Reading list

Psychoanalysis: the political, the social, and the self

Books on the history of psychoanalytic thought, the failures of mainstream psychotherapy, and how to find your radical self.

Verso Books29 September 2025

Sigmund Freud poses during the making of his own bust by sculptor Oskar Nemov. Vienna, 1931.

How to be Real: A Survival Guide in Challenging Times by Stephen Frosh is a bold and necessary guide to finding your radical self in difficult times.

Drawing on thinkers such as Freud, Winnicott and Klein, Frosh argues that we must look to what connects us. Authenticity depends on the quality of our human relationships. Consequently, the question of ‘how to be real’ has political as well as psychological and ethical implications. 

Out Now!

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Further Reading

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  • Psychopolitics

    Psychopolitics

    Byung-Chul Han, a star of German philosophy, continues his passionate critique of neoliberalism, trenchantly describing a regime of technological domination that, in contrast to Foucault’s biopower...
  • Burnout
    In the struggle for a better world, setbacks are inevitable. Defeat can feel overwhelming at times, but it has to be endured. How then do the people on the front line keep going? To answer that que...
  • Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality

    Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality

    Available for the first time in English, the 1905 edition of Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality presents Sigmund Freud’s thought in a form new to all but a few ardent students of his work.This...
    Paperback
  • Freud

    Freud

    Octave Mannoni worked in France, Madagascar and Africa throughout the twentieth century to extend Lacanian psychoanalytical methods into the field of ethnology. He is best known for his research in...
    Paperback
  • Heroes
    What is the relationship between capitalism and mental health? Through an exhilarating mix of philosophical and psychoanalytical theory and reportage - from the suicide epidemic in Korea to the wav...
    Paperback
  • Freudian Slip
    Philology cross-examines Freud in this sustained critique of psychoanalysis and its foundational notion of the slip.Challenging virtually every account of linguistic error in Freud’s work as arbitr...
    Paperback

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