Dr Joanna Ryan
Visiting Research Fellow
BA, MA, PhD
Research Interests
I am interested in the inter-disciplinarity of social theory and psychoanalysis, and the applications of psychoanalysis to social research. I am currently completing a qualitative study funded by the Tavistock Institute of Medical Psychology on social class and psychoanalysis. This explores through an examination of transference-countertransference material how psychoanalytic psychotherapists from different class backgrounds think about and respond to class issues in their work. This is part of a wider project, an analysis of the assumptions and concepts of psychosocial research, and attempts to think the psyche-social. With Professor Vic Seidler I have organised an on-going series of seminars at CSISP entitled 'Embodied Psyches/Life Politics'. My other interests include a critique and reformulation of psychoanalytic theory about sexuality, using Foucault and Butler within a framework of psychotherapeutic practice.
Recent Publications
- (2005) 'Clinical Implications of Queer Theory', in K. White (ed) Attachment and Sexuality, London: Karnac.
- (2004) 'Classed Psyches', paper given at: Politics and Emotions Conference, University of the West of England, April 2004; 'Embodied Psyches/Life Politics' Seminar Series, CSISP, Goldsmiths, May 2004 and; Professional and Community Education Department, Goldsmiths, November 2004. Submitted for Publication.
- (2003) with N. O'Connor, Wild Desires and Mistaken Identities: Lesbianism and Psychoanalysis, London: Karnac.
- (2001) 'Can Psychoanalysis Understand Homophobia?', in T. Dean and C. Lane (eds) Homosexuality and Psychoanalysis, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.