Meet our Scholars

I am a critical and cultural theorist who employs psychoanalytic thinking to theorise the interrelation of social and symbolic change, with a particular interest in the philosophy, theory, politics and aesthetics of social reproduction and care. In my monograph, Donald Winnicott and the Politics of Care, published in the Palgrave Macmillan series, Studies in the Psychosocial, in 2022, I investigated what the work of psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott can contribute to understanding, as well as addressing, the crisis of care at the heart of contemporary society. My more recent work and current projects explore the relationship between psychoanalytic thinking and social and symbolic change, centring feminist, queer and decolonial perspectives.

Nini Kerr is a Senior Lecturer in Counselling and Psychotherapy at the University of Edinburgh. She is an accredited trainer and practitioner who works through a decolonial lens. Her publications span the intersection of sociological and psychoanalytic studies, including Culture as the Bad Object (Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society) and The Tyranny of Relationality (International Journal of Psychoanalysis). She was awarded the Good Practice Research Award in the Positive Disruptor category (2022) in recognition of her sustained contributions to innovating and revitalising research practices that promote social justice and equality. She also received the Principal’s Teaching Award Scheme (2023–2024) for her project on decolonising counselling and psychotherapy.

I am currently a Doctoral student at the University of Essex in the Department of Psychoanalytic and Psychosocial Studies. My research focuses on female subjectivity and psychoanalysis. I am a Psychologist and Counselor with specialisms in clinical psychology, creative and play therapy, special education and Psychodynamic Counselling and Psychotherapy (MA). I specialised in Contemporary Interpersonal Psychodynamic Therapy at the Institute of Contemporary Psychotherapy of Athens. I began my collaboration with ICPA as a trainee and have since worked as an Associate Lecturer and Group Facilitator. I am now Head of Research and Literature, overseeing academic literature, research and professional development.

Annette Kuhn is Emeritus Professor in Film Studies at Queen Mary University of London, a Fellow of the British Academy and a Founding Scholar Member of the British Psychoanalytic Society. She was Director of the ESRC-funded project Cinema Culture in 1930s Britain and is Co-Investigator of Cinema Memory and the Digital Archive (AHRC). Publications include An Everyday Magic: Cinema and Cultural Memory (2002); Family Secrets: Acts of Memory and Imagination (2002), Little Madnesses: Winnicott, Transitional Phenomena and Cultural Experience (2013), Exploring Cinema Memory (2023) and (co-authored with Guy Westwell) Oxford Dictionary of Film Studies (2012, 2020).

I have published widely in the field of psychoanalysis and the humanities, with a particular focus on visual fields. I am currently completing a monograph, ‘Fanon’s Freud’, for Stanford UP I am a trainee member of the British Psychotherapy Foundation and the British Psychoanalytic Council and interested in the space between cultural and clinical thinking.

David Mann is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist and supervisor in private practice in Tunbridge Wells and is a member of the British Psychotherapy Foundation. He is registered with both the BCP and the UKCP. He is also a qualified art psychotherapist and registered with the HCPC. He was previously a consultant psychotherapist for 15 years in the NHS in a service specializing in work with BPD. Prior to this he worked as a psychotherapist in a variety of settings including universities, GP surgeries, and psychiatric units. He has run his workshop, "Working with the erotic Transference and Countertransference" around the UK and Europe. David is the author of Psychotherapy: An Erotic Relationship - Transference and Countertransference Passions. The book has been translated into German. In 2021 it was republished as part of the Routledge Mental Health Classic Editions series. His book is now the classic go-to text for working with erotic transference and countertransference. He is also the editor of three other books: The Past in the Present: Therapy Enactments and the Return of Trauma, concerning trauma and how it often repeats in therapy taking the form of enactments. Love and Hate: Psychoanalytic Perspectives, looks at how love and hate manifest in therapy from a variety of psychoanalytic perspectives. Erotic Transference and Countertransference: Clinical Practice in Psychotherapy, where clinicians from a variety of psychoanalytic perspectives look at how the erotic transference and countertransference is experienced and worked with. All his books are published by Routledge. Currently, David is working on a new book, with the working title, Eros is Complicated: Excitement, Boredom, Trauma, Psychotherapy, which is about the complications Eros brings to the clinical practice of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. In addition, he has published many clinical articles and reviews in psychoanalytic and psychotherapy journals on a range of subjects such as narcissism, borderline personality disorder, creativity, trauma, sexuality, humour, mythology and art. In his free time, David likes to make music. Previously he was the singer and guitarist with The Freudian Slippz. He writes and performs his own music under the performance name, Say David, which can be heard on Spotify and iTunes, Website: www.counsellingtherapysoutheast.co.uk Address for correspondence: [email protected]

Co-Editor of the academic journal Women: a Cultural Review Dr Alison Mark E: [email protected] I am a psychoanalytic psychotherapist, BPF member and BPC Registrant. Psychoanalysis, literature, and culture are my main interests. I have written a book on the poet Veronica Forrest-Thomson; a range of other articles, literary and psychoanalytic; and co-edited Contemporary Women’s Poetry: Reading/Writing/Practice with Deryn Rees-Jones. I am an editor of the journal Women: a Cultural Review, and would be pleased to hear of papers and articles that may be suitable for the journal.

Currently pursuing her Professional Doctorate in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy at the University of Essex, Dee brings a rich academic and practical background to her therapeutic work. She holds a postgraduate degree in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy from WPF Therapy, Roehampton University, and completed a Foundation Course in Psychoanalysis at the Institute of Psychoanalysis in London. Additionally, she has earned certificates in Trauma Therapy and Safeguarding. Her experience includes working as an Associate Psychotherapist with young people and students in a university setting, and she is also a certified Reflective Group Facilitator, trained at The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. When working with trauma, she offers EMDR therapy to support her clients in their healing process. She is a dedicated member of the British Psychoanalytic Council (BPC), UK Counselling and Psychotherapy (UKCP), Foundation of Psychotherapy and Counselling (FPC), EMDR UK Association, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA). Research and conference activities: PPS 30th Anniversary Student Research Conference Dreamscapes of Belonging in a Changing World University of Essex, 23rd 24th May 2024 Dee participated with her research paper titled: Voice and the Therapeutic Space: A study of how voice intonation, melody and prosody can be experienced as a dreamscape of the memory and past and was part of PPS Student Conference Committee

As 'Open Space' Editor for the journal Psychodynamic Practice I invite contact from scholars who would like to contribute to this popular feature where psychoanalytic thinking can be considered in relation to art and culture, and where subjective reflection on any aspect of professional practice or theory is welcomed. My own research interests lie in the relationship between psychodynamic thinking and poetry. I am currently Clinical Director of Catalyst Counselling (CIC) in Lowestoft, Suffolk. My other professional affiliations are BACP (Accredited member); Birkbeck Counselling Association (Full member); Association for Psychodynamic Practice and Counselling in Organisational Settings (Full member); East Anglian Psychotherapy Network.