Why War? A Psychoanalytic Enquiry

In the most recent issue of the London Review of Books, Jacqueline Rose writes of the conflict in Israel/Gaza that there is a need to bring psychoanalytic understanding to the negotiating table. “One thing seems clear. None of this will just disappear if we ignore it. You cannot dream the unconscious away.” (J.Rose, ‘You made […]

8 Dec 2023

Circumcision on the Couch book launch

Cover of Circumcision on the Couch by Jordan Osserman

In this event, Jordan and his invited guests made use of the Old Operating Theatre’s incredible surgical setting to bring to life some major themes of his book: the nineteenth-century transformation of circumcision from a religious rite to a medical procedure designed to cure ‘nervous illness’; the psychological dynamics of contemporary anti-circumcision activism (‘intactivism’); and […]

29 Sep 2022

IPU Library Talk: Circumcision

Dr. Leon Brenner and Dr. Jordan Osserman on Psychoanalysis and Circumcision Dr. Jordan Osserman’s book, Circumcision on the Couch: The Cultural, Psychological, and Gendered Dimensions of the World’s Oldest Surgery (2021), engages with the long debate surrounding circumcision in the world of psychoanalysis and without. Dr. Osserman examines how the removal of the foreskin-has become […]

12 May 2022

Psychoanalysis, (Trans)gender, and Sexuality conference

Online course with Dr Jordan Osserman and guests. How can psychoanalysis — as both a theory and clinical practice — productively engage with contemporary concerns surrounding gender and sexual diversity? What is the relationship between forms of clinical psychoanalytic practice that pathologise or stigmatise particular gender/sexual identities and practices, and more progressive approaches to the […]

10 Jul 2020