In this editorial we want to pay tribute to the work of Ian Craib who died earlier this year. Ian was a friend of the Centre for Psycho-Social Studies at the University of the West of England and provided great inspiration for students and colleagues alike. He was quite simply one of the most important psychoanalytic sociologists and social theorists, a pioneer of interdisciplinary working, often bringing together seemingly irreconcilable positions to help us understand the psycho-social dynamics of everyday life. Whether through his theoretical dueling in the journal Sociology around the study of emotion, or in his numerous books, Ian Craib has staked a position for the future of psychoanalytic sociology as a discipline.

The focus of Ian Craib’s work is indicated in the subtitle of his 1989 book Psychoanalysis and Social Theory – “the limits of sociology”.  The title and the subtitle provide us with an exact idea of Craib’s interests – social theory and psychoanalysis - but also suggest that he was a key figure in the development of psycho-social studies and was keenly aware of some of the major lacunae of social theory.  For him, combining psychoanalysis and social theory was a way of bridging the  gap between the outer world and the inner world and giving serious attention to peoples’ inner lives.  This combination was revealed in his working life as both Professor of Sociology at the University of Essex and as NHS psychotherapist.

Any assessment of Craib’s contribution to psycho-social studies is in danger of pulling the two parts of his vocation apart.  He wrote extensively on social theory,  classical, modern and post-modern and much of that work is avidly used by students and teachers. His psychotherapeutic practice might seem to stand apart from this theoretical and pedagogic work, but it is clear that insights from the therapeutic work inform the more academic concerns.  In Experiencing Identity (1998), a number of chapters deal with the interface between theory and psychotherapy;  for example, the chapters on mourning and on the psychodynamics of theory.  The chapter on mourning is much concerned with what happens to psychoanalytic ideas when they are applied outside the consulting room and some of these ideas are explored in more detail in The Importance of Disappointment (1994), where Craib argues for a serious confrontation with trauma that does not inevitably lead to traumas being seen as positive in their effects.  The discussion of the psychodynamics of theory asks us, amongst other things, to consider the idea that we, as theorists, have reasons for attachment to theories that are as much affective as rational.  His most recent work -  Psychoanalysis: a critical introduction (2001)  - provides a comprehensive overview of psychoanalysis which gives equal weight to issues of theory and of practice, and culminate in one of the most insightful discussions of transference and counter transference.

It is also important to recognise that his concerns were political ones.  This comes out in his critique of Marxist theory which focuses, in part, on the lack of a serious account of the inner world.  It is also shown in his views on the role of education and the university, which evidences a strong commitment to a humanistic view of education as a way to develop sensitive citizens, in contrast to what he saw as the increasing instrumentalism of education policies structured around measurement, audit and assessment.

The best assessment of Ian Craib's work would be that it has made one of the most significant contributions to psycho-social studies and has encouraged sociologists to take seriously the study of the interface between the inner and the outer worlds.  The best way to celebrate his work would be to seek to further develop theories and methods which allow us to understand and analyse that interface.

The papers in this current edition of the Journal of Psycho-Social Studies continue in this interdisciplinary vein. Adrian Carr explores the concept of the Freudian Death Instinct and its relevance to organisations arguing that the idea that life and death are intertwined in the living, appears largely to be a foreign concept. Similarly neglected, he argues, is how this intertwined relationship gets played out and manifests itself in our working lives and in the manner in which we regard our organisations. In regard to the latter, organisations, as entities, seem to have an air of immortality, or at least that seems to be what we project onto their existence. Frederic Declercq explores the Lacanian notion of the real and the relationship to the body.  After Lacan, Declercq argues that the real of the body is the agency that lies at the base of the fixation of the drives, which is the precursor to repression. Thinking the real of the body through to its logical conclusion, we arrive at the conclusion that it is this same agency that chooses the signifiers that a neurosis is built with. Since jouissance is considered to be the cornerstone of psychopathological processes, ultimately the concept of the real of the body ties together aetiology and treatment argues Declercq.

The next two papers consider what a psycho-social methodology would look like in practice. Lita Crociani-Windland's thought provoking paper draws on the work of Bion in the field of Group Relations and psychoanalysis and Bergson’s work in philosophy on ‘intuition as a method’. Both authors, argues Windland, could be seen as precursors to a psycho-social approach in social research, by advocating the importance of reflexive processes as links between individual and social reality. Julian Manley offers a psychoanalytic approach to text based research in which he examines the use of the metaphor in academic texts by drawing on the work of many writers including Deleuze and Guattari, Capra, and Lacan.

In George Berzins paper he argues for new development in Freud's theory of the evolution of culture. Berzins concludes that life has a teleological component which has led to the rise of humankind - a species with a collective complex. Although there is nothing that could be done to alter the teleological aspect of our existence, explicit recognition of the complex would at least lessen the stresses and strains experienced by the human mother - would enable her openly to share her burden with others.
 

References

CRAIB, I. (1989)  Psychoanalysis and Social Theory: the limits of sociology.  Brighton, Harvester Wheatsheaf

CRAIB, I. (1994)  The Importance of Disappointment.  London, Routledge

CRAIB, I. (1998)  Experiencing Identity.  London, Sage

CRAIB, I. (2001)  Psychoanalysis: a critical introduction.  Cambridge, Polity Press.