Table Of Content“Covering everything from Aristotle to zombies to Breaking Bad, Carol Owens
and Stephanie Swales have written a masterpiece unlocking the secrets of
ambivalence. In Psychoanalysing Ambivalence with Freud and Lacan, they
demonstrate that ambivalence is perhaps the central category in social rela-
tions. The need for this book is especially urgent today, in an era characterised
by its various ways of refusing ambivalence, which are, Owens and Swales
make clear, ways of refusing the price of interacting with others altogether.
Psychoanalysing Ambivalence with Freud and Lacan speaks to the contempor-
ary political catastrophe better than any book I’ve read.”
–Todd McGowan, Professor, University of Vermont, USA
Psychoanalysing Ambivalence
with Freud and Lacan
Taking a deep dive into contemporary Western culture, this book suggests we
are all fundamentally ambivalent beings. A great deal has been written about
how to love – to be kinder, more empathic, a better person, and so on. But
trying to love without dealing with our ambivalence, with our hatred, is often
arecipe forfailure. Anyattempt,therefore,toloveourneighbourasourselves –
or even, for that matter, to love ourselves – must recognise that we love where
we hate and we hate where we love.
Psychoanalysis, beginning with Freud, has claimed that to be in two minds
about something or someone is characteristic of human subjectivity. Owens and
SwalestracetheconceptofambivalencethroughitsvariousiterationsinFreudian
and Lacanian psychoanalysis in order to question how the contemporary subject
deals with its ambivalence. They argue that experiences of ambivalence are, in
present-dayculturallife,increasinglyexcisedorforeclosed,andthatthisforeclos-
ure has symptomatic effects at the individual as well as social level. Owens and
Swalesexamineambivalenceasitisatworkinmourning,inmattersofsexuality,
and in our enjoyment under neoliberalism and capitalism. Above all, the authors
considerhow today’s ambivalentsubject relates tothe racially, religiously, cultur-
ally, or sexually different neighbour as a result of the current societal dictate of
complete tolerance of the other. In this vein, Owens and Swales argue that
ambivalenceaboutone’sownjouissanceisattheveryrootsofxenophobia.
Peppered with relevant and stimulating examples from clinical work, film,
television, politics, and everyday life, Psychoanalysing Ambivalence breathes
new life into an old concept and will appeal to any reader, academic, or clin-
ician with an interest in psychoanalytic ideas.
Carol Owens, Ph.D., is a psychoanalyst and psychoanalytic scholar in Dublin,
Ireland. She edited The Letter: Perspectives in Lacanian Psychoanalysis
(2003–2008), Lacanian Psychoanalysis with Babies, Children and Adolescents:
Further Notes on the Child (with Stephanie Farrelly Quinn, Routledge, 2017)
and Studying Lacan’s Seminars IVand V: From Lack to Desire (with Nadezhda
Almqvist, Routledge, 2019). She is the series editor for the newly established
Routledge series, Studying Lacan’s Seminars.
Stephanie Swales, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the Uni-
versity of Dallas, USA, a practicing psychoanalyst, a licensed clinical psych-
ologist, and a clinical supervisor located in Dallas, Texas. Her first book,
Perversion: A Lacanian Psychoanalytic Approach to the Subject, was pub-
lished by Routledge in 2012.
Psychoanalysing Ambivalence
with Freud and Lacan
ff
On and O the Couch
Stephanie Swales and
Carol Owens
First published 2020
by Routledge
2Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninformabusiness
©2020StephanieSwalesandCarolOwens
The right of Stephanie Swalesand Carol Owens to beidentified
asauthor of this work has beenasserted by them in accordance
with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designsand Patents
Act 1988.
All rightsreserved. No part of thisbookmay be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised inany form orbyany electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known orhereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in anyinformation
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
thepublishers.
Trademark notice: Product orcorporate namesmay be
trademarksor registered trademarks, and are used only for
identification and explanationwithout intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for thisbook
ISBN: 978-1-138-32844-0(hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-32845-7(pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-44865-2(ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Swales & Willis, Exeter, Devon, UK
Carol dedicates this book to Carles, for 25 years of love,
hate, and bitter-sweet ambivalence: que em caldria agrair-te
tant temps que fa que t’estimo …
Stephanie dedicates this book to Michael, for all the things
you are, je t’aime.
Contents
Acknowledgements x
Abouttheauthors xiii
Foreword xiv
1 Thetensionsofambivalence 1
2 Whythezombiesatemyneighbours 21
3 Raisingthedead:Mourningandambivalence 39
4 Onlettingtherightonein:Heisenbergandvampires 52
5 Guiltysecrets(WalterWhite,WalterMitty,andthe
Manosphere) 64
6 Guilt,shame,andjouissance(andbytheway,whyyour
superegoisnotreallyyouramigo…) 83
7 Extimacy,ambivalence,xenophobia 102
8 Thejouissanceofambivalence:Wearenotracists,but… 122
Afterword 141
Index 144
