Violence and the Feminine

In this volume, psychoanalysts, academics and activists explore how psychoanalytic theory illuminates the relationship between violence and the feminine, bringing together international perspectives to examine social structures of oppression, violence and hatred towards women, and the ever-changing landscape of gender and sexuality.

Drawing on feminist and postcolonial psychoanalytic revisions of Freud's theories, the book offers new reflections on misogyny, migration, war, colonial trauma, political oppression, obstetric violence, transphobia, racism and murder. Contributors revisit and revise psychoanalytic theories of femininity and its relation to aggression, creating a vital dialogue between psychoanalysis and related disciplines including social theory, politics and philosophy. Through clinical and theoretical analyses, the book demonstrates how psychoanalytic theories of femininity and the intersectional ideas developed around them can contribute to understanding new and escalating forms of violence against women and the resources required to counter it.

Violence and the Feminine is essential reading for psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, social workers and counsellors, both qualified and in training. It will also appeal to academics and students with interests in psychoanalytic approaches to gender and sexuality, violence against women, and feminist, queer and trans theory, as well as those working in political, community and care spaces.