Class in the consulting room

Abstract

This paper explores the centrality of class in psychoanalytic psychotherapy in the context of the review of Layton, Hollander and Gutwill's Psychoanalysis, Class and Politics (Layton et al., 2006). It reviews a clinical engagement with class, arguing that class has not been absent from the clinical setting, being salient in much social work analysis. The issue of how class enters psychotherapy is brought into salience by Layton's observation of comments made by middle-class therapists about their feelings of comfort in entering shops with ranges of goods and ambiences that can be understood in class terms. The issue of class in relation to identity has been well explored in the social science tradition, particularly in the work of a group of feminist scholars. This paper seeks to bring together insights from both the clinical and social science traditions, so that each may be enriched. It argues that much more dialogue is needed between the two kinds of work in order to think beyond the normative unconscious and the problems of the distinctions between inner and outer worlds. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons. Ltd.