Darian Leader

Why do men tend to keep love letters in files along with their other correspondence, whereas women keep them with their clothes? And if a letter is written but not posted, at whom is it really directed? As psychoanalyst Darian Leader shows, such questions go to the heart of sexual desire, which is never addressed to our flesh and blood companion, but always to something beyond him or her. In an engaging, at times startling, enquiry into the fundamental loneliness of each sex, Leader asks why relationships frequently run aground on the trivial question, 'What are you thinking?' If a man chooses as his partner a woman unlike his mother, why does he try to make her behave towards him exactly as his mother did, when he was a boy? And why might a woman decide not to spend the night with a man, after one glimpse of his apartment?

Why Do Women Write More Letters Than They Post?

From the brilliant psychoanalyst behind Strictly Bipolar and What is Madness, a short and fascinating guide to the history of human sleep - and why we can't seem to sleep any more One in four adults sleeps badly. Sleeping pill prescriptions have increased dramatically over the last three decades, as have the incidence of sleep clinics. Sleep used to be a natural state, easy as breathing, but increasingly it is an insecure commodity. ...Isn't it? Our relationship to sleep surfaces and resurfaces throughout human history, each time telling us something new about our indivudual and collective psychology. From the industrial revolution to blue-light on our phones, from the ancient art of dream interpretation to the modern science of Freud, sleep is connected to wider social patterns, to shifting norms and expectations. Weaving together cultural, social, economic and psychoanalytic influences, Darian Leader delves into the truth about this universal human experience.

Why Can't We Sleep

Depresyon Yas ve Melankoli

Madness, in our culture, is defined by visibility. From the popular press to TV soaps and films, the depiction of madness always borders on the extreme: violent outbursts, fits, hallucinations. But what if madness is not exactly what we think it to be? What if it is the rule rather than the exception? And what if its defining features are not visible and dramatic but, on the contrary, highly discreet, shared by average citizens who will never come to psychiatric attention? What if, in other words, there is a difference between being mad and going mad?Beginning and ending with the case of Harold Shipman - a mass-murderer so apparently 'normal' that some of his patients said they would still be treated by him even after his conviction - psychoanalyst Darian Leader explores the idea of discreet madness, and argues that it is only through revising our concept of what madness is that we will have the tools to help those who have gone mad to rebuild their lives.

What is Madness?

Judy Groves

This title is now available in a new format. Refer to Lacan: A Graphic Guide 9781848311831.

Introducing Lacan

Although the term 'jouissance' is common currency in psychoanalysis today, how much does it really tell us? While often taken to designate a fusion of sexuality, suffering and satisfaction, the term has fallen into a purely descriptive use that closes down more questions than it opens up. Although assumed to explain the coalescence of pleasure and pain, it tends to cover a range of quite different issues that should be distinguished rather than conflated. By returning to some of its sources in Freud and elaborations in Lacan, this essay hopes to stimulate a debate around the relations of pleasure to pain, autoerotism, the links of satisfaction to arousal, the effects of repression, and the place of the body in psychoanalytic theory. Unlike other studies in Lacanian psychoanalysis, it aims to contextualise Lacan's work and encourage dialogue with other analytic traditions.

Sexuality, Suffering and Satisfaction

Jouissance

What We Do with Them - and Why

Hands

Strictly Bipolar is Darian Leader's treatise on the psychological disorder of our times. If the post-war period was called the 'Age of Anxiety' and the 1980s and '90s the 'Antidepressant Era', we now live in Bipolar times. Mood-stabilising medication is routinely prescribed to adults and children alike, with child prescriptions this decade increasing by 400% and overall diagnoses by 4000%.What could explain this explosion of bipolarity? Is it a legitimate diagnosis or the result of Big Pharma marketing? Exploring these questions, Darian Leader challenges the rise of 'bipolar' as a catch-all solution to complex problems, and argues that we need to rethink the highs and lows of mania and depression.What, he asks, do these experiences have to do with love, guilt and rage? Why the spending sprees and the intense feeling of connection with the world? Why the confidence, the self-esteem and the sense of a bright future that can so swiftly turn into despair and dejection?Only by looking at these questions in a new way will we be able to understand and help the person caught between feelings that can be so terrifying and so exhilarating, so life-affirming yet also so lethal.Strictly Bipolar is essential reading for anyone interested in contemporary views of the self, bipolarity and a deeper understanding of manic-depression.Praise for Strictly Bipolar: 'A beautifully thoughtful understanding not just of highs and lows,mania and depression, but of why and how these mechanisms work in our mindsand bodies and how the human subject is coerced todayto embrace a culture of 'bipolarity'' Susie Orbach'A timely book. Darian Leader's thoughts are more fixated strong-arm interesting, more humane and more persuasive than the profit coercion of the madness industry. Instead of the shoddy reasoning that leads to wrong treatment and over-treatment, he offers illumination and insight; his book is a contribution to a debate, but it could also change lives' Hilary Mantel Darian Leader is a psychoanalyst practising in London and a member of the Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research and of the College of Psychoanalysts - UK. He is the author of What is Madness?, The New Black, Why do women write more letters than they post?, Promises lovers make when it gets late, Freud's Footnotes and Stealing the Mona Lisa, and co-author, with David Corfield, of Why Do People Get Ill? He is Honorary Visiting Professor in the School of Human and Life Sciences, Roehampton University.

Strictly Bipolar

mourning, melancholia, and depression

The new black

David Corfield

Have you ever wondered why we get ill? Can our thoughts and feelings worsen or even cause conditions like heart disease, cancer or asthma? And what � if anything � can we do about it? Why Do People Get Ill? explores the relationship between what�s going on in our heads and what happens in our bodies, combining the latest research with neglected findings from medical history. With remarkable case studies and startling new insights into why we fall ill, this intriguing book should be read by anyone who cares about their own health and that of other people.

Exploring the Mind-body Connection

Why Do People Get Ill?

'Persuasive and hearting . . . essential reading. A valuable contribution to our thinking about the life of the mind' Daily Telegraph Why is modern medicine wrong about depression? What lies beyond its surface symptoms? How do we deal with the experience of loss? In The New Black, Darian Leader argues that mourning an melancholia lie at the heart of what we call depression, but that we neither fully understand nor appreciate the influence of either on our inner lives. By looking more deeply at how we respond to experiences of loss, he seeks to free us from the grip of feelings that, if we let them, may destroy us. 'Leader's analysis of the work of mourning is exemplary. A fine writer who can untangle the complexities of the great psychoanalytic thinkers. The New Black is a book that might actually help' Independent 'An important and timely investigation into contemporary ideas about depression, the mourning process and loss' London Review of Books 'Provocative and controversial . . . a fascinating view of a global issue that may provide new answers to those who have loved and lost' Daily Record 'Rigorous and engaging . . . audacious, rich, cogently argued' Irish Times

Mourning, Melancholia and Depression

The New Black

Neden Uyuyamiyoruz - Insan Uykusunun Tarihi

Edebiyat ve Kotuluk

Mona Lisa Kacirildi

Fifty years ago, the terms mourning and melancholia were part of the psychological lexicon. Today, in a world of rapid diagnoses, quick cures, and big pharmaceutical dollars, the catch-all concept of depression has evolved to take their place. Here, Darian Leader argues that this shift is more than semantic; rather, it speaks to our culture's complicated relationship with loss, suffering, and grief. Part memoir, part cultural analysis, Leader draws on examples from literature, art, cinema, and history, as well as case studies from his work as a psychologist, to explore the unconscious ways our culture responds to the experience of loss, providing an innovative tour of mourning and melancholia and our culture's struggle to understand them.--From publisher description.

mourning, melancholia and depression

"Why do zombies walk with their arms outstretched? How can newborn babies grip an adult finger tightly enough to dangle unsupported from it? And why is everyone constantly texting, tapping and scrolling? For anyone curious about how human beings work, the answers are hidden in plain sight: in our hands. Rather than seeing the history of civilisation in terms of technological breakthroughs, it can be seen as a history of how we have kept our hands busy. From early tools to machinery, from fists to knives to guns, from papyrus to QWERTY to a glowingly swipeable screen, the hands have always been kept occupied. But why this incessant activity? Why can't we keep our hands still? And what might this reveal about our innermost selves? Drawing examples from popular culture, art history, psychoanalysis, modern technology and child development, Handspresents a unique and fascinating odyssey through the history of what human beings do with their hands, and why."

Marcus Du Sautoy

Hans-Ulrich Obrist

Anish Kapoor

Julia Peyton-Jones

Stephanie Dieckvoss

The major outdoor sculptures by acclaimed London-based artist Anish Kapoor are currently on show in the beautiful settings of Kensington Gardens, sited to contrast and reflect the changing colours, foliage and weather. Despite their monumental scale, the works appear as pure reflection of their surroundings: the sky, trees, water, wildlife and changing seasons. The distortions in the works mirror-like surfaces call into question the viewers relationship to both the work itself and the surrounding environment. This catalogue of Kapoors installation is brilliantly illustrated with photographs of the works in situ. It is also the first monograph to feature a comprehensive overview of every one of Kapoors stainless steel sculptures.

Turning the World Upside Down

Although the term 'jouissance' is common currency in psychoanalysis today, how much does it really tell us? While often taken to designate a fusion of sexuality, suffering and satisfaction, the term has fallen into a purely descriptive use that closes down more questions than it opens up. Although assumed to explain the coalescence of pleasure and pain, it tends to cover a range of quite different issues that should be distinguished rather than conflated. By returning to some of the sources of the concept in Freud, and their elaborations in Lacan, this book hopes to stimulate a debate around the relations of pleasure to pain, autoerotism, the links of satisfaction to arousal, the effects of repression, and the place of the body in psychoanalytic theory. Leader aims to provide context for Lacan's work and encourage dialogue with other analytic traditions.

When the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre in 1911, it was twenty–four hours before anyone knew it was missing. Afterward, thousands of people flocked to see the empty space where it had once hung, many of them having never seen the painting in the first place. In Stealing the Mona Lisa, Darien Leader takes the intriguing story of the theft of the Mona Lisa and the public's reaction to it as a starting point to explore the psychology of looking at visual art. What do we hope to see in paintings, and what do they hide from us? Why should some artists feel compelled to live lives that are more colorful than their works? And why did the police bungle their long investigation into the theft of Leonardo's masterpiece? Leader combines anecdote, observation, and analysis with examples taken from classical and contemporary art to create a surprising and fearless interrogation of what we see in art and what we might hope to find.

Darian Leader

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