of how British psychoanalysis shaped democracy, childhood and the family during and after the Second World War.

Michal Shapira (Author)

9781107035133, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 12 September 2013

284 pages, 14 b/w illus.
23.4 x 15.8 x 0.6 cm, 0.61 kg

'In this important and original contribution, Michal Shapira presents an interdisciplinary, social and cultural history that examines the impact of psychoanalysis on the self, child development, and the family in post World War II Britain. Drawing on published and archival materials as well as clinical case histories this book will interest a wide range of academics as well as clinicians and psychoanalysts.' Lewis Aron, Director, New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis

The War Inside is a groundbreaking history of the contribution of British psychoanalysis to the making of social democracy, childhood, and the family during World War II and the postwar reconstruction. Psychoanalysts informed understandings not only of individuals, but also of broader political questions. By asserting a link between a real 'war outside' and an emotional 'war inside', psychoanalysts contributed to an increased state responsibility for citizens' mental health. They made understanding children and the mother-child relationship key to the successful creation of a democratic citizenry. Using rich archival sources, the book revises the common view of psychoanalysis as an elite discipline by taking it out of the clinic and into the war nursery, the juvenile court, the state welfare committee, and the children's hospital. It traces the work of the second generation of psychoanalysts after Freud in response to total war and explores its broad postwar effects on British society.

Introduction: the war inside
1. The psychological study of anxiety: from World War I to World War II
2. Under fire: children and psychoanalysts in total war
3. The Hitler inside: Klein and her patients
4. Psychoanalysts on the radio in war and peace: from collective to domestic citizenship
5. Psychoanalyzing crime: the Institute for the Study and Treatment of Delinquency (ISTD), 1931–45
6. Towards the therapeutic state: the ISTD during the postwar years, c.1945–60
7. Hospitalized children, separation anxiety, and motherly love: psychoanalysis in postwar Britain
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Psychological theory & schools of thought [JMA], Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000 [HBLW3], British & Irish history [HBJD1]