@article{Burston, author = {Burston, Daniel}, title = {Situating Erikson: Sketches for a book on Erik Erikson. Typescript, 31 pp.}, language = {en} } @article{Daniel, author = {Daniel, Burston}, title = {Remembering The Sane Society: An American Lament}, series = {Psychoanalytic Inquiry, Routledge, Vol. 44 (No. 1, 2024), pp. 116-123.}, journal = {Psychoanalytic Inquiry, Routledge, Vol. 44 (No. 1, 2024), pp. 116-123.}, abstract = {Erich Fromm's book >The Sane Society< was published in 1955, the second year of President's Eisenhower's administration, but had a profound impact on the ideas and agendas of social activists during the 60s and 70s, including this author. Its central theses were that the middle-class prosperity characteristic of that era masked a >pathology of normalcy,< and that capitalism transforms active citizens into passive consumers by compelling people to fill their material needs in ways that are at variance with their existential or human needs. The result is a dramatic diminution of their critical faculties, an atrophy of conscience, and the proliferation of a >marketing character,< a kind of alienated, hedonistic lifestyle whose emptiness is palliated by the consumption of ever larger quantities of consumer goods. Fromm's analysis still rings true in some respects, but the middle-class prosperity and bland uniformity of opinion he critiqued began to wane in the late 1970s, gradually giving way to sharp extremes of poverty and wealth. The resulting political polarization has now reached a critical point, where the future of American democracy - or what little is left of it - is now in peril. So, as we approach 2025, Fromm's analysis of America in the mid-20th century must be updated and modified to fit the contours of contemporary social realities. In so doing, however, we discover that American society is even more alienated, more atomized and fragile than it was in Fromm's day.}, language = {en} } @misc{BurstonMills, author = {Burston, Daniel and Mills, Jon}, title = {Critical Theory and Psychoanalysis. From the Frankfurt School to Contemporary Critique, London and New York (Routledge) 2022}, abstract = {Critical Theory has traditionally been interested in engaging classical psychoanalysis rather than addressing postclassical thought. For the first time, this volume brings Critical Theory into proper dialogue with modern developments in the psychoanalytic movement and covers a broad range of topics in contemporary society that revisit the Frankfurt School and its contributions to psychoanalytic social critique. Theoretical, clinical, and applied investigations in social pathology are explored in relation to new directions in critical cultural discourse from a variety of psychoanalytic perspectives. In this volume, internationally acclaimed social political theorists, philosophers, psychoanalysts, cultural critics, and scholars of humanities examine contemporary issues in social critique that address a myriad of topics.}, language = {en} }