This article is an attempt to open discussion on the role of the individual, as opposed to the group, in contemporary progressive and radical politics. The phrase making a difference comes to mind. Academic ideas about the contexts and groups in which individuals operate are important yet require extensive revision. Jung’s ideas about the relationship of individuals and the social collective are useful as is Camus’ (1951/1953) book The Rebel. This article presents new thinking about individuals as fractured and broken as distinct from the autonomous unit promulgated by neoliberal thinking. Yet they remain individuals.
BollasC. (1989). Forces of destiny: Psychoanalysis and human idiom. London, England: Free Association Books.
2.
CamusA. (1953). The rebel (LaredoJ. Trans.). London: Hamish Hamilton. (Original work published 1951 in French)
3.
DalalF. (2002). Race, colour and the process of racialization: New perspectives from group analysis, psychoanalysis, and sociology. Hove, England: Brunner-Routledge.
4.
FicowskiJ. (1981). [Untitled poem]. In FicowskiJ.A reading of ashes (BosleyK. Trans.). New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press. (Original work published 1979 in Polish)
5.
FoucaultM. (1972). The archaeology of knowledge (SheridanA. Trans.). New York, NY: Harper & Row. (Original work published 1969 in French)
6.
JungC. G. (1963). Memories, dreams, reflections. London, England: Collins.
7.
JungC. G. (1966). Specific problems of psychotherapy: The psychology of the transference. In JungC. G.The collected works of C. G. Jung (AdlerG.HullR. F. C. Eds. & Trans.) (2nd ed.) (Vol. 16, pp. 163–323). London, England: Routledge and Kegan Paul. (Original work published 1946)
8.
JungC. G. (1970). The undiscovered self (present and future). In JungC. G.The collected works of C. G. Jung (AdlerG.HullR. F. C. Eds. & Trans.) (2nd ed.) (Vol. 10, pp. 247–305). London, England: Routledge and Kegan Paul. (Original work published 1957)
9.
JungC. G. (2009). The red book: Liber novus (ShamdasaniS. Ed. & Trans.). New York, NY: Norton.
10.
LeoneS. (Director). (1966). The good, the bad and the ugly [Motion picture]. United States: United Artists.
11.
LevinasE. (1999). Alterity and transcendence (MichaelB. Trans.). New York, NY: Columbia University Press. (Original work published 1995 in French)
12.
OrwellG. (1950). Nineteen eighty-four. London, England: Penguin. (Original work published 1949)
13.
SamuelsA. (1993). The political psyche. London, England: Routledge.
14.
SamuelsA. (2001). Politics on the couch: Citizenship and the internal life. London, England: Karnac Books.
15.
SamuelsA. (2014). Persons, passions, psychotherapy, politics: The selected works of Andrew Samuels. London, England: Routledge.
16.
SamuelsA. (2015). A new therapy for politics?London, England: Karnac Books.
17.
WinnicottD. W. (1958). Mind and its relation to the psyche-soma. In WinnicottD. W.Collected papers: Through paediatrics to psychoanalysis (pp. 243–254). London, England: Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis. (Original work published 1949)
18.
WinnicottD. W. (1965). Ego integration in child development. In WinnicottD. W.The maturational processes and the facilitating environment: Studies in the theory of emotional development (KhanM. Ed.) (pp. 56–63). London, England: Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis. (Original work published 1962)
