Tag: Psychoanalysis

The World Cup offers a rich site for psychoanalytic inquiry. Whether in relation to nationalism, fandom, desire, identification, embodiment, spectacle, media, race, gender, inequality, anxiety, enjoyment, failure, or collective belonging, the tournament continues to generate profound emotional investment across players, fans, nations, and media institutions. This provides an important opportunity to think critically about why sport matters, and why football, in particular, continues to occupy such a powerful place in our social and subjective lives.

At first glance, Sport and Psychoanalysis may appear worlds apart: sport is associated with physicality, competition, and entertainment, while psychoanalysis explores the unconscious, desire, and the contradictions that structure subjectivity. Yet, it is precisely this apparent disparity that makes their relationship so compelling. By engaging with the psychic, cultural, and social dimensions of sport, the journal offers a critical space for examining how sport both reflects and unsettles the psychic and social structures that shape our lives.

This international journal explores the intersection between psychoanalysis and the social world. Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society is a journal of both clinical and academic relevance which publishes articles examining the roles that psychoanalysis can play in promoting and achieving progressive social change and social justice. The Forum Editor’s pick from the current issue: Abjection in sports: An ethical approach by Kutte Jönsson (open access).