
Mirror to Nature
Drama, Psychoanalysis and Society
Karnac Books (Publisher)
1st Edition
Published on 31. December 2002
Book
Paperback/Softback
302 pages
978-1-85575-298-6 (ISBN)
Description
This book brings the insights of psychoanalysis to bear on drama in the western dramatic tradition. Plays which are discussed in detail include works by Shakespeare, Ibsen, Chekhov, Wilde, and Beckett among others. The authors seek to show that the subtle understanding of conscious and unconscious emotions achieved by psychoanalytic practice can bring new ways of understanding classic works of drama.The argument of the book, set out in its introduction and exemplified in its discussion of individual dramatists and plays, is that western drama has represented the central tensions of societies as crises in the relationships of gender and generation, through dramatic explorations of the inner life of families. This is the common theme which links the book's analysis of Medea, Macbeth and A Midsummer Night's Dream amongst others. The value of this book lies in the originality of its analysis of individual plays, and the subtlety with which it brings psychoanalytic and sociological insights together.Mirror to Nature should be of particular relevance to those interested in the theatre, whether as theatregoers, performers or students, in psychoanalysis or psychotherapy, and in literature. Like the Rustins' earlier work on children's fiction, (Narratives of Love and Loss: Studies in Modern Children's Fiction) this volume on theatre shows a lucid and accessible way how psychoanalytic thinking can illuminate emotional experience in everyday life.Part of the Tavistock Clinic Series.
Reviews / Votes
The argument of the book, set out in its introduction and exemplified in its discussion of individual dramatists and plays, is that western drama has represented the central tensions of societies as crises in the relationships of gender and generation, through dramatic explorations of the inner life of families. This is the common theme which links the book's analysis of Medea, Macbeth and A Midsummer Night's Dream amongst others. The value of this book lies in the originality of its analysis of individual plays, and the subtlety with which it brings psychoanalytic and sociological insights together.More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Professional Practice & Development
Dimensions
Height: 230 mm
Width: 148 mm
Weight
453 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-85575-298-6 (9781855752986)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
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07/2019
1st Edition
Routledge
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E-Book
04/2018
1st Edition
Routledge
€39.49
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E-Book
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1st Edition
Routledge
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Persons
Margaret Rustin is a consultant child and adolescent psychotherapist at the Tavistock Clinic, London, and an Associate of the British Psychoanalytical Society. She has pioneered and supported the extension of training in psychoanalytic observational approaches to training across the United Kingdom and in a number of other countries. Michael Rustin is Professor of Sociology at the University of East London, a Visiting Professor at the Tavistock Clinic, and an Associate of the British Psychoanalytical Society. He has written widely on psychoanalytic approaches to culture and society, including on children's fiction ('Narratives of Love and Loss') and drama ('Mirror to Nature') both with Margaret Rustin. He is also author of 'The Good Society and the Inner World', and is a co-author/editor of the current 'After NeoLiberalism: the Kilburn Manifesto'.
Content
Series Editors' Preface -- Preface -- Introduction: theatre, mind, and society -- Medea: love and violence split asunder -- Ion: an Athenian "family romance" -- Shakespeare's Macbeth: a marital tragedy -- Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream: further meditations on marriage -- What Ibsen knew -- Chekhov: the pain of intimate relationships -- Oscar Wilde's glittering surface -- Arthur Miller: fragile masculinity in American society -- Beckett: dramas of psychic catastrophe -- Psychic spaces in Harold Pinter's work