Routledge From Anxiety to Zoolander: Notes on Psychoanalysis

From Anxiety to Zoolander is a collection of writings on psychoanalytic themes. Each text was originally delivered as a talk, and the book aims to retain the informality and directness of the spoken word. While many of the chapters focus on clinical questions, they also speak about art, comedy, fashion, fame and fiction. Freudian and Lacanian theories are central, but the book as a whole is far from doctrinaire, with all areas of psychoanalytic thinking being up for discussion. Clinical topics include acting out, narcissism, gender, transference, diagnosis, and the Oedipus complex, tracing ideas through Freud and the post-Freudians, and examining their relevance to the contemporary psychoanalytic clinic. Non-clinical topics include Louise Bourgeois's notes on her analysis, stand-up comedy, Paris Hilton's televised friendship auditions, and Ben Stiller's penetrating stupidity in Zoolander 2. While each essay is self-contained, the book argues overall for the continued relevance of Freudian ideas in the treatment of psychic suffering, as well as in the interpretation of cultural phenomena. Review " From Anxiety to Zoolander by way of family and fashion, suicide and war and much, much more! This is no dictionary of psychoanalytic concepts. It is no map, no guide to psychoanalysis. Rather, Grose's selection of her talks gives the reader an insight into how a practicing psychoanalyst engages with thorny issues of everyday life as well as the controversies and differences that have characterized psychoanalysis and clinical practice since its inception. Those readers who are new to Lacan's ideas will welcome the clarity of the writing that elucidates difficult concepts and ideas without eluding their complexities. Those readers who are practitioners, or in training as psychoanalysts and therapists, will particularly appreciate the honesty of the clinical examples that illustrate Grose's ideas and ways of thinking. This elegant and sophisticated collection of "talks" captures the maddening and provoking character of psychoanalytic practice and knowledge and should be read by anyone with a passing interest in psychoanalysis, and what it might have to say about the problems of everyday life, as well as by those who are already captured by psychoanalytic ideas and the impossibilities of the clinic."-- (09/29/2017) "Not only will this change the way you think about topics as deep and wide as sex, death, fashion, time, family, robots, mirrors, ladyboys, Lacan and Zoolander 2, but Anouchka Grose's writing is so engaging, her insights are so surprising, her enjoyments are so infectious, and her psychoanalysis is so undogmatic that you'll come away from this book feeling wiser, wittier, wilder - even kinder. Once you've finished it, you'll immediately want to read it again. You'll also want to give a copy to everyone you know."-- (09/29/2017) "The entertainment value of this lively book cleverly disguises the complex issues it teaches.Anouchka Grose discusses scholarly subjects amusingly and amusing questions in a scholarly way.This book is enlightened by her refusal to admire the emperor's new clothes, and painstakingly acquired knowledge is conveyed with deceptive ease. In addition, her many clinical illustrations give the book credibility - these are not the ramblings of an armchair analyst but the reflections of a practitioner of the unconscious."-- (09/29/2017) About the Author Anouchka Grose