It’s that time of year for signing up for conferences - the @assocpsychosocial.bsky.social in Twickenham in June and, a couple weeks before that, the International Association for Forensic Psychotherapy, this time in Gozo, Malta - requiring an exception to my general practice of not flying places…😬
Started a new writing project drawing on my experience as a Labour candidate in the 2026 local elections in SE London. In this post, I explore the remarkable Smile of Hope, a growing charity in Mottingham, and the inspiring stories of its cofounders: fieldnoteslabour.substack.com/p/local-stor...
Very much enjoyed talking to Josephine Burton last week about why political power conceived of purely as violence will...inevitably... fail.
www.dasharts.org.uk/podcast-1/we...
“Westminster memoirs and biographies have tended to dominate publishing, reinforcing a narrow, elite view of political life. But political writing has always existed far beyond Parliament…”
Sounds like a fascinating collection.
‘The real question is whether psychoanalysis can liberate us, not just from the violent divisions of our individual psyches, but from the violent divisions and resulting despair of our political moment.’
Amia Srinivasan’s Winter Lecture:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Essential reading
Labour’s 2025 budget focuses on planning reform.
But better allocation of the current housing stock can do more to combat the housing shortage than new housebuilding, and more quickly.
By leading economist Christine Whitehead.
📯 APS Conference 2026
Trust, Mistrust and Community
www.psychosocial-studies-association.org/conference-2...
Concluding words from Jacqueline Rose and Lisa Baraitser at the Birkbeck psychosocial postgraduate conference. Jacqueline says “We need to hold on to psychoanalysis as an anti-fascist tradition of thought.”
For @dmk1793.bsky.social with respect www.opendemocracy.net/en/compulsor...
New piece in @prospectmagazine.co.uk with @davidfeldman.bsky.social and @brendanmcgeever.bsky.social (@bisa-bkk.bsky.social) on recent comments on antisemitism and racism.
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/identi...
(Thank you to @aloner.bsky.social for such great editing.)
Do this. It's an extraordinary book.
#NewAssociations 46 (2025) has been published. This is the 1st complete issue of the #psychoanalytic magazine Emmanuelle Smith & I have edited. We’ve framed this issue around the themes of conflict & trauma. Email emmanuelle.smith@bpc.org.uk & noreen.giffney@bpc.org.uk for a copy of our editorial
A bold response to the pervasive crisis of UK democracy. Against the flood tide of political disenchantment, should we be thinking about the “duty” rather than simply the “right” to vote?
Read our cover story today, from the great @willdunn.bsky.social.
Reeves is painfully aware that reforming the tax system will require a major political battle. But she’s already being battered by endless squabbles as it is. This is the fight she needs to have.
newstatesman.com/politics/econo…
For all that has been written about Starmer, no journalist has really been able to access the man within. This unmissable profile is the first to do so: www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...
Thank you for organising such a fantastic conference Jacob!
APS 2025 - We are ready! See you tomorrow
@assocpsychosocial.bsky.social
“We’ve built an economy that profits from making us sick—and calls it progress.” @timjackson.org.uk joins the Cities 1.5 podcast to unpack how growth-at-all-costs fuels illness, inequality—and war. Full episode via ⏯️ cusp.ac.uk/themes/aetw/...
cc #TheCareEconomy #ÖkonomieDerFürsorge #PostGrowth
Morten Morland Times cartoon
Brilliant from @mortenmorland.bsky.social on yesterday's UK-EU Summit.
And why those shouting 'betrayal' are, thankfully, no longer the adults in the room.
Sounds fascinating! I’m looking forward to reading through all the contributions when the hard copy arrives!
“Behind this anti-establishment mood… lies the nastier promise of Faragism. It is not only that his voters are angry or disenfranchised… It’s that he offers a kind of political desublimation, a pleasurable release of all the prejudicial impulses kept under wraps”
As Jim puts it:
Congratulations to the editors of this exciting new collection, which interrogates psychosocial studies as a scholarly praxis of “creative disruption”. Including a playful piece of my own about Brexit, drawing on @profcand.bsky.social work on political culture: link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...
And to think, Hunt pushed through tax cuts the country obviously couldn’t afford in a reckless attempt to avoid precisely this scenario. Party before country and it’s ended up screwing both.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
A reminder for the next @assocpsychosocial.bsky.social reading group - 6pm tonight! Please join us to discuss the allure of fascism in liberal societies, with Alasdair Cannon and @profcand.bsky.social
Good piece by @morganj0nes.bsky.social. Labour needs to stop trying to win the 2023 Uxbridge by-election.
labourlist.org/2025/04/loca...
Brilliant piece. Loneliness, said Arendt, is the common ground of terror.
Or as @harryshukman.bsky.social writes: “Wanting connection is a common reason people give for arriving at these groups, and also what makes it hard for them to leave, even if they’re not enjoying themselves.”
