Geoff Ferguson
@geoff75.bsky.social
I'm a psychoanalytic psychotherapist, living in London in the UK. I trained nearly 40 years ago and I'm now moving towards retirement. I also teach psychoanalytic theory on a couple of psychotherapy trainings.
Reposted by Geoff Ferguson
There'll be scenes like this (and much worse) up and down the UK if Reform get into government and start acting out their Send Them Back fantasies. A thousand acts of sadism carried out by malevolent racist thugs employed and empowered by the state.
Some of you will be safe. Many of us won't.
Some of you will be safe. Many of us won't.
I was back at 26 Federal Plaza today, where an ICE agent violently threw this bereft woman to the ground in front of her kids. She had not touched him. She did not pose any threat. She had to be taken to the hospital. (🎥: Elias Eliahu)
September 25, 2025 at 6:55 PM
There'll be scenes like this (and much worse) up and down the UK if Reform get into government and start acting out their Send Them Back fantasies. A thousand acts of sadism carried out by malevolent racist thugs employed and empowered by the state.
Some of you will be safe. Many of us won't.
Some of you will be safe. Many of us won't.
Last ECPS Psychoanalytic Film Club, Haneke's fascinating The White Ribbon, themes: the uncanny, the return of the repressed, fascism.
As with a therapy session, the film doesn't include answers. But sometimes we shouldn't look for answers, instead allow ourselves to be transformed by an experience.
As with a therapy session, the film doesn't include answers. But sometimes we shouldn't look for answers, instead allow ourselves to be transformed by an experience.
September 25, 2025 at 11:23 AM
Last ECPS Psychoanalytic Film Club, Haneke's fascinating The White Ribbon, themes: the uncanny, the return of the repressed, fascism.
As with a therapy session, the film doesn't include answers. But sometimes we shouldn't look for answers, instead allow ourselves to be transformed by an experience.
As with a therapy session, the film doesn't include answers. But sometimes we shouldn't look for answers, instead allow ourselves to be transformed by an experience.
Took part as a member in the first CityLit meeting of my Nietzsche reading group. Great group of people, with interesting contributions. I've known nothing about Nietzsche, so good to continue exploring links between psychoanalysis and continental philosophy.
September 22, 2025 at 9:34 PM
Took part as a member in the first CityLit meeting of my Nietzsche reading group. Great group of people, with interesting contributions. I've known nothing about Nietzsche, so good to continue exploring links between psychoanalysis and continental philosophy.
Interesting reflections on a significant contemporary theorist
I just realized that the blog post didn't have active links included to parts 2 and 3. 🤦 The post has now been updated with links! Read the whole series.
Reading Ogden: On Psychoanalytic Virtues
Series by Adam Rodriguez on Thomas Ogden
“The institution of psychoanalysis is not superordinate to the patient & their needs. At all times, the needs of the patient, & those impacted by the patient, take priority.”
www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/reading-og...
Series by Adam Rodriguez on Thomas Ogden
“The institution of psychoanalysis is not superordinate to the patient & their needs. At all times, the needs of the patient, & those impacted by the patient, take priority.”
www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/reading-og...
July 31, 2025 at 7:10 AM
Interesting reflections on a significant contemporary theorist
'Angels in the nursery (2005)', Lieberman et al on possible benign childhood experiences that the traumatised child can draw upon when they become a parent. Interrupting intergenerational cycles of maltreatment. As important as Fraiberg's 'Ghosts'. Good to end the term with a hopeful message.
March 28, 2025 at 8:59 AM
'Angels in the nursery (2005)', Lieberman et al on possible benign childhood experiences that the traumatised child can draw upon when they become a parent. Interrupting intergenerational cycles of maltreatment. As important as Fraiberg's 'Ghosts'. Good to end the term with a hopeful message.
Update on Pinker's 'Better Angels'. Claim that we evolved to often be collaborative, except that psychopaths often achieve positions of power.
worksinprogress.co/issue/the-pr...
worksinprogress.co/issue/the-pr...
The prehistoric psychopath - Works in Progress
Life in the state of nature was less violent than you might think. Most of our ancestors avoided conflict. But this made them vulnerable to a few psychopaths.
worksinprogress.co
March 19, 2025 at 9:09 AM
Update on Pinker's 'Better Angels'. Claim that we evolved to often be collaborative, except that psychopaths often achieve positions of power.
worksinprogress.co/issue/the-pr...
worksinprogress.co/issue/the-pr...
Reposted by Geoff Ferguson
Ego defences displayed here include rationalisation, splitting, denial, and projection.
March 19, 2025 at 8:24 AM
Ego defences displayed here include rationalisation, splitting, denial, and projection.
Reposted by Geoff Ferguson
"Of the scores of people I spoke to... all perceived their lives to be better off thanks to an [ADHD] diagnosis. [And yet, since] the diagnosis, almost all had left their job, dropped out of education & lost many old friends. Several were housebound".
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
The number of people with chronic conditions is soaring. Are we less healthy than we used to be – or overdiagnosing illness?
Are ordinary life experiences, bodily imperfections and normal differences being unnecessarily pathologised? One doctor argues just that
www.theguardian.com
March 2, 2025 at 8:08 AM
"Of the scores of people I spoke to... all perceived their lives to be better off thanks to an [ADHD] diagnosis. [And yet, since] the diagnosis, almost all had left their job, dropped out of education & lost many old friends. Several were housebound".
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
From Christina Emanuel. In 'An Accidental Pokemon Expert' (2015), she encourages us to see the individual's subjective experience within autism.
February 27, 2025 at 1:58 PM
From Christina Emanuel. In 'An Accidental Pokemon Expert' (2015), she encourages us to see the individual's subjective experience within autism.
Reposted by Geoff Ferguson
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) reports that nearly a quarter of the UK population now suffers 'material deprivation' (being unable to properly heat their homes or feed their families).... And we wonder why mental & emotional anguish escalates....
February 23, 2025 at 7:57 AM
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) reports that nearly a quarter of the UK population now suffers 'material deprivation' (being unable to properly heat their homes or feed their families).... And we wonder why mental & emotional anguish escalates....
Reposted by Geoff Ferguson
Dreams under fascism, and paralysis:
"Between 1933 and 1939, the journalist Charlotte Beradt compiled The Third Reich of Dreams ... the paralysis theme was possibly the most recurrent and striking"
Zoe Williams in The Guardian www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Zoe Williams in The Guardian www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The new world order is exactly what it looks like. Are we too frozen with fear to name it? | Zoe Williams
The truth is paralysing. But after JD Vance met the far-right leader Alice Weidel in Germany, it is time to be clear about what we are seeing, writes Zoe Williams
www.theguardian.com
February 18, 2025 at 8:30 AM
Dreams under fascism, and paralysis:
1/ Pamela Bartram (Melancholia, Mourning, Love. 2013): Therapy with disabled adults/parents of a disabled child, disability can bring loss of ego ideal and consequent harsh superego. If melancholia can turn to mourning, then Britton's 'Rueful humour' and an acceptance of impermanence can emerge.
January 29, 2025 at 10:57 PM
1/ Pamela Bartram (Melancholia, Mourning, Love. 2013): Therapy with disabled adults/parents of a disabled child, disability can bring loss of ego ideal and consequent harsh superego. If melancholia can turn to mourning, then Britton's 'Rueful humour' and an acceptance of impermanence can emerge.
Next seminar: Aileen Alleyne 2007 The internal oppressor. External oppression leading to an inhibiting adaptive false self. Alleyne sees this as a specific structure, different to internalised oppression, the latter being internalisation of the oppressor's values.
January 19, 2025 at 9:08 PM
Next seminar: Aileen Alleyne 2007 The internal oppressor. External oppression leading to an inhibiting adaptive false self. Alleyne sees this as a specific structure, different to internalised oppression, the latter being internalisation of the oppressor's values.
Raphael-Leff's 'Absolute hospitality and the imagined baby' (2020) provided a good start to a term on human development. Our beginnings lie in the body and mind of the mother. Raphael-Leff also reminds us that a degree of maternal ambivalence is to be expected.
January 14, 2025 at 7:49 AM
Raphael-Leff's 'Absolute hospitality and the imagined baby' (2020) provided a good start to a term on human development. Our beginnings lie in the body and mind of the mother. Raphael-Leff also reminds us that a degree of maternal ambivalence is to be expected.
Awais Aftab brings his usual clear thinking and compassion to the complex and non-determining relationship between biological sex and gender identity.
Gender Identity, Biological Sex, and Psychopathology: Back to Basics
Pronouns are linguistic and social tools, not representations of sexual physiology.
www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/gender-ide...
Pronouns are linguistic and social tools, not representations of sexual physiology.
www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/gender-ide...
Gender Identity, Biological Sex, and Psychopathology
Back to Basics
www.psychiatrymargins.com
January 5, 2025 at 10:01 PM
Awais Aftab brings his usual clear thinking and compassion to the complex and non-determining relationship between biological sex and gender identity.
One of The American Psychoanalyst's top stories for 2024 is this useful and well-written piece by Lily Meyersohn...
Revisiting Freud’s “Discrediting” open.substack.com/pub/american...
Revisiting Freud’s “Discrediting” open.substack.com/pub/american...
Revisiting Freud’s “Discrediting”
Frederick Crews has died. Let’s lay his views on psychoanalysis to rest.
open.substack.com
December 31, 2024 at 1:13 PM
One of The American Psychoanalyst's top stories for 2024 is this useful and well-written piece by Lily Meyersohn...
Revisiting Freud’s “Discrediting” open.substack.com/pub/american...
Revisiting Freud’s “Discrediting” open.substack.com/pub/american...
Another thoughtful post by Awais Aftab, this about risk and iatrogenic harm.
open.substack.com/pub/awaisaft...
open.substack.com/pub/awaisaft...
December 22, 2024 at 8:25 PM
Another thoughtful post by Awais Aftab, this about risk and iatrogenic harm.
open.substack.com/pub/awaisaft...
open.substack.com/pub/awaisaft...
A great thread with a insight that continues to be challenging; but without this insight much of human life remains obscure.
suspecting that Freud’s greatest scandal was not to claim we’re born with sexual feelings
or that consciousness is not master in its own home
but that pleasure and pain exist in constant, dynamic, and reciprocal relation
think Lacan brings this out especially well with his notion of jouissance
or that consciousness is not master in its own home
but that pleasure and pain exist in constant, dynamic, and reciprocal relation
think Lacan brings this out especially well with his notion of jouissance
December 17, 2024 at 6:41 PM
A great thread with a insight that continues to be challenging; but without this insight much of human life remains obscure.
Thanks for the reminder of Fairbairn. And, of course, this trauma may lead the child to believe that its own love is toxic and that this is the reason that it is not loved.
The greatest trauma a child can experience.
Ronald Fairbairn.
Ronald Fairbairn.
December 12, 2024 at 11:03 PM
Thanks for the reminder of Fairbairn. And, of course, this trauma may lead the child to believe that its own love is toxic and that this is the reason that it is not loved.
Thanks for sharing these (and other) images.
One of my favourite book purchases in the last few years. I bought this in an art book store in Prague. Anna Zemankova was preoccupied with creating her own botanical world. Art brut, Outsider art...whatever you like to call it. I find her work deeply satisfying. #arthistory #artbrut #outsiderart
December 11, 2024 at 8:58 AM
Thanks for sharing these (and other) images.
Reposted by Geoff Ferguson
It is odd that so many people see psychoanalytic therapy as an endless, intellectual rehashing of one’s childhood experiences when, in fact, one of its core assumptions concerns the emotional power of the here-and-now therapeutic relationship.
- Nancy McWilliams
- Nancy McWilliams
December 10, 2024 at 4:17 PM
It is odd that so many people see psychoanalytic therapy as an endless, intellectual rehashing of one’s childhood experiences when, in fact, one of its core assumptions concerns the emotional power of the here-and-now therapeutic relationship.
- Nancy McWilliams
- Nancy McWilliams
Reposted by Geoff Ferguson
"The construction of the object leads retroactively to the construction of the drive, which constructs the object" (André Green, 2000).
December 6, 2024 at 6:21 AM
"The construction of the object leads retroactively to the construction of the drive, which constructs the object" (André Green, 2000).
Last seminar for the term. Heidi Keller's paper encourages us to broaden our often culturally-bound understanding of attachment theory.
December 9, 2024 at 10:59 PM
Last seminar for the term. Heidi Keller's paper encourages us to broaden our often culturally-bound understanding of attachment theory.