Scholars’ Network Spotlight: Dr Deborah Wright
Dr Deborah Wright is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies (PPS) at the University of Essex. Deborah is also an editorial board member of New Associations, the BPC’s flagship magazine.
Deborah Wright, PGCHEP FHEA, D.Psychodyn.Psych. is a psychotherapist who trained at the Westminster Pastoral Foundation and is also, in PPS, the Programme Director for the Professional Doctorate Programmes (Doctorate in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Doctorate in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, Doctorate in Analytical Psychology, Doctorate in Psychodynamic Counselling) which are research doctorates for already qualified clinicians working in the field. Deborah is also currently PPS Director of Education and PPS Director of Undergraduate Studies and a Senior Lecturer and Module Supervisor on MA and BA programmes. Deborah runs the PPS Psychoanalytic Clinical Research Group, hosting on line events.
Deborah has previously worked as a Deputy Manager, staff trainer and training consultant in residential care for people with learning difficulties and mental health problems. She’s also a trained artist and her patient and client work, as well as her academic and art work (which features extensively in her work, including 2022 book cover), relate to humans’ relationship with their environment.
In 2023, Dr Wright co-wrote the paper ‘Becoming a researcher: psychotherapists’ experience of starting a professional doctorate‘ published in the Journal of Child Psychotherapy. In 2022, she published her book with Routledge The Physical and Virtual Space of the Consulting Room Room-object Spaces.
She is currently working on a new book for Routledge entitled, ‘Psychoanalytic Spaces and the Anatomy of Home’ which will be out around summer/autumn 2026.
Book Chapters that Deborah has written include: (2018)‘Rooms as Replacements for People: The Consulting Room as a Room Object’ in ‘Psychoanalysis’ section of ‘On Replacement – Cultural, Social and Psychological Representations’, Eds: Jean Owen and Naomi Segal, Switzerland, Palgrave Macmillan, (2019) ‘Spatialisation and the Fomenting of Political Violence’ in Fomenting Political Violence – Fantasy, Language, Media, Action.’, Eds. Steffen Kruger, Karl Figlio, Barry Richards. Switzerland, Palgrave Macmillan. (2024) ‘Dwelling Spaces as Sites for the Virtual Consulting Room’ in ‘Dwelling: Cultural Representations of Inhabited Spaces’ Eds Orsolya Petőcz & Naomi Segal and (2024) ‘Desarrollo del concepto de espacializacion: la transferencia en el espacio de la consulta y enel espacio virtual. El objecto-Hogar Bueno, el objecto-Hogar Malo y el arte’ (‘The Virtual Consulting Room-object space as a Virtual Home: Spatialised Virtual Good Home-object and Bad Home-object Elements and Art’) in the book: ‘Tiempo y espacio. Perspectivas desde el psicoanalisis y el arte’ (‘Time and Space. Perspectives from Psychoanalysis and Art’), Editor Carmen Gloria Fenieux.
As an editorial board member for New Associations, Deborah has worked with and edited for many contributing authors over the years. Her most recent contribution was in Issue 44, discussing Masculinity and Psychoanalysis with Karl Figlio. In 2023, Deborah wrote a piece for the magazine entitled: ‘The Queen is dead, long live the King: Queen Elizabeth II’s Funeral procession, lying in state, viewing queues and Spatialisation’. The piece explores public reactions to the Queen’s death from a Freudian perspective, you can read it here in our free archive.
