Profile
I am a scholar and educator with extensive experience of senior leadership in higher education settings. My principal research interest lies in the mobilisation of psychoanalysis and analytical psychology as a lens applied to an interdisciplinary exploration of cultural phenomena and societal processes. My previous work has concentrated on methodological issues arising from the application of a psychology of the individual to an understanding of culture and society, e.g., C. G. Jung’s engagement with the discipline of history, the strengths and weaknesses of psychobiography, Arnold J. Toynbee’s psychological and religious approach to writing global history, and a critical assessment of the post-Jungian theory of cultural complexes. My research interests include oral history interviewing in relation to sibling networks in the Chinese/Vietnamese Diaspora, the adaptation of graphic novels to film, depth psychological approaches to an examination of cultural artefacts, and psychological approaches to understanding racial hybridity. My papers on racial hybridity and archetypal thematic analysis (the latter co-authored with Ann Yeoman) were awarded the scholarship prize for best article published in the IJJS (2019 and 2023 respectively).
Prior to joining Central as Professor of Applied Psychoanalysis and Head of Department (Practice), I was a Visiting Lecturer at Heythrop College, University of London (2007 to 2009) and was then in post for fourteen years at the University of Essex. I am a former Head of the Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies (PPS) and was Director of the MA Jungian and Post-Jungian Studies between 2009 and 2022. I have served on the Executive Committee of the International Association for Jungian Studies, am a member of the Adjunct Faculty at Pacifica Graduate Institute, and an Honorary Professor in PPS.
My first degree is from the University of Toronto, where I graduated with a BA (Hons) (Specialist in the Psychology of Religion and two Minors in History and Humanism respectively) with High Distinction. I then attended Heythrop College where I completed my MA Psychology of Religion with Distinction. I was amongst the final cohort awarded an ORSAS grant to pursue a PhD, which I completed at the Centre (now Department) for Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex.
Areas of Expertise
C. G. Jung, analytical psychology, Jungian and Post-Jungian theory
Psychosocial Studies and psychosocial methods
Psychoanalytic history and psychohistory
Oral history
Transgenerational transmission of trauma
Graphic novels and popular culture
Chinese/Vietnamese Diaspora
Psychology of Religion
PhD Supervision
To date, I have supervised/co-supervised seven PhD projects to completion and have examined (both as internal and external examiner) sixteen PhD theses and three MSc dissertations. I have supervised two successful arts-based research projects, and would welcome the opportunity to explore co-supervision of interdisciplinary research combining my areas of expertise and those of other colleagues at Central.
Key publications
Forthcoming. (co-authored with Iqbal Singh), “Experiencing the Historical Record: A Psychosocial/Psychodynamic Method for Working with Archival Materials” in Archives and Emotions. London: Bloomsbury.
2024. (co-authored with Ann Yeoman),The Collected Works of C. G. Jung: The Basics. (London and New York: Routledge).
2023. (co-authored with Ann Yeoman). “The Future of Jungian Psycho-Social Studies: Akira, Greta Thunberg and Archetypal Thematic Analysis (ATA).” International Journal of Jungian Studies.
2023. “Daring to Dream the Myth Onwards: The persistence of archetypal themes in Spider-Man.” In Travis Langley and Alex Langley (eds), Spider-Man Psychology. Wiley.
2023. (co-authored with William Sharp and Greta Kaluzeviciute), “Stranger Things in the First Episode: Lessons from the start.” In Travis Langley (ed), Stranger Things Psychology: Life Upside Down. Wiley, pp. 133-47.
2023. (co-authored with Frazer Merritt and Dennis Merritt). “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Revisited.” Psychological Perspectives, 65(3-4), pp. 350-59.
2022. (co-authored with Andrew Howe, Meryn Jones, and Chris Bowden), “Processes of Change in a Therapeutic Community: a case study.” Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. DOI:10.1080/02668734.2022.2078997
2022. (co-authored with Greta Kaluzeviciute and William Sharp), “Things can only get Stranger: theoretical and clinical reflections on Netflix’s Stranger Things.” The Journal of Popular Culture, 55(3), pp. 611-631.
2021. “Preface” in Stefano Carpani (ed), The Plural Turn: the development of Jungian and Post-Jungian Studies and the work of Andrew Samuels. London and New York: Routledge, pp. xi-xvi.
2020. “Racial hybridity: Jungian and Post-Jungian perspectives.” International Journal of Jungian Studies, 12, pp. 1-40.
03/25/2019. (co-authored with Frazer Merritt and Dennis Merritt), “Is the Hunger Games the myth that defines our times?” in Los Angeles Review of Books.
2018. (co-authored with Frazer Merritt and Dennis Merritt), “A Jungian Interpretation ofthe Hunger Games: a myth that defines our times.” Jung Journal: Culture and Psyche,12(3), pp. 26-44.
2018. “Teaching Jung in the Academy: the representation of comic book heroes on the big screen” in The Routledge International Handbook of Jungian Film Studies. ed. Luke Hockley. (London and New York: Routledge), pp. 128-140.
2016. “Piecing the Story Together: the political and psychological aspects of oral history interviewing in the Chinese/Vietnamese diaspora” in Analysis and Activism: Social and Political Contributions of Jungian Psychology. ed. Mark Saban, Andrew Samuels, and Emilija Kiehl. (London and New York: Routledge), pp. 97-104.
2014. “Foreword” in Carl Gustav Jung’s Analytical Psychology: Its theory and practice. (Oxford and New York: Routledge), pp. x-xvii.
2014. “A Jungian Psychohistory: A. J. Toynbee’s use of analytical psychology in his theory of civilizations.” International Journal of Jungian Studies, 6(1), pp. 52-68.
2013. “Can Individual Psychology Explain Social Phenomena? An appraisal of the theory of cultural complexes.” Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society, 18(4), pp. 386-404.
2013. “Reply to Thomas Singer.” Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society, 18(4), pp. 416-422.
2012. “Jung, History and his Approach to the Psyche.” Journal of Jungian Scholarly Studies, 8(9), pp. 1-24.
2011. “Jung and History” in Sexual Revolutions: Psychoanalysis, History and the Father. ed. Gottfried Heuer. (London and New York: Routledge), pp. 11-34.
2009. “The Possession of Thomas Darling.” Rebus, 3, pp. 1-32.
Register of Interest
Nothing to declare.