- This event has passed.
Islamic State is seen primarily through a political lens: the psychological motivation of such groups is poorly understood.
But we need to ask the question, do the inner disquiets of Islam make more sense to the psychoanalytic thinking than to the imams?
But what would Sigmund Freud have thought about Islamic State? Can Freudian psychoanalysis offer insight into the radicalisation of group members and the effect this has on the wider society?
Gabrielle Rifkind is the author of The Psychology of Political Extremism: What would Sigmund Freud have thought about Islamic State? and will be in discussion with Brett Kahr on this subject, offering a psychoanalytic approach to one of the most pressing yet sensitive topics currently unfolding in the world today.
Sigmund Freud’s final years were also marked by the rise of sudden political extremism forcing him to flee his home in Vienna and seek refuge in London. To coincide with the Freud Museum London’s current exhibition Leaving Today: The Freuds in Exile 1938, this discussion will recall Freud’s own flight from Nazi persecution eighty years ago.
The Psychology of Political Extremism: What would Sigmund Freud have thought about Islamic State?
is available online from shop.freud.org.uk
Speakers:
Gabrielle Rifkind is a practicing psychotherapist and group analyst, and a specialist in conflict resolution. She has spent the past two decades working in conflict resolution in the Middle East.
Brett Kahr is a Trustee of the Freud Museum and has worked in the mental health field for over thirty-five years. He is Senior Fellow at Tavistock Relationships at the Tavistock Institute of Medical Psychology in London and Consultant Psychotherapist at the Balint Consultancy.
