Laubender, Carolyn (2021) Empires of mind: postcolonial cartographies of ‘The Empire’ in Melanie Klein's Narrative of a Child Analysis. Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society, 26 (3). pp. 323-344. DOI https://doi.org/10.1057/s41282-021-00224-6
Laubender, Carolyn (2021) Empires of mind: postcolonial cartographies of ‘The Empire’ in Melanie Klein's Narrative of a Child Analysis. Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society, 26 (3). pp. 323-344. DOI https://doi.org/10.1057/s41282-021-00224-6
Laubender, Carolyn (2021) Empires of mind: postcolonial cartographies of ‘The Empire’ in Melanie Klein's Narrative of a Child Analysis. Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society, 26 (3). pp. 323-344. DOI https://doi.org/10.1057/s41282-021-00224-6
Abstract
This article analyzes the extensive archive of artwork produced by Melanie Klein’s child-patient “Richard” in Narrative of a Child Analysis. Focusing specifically on Richard’s drawings of what he called “The Empire,” I explore the geopolitical significance of these images by using postcolonial theory to show how they bring the midcentury politics of imperial expansion into the clinical relation. Throughout this article, I consider how the Empire drawings speak to the entanglement of psychic life with social history and contend that their abstract, non-representational aesthetic engages in a nuanced critique of imperialism. Taking Richard’s drawings as more than mere child’s play, I read them as providing an opening through which to visualize the decolonial political potentiality of the clinic.
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Uncontrolled Keywords: | psychoanalysis; aesthetics; politics; imperialism; postcolonial theory; Melanie Klein; empire; child analysis; art |
SWORD Depositor: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
Depositing User: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
Date Deposited: | 11 Nov 2021 15:44 |
Last Modified: | 30 Oct 2024 21:11 |
URI: | http://repository.essex.ac.uk/id/eprint/31505 |
Available files
Filename: Laubender_PCSProofs_FINAL.pdf