Acting Out in Groups Laurence Rickels, editor		$26.00 Paper ISBN: 0-8166-3321-5 ISBN-13: 978-0-8166-3321-0
Examines outrageous public behavior and what it can tell us about cultural and political change. The International Psychoanalytic Congress gathered in 1967 to define the clinical concept of "acting out." Thirty years later, our society, which once labeled those who exhibited excessive aggression as delinquent, celebrates outrageous public behavior. In Acting Out in Groups, writers, literary theorists, and cultural critics explore therapeutic descriptions of acting out in relation to the conduct condoned, even encouraged, on daytime TV talk shows, at political rallies, and in performance. Through a deconstruction of "acting out," this collection seeks a new, performative style of critical discourse that incorporates the exuberance and intensity of acting out for analytical ends. Topics include the Jenny Jones murder trial; the response of psychoanalysts to the acclaimed documentary Crumb; the place of the Berlin Wall and other national symbols in German life; and the roles of aggression and discipline in childhood development. Contributors: Kathy Acker, Peter Canning; Julie Carlson, Susan Derwin, Andrew Hewitt, Gary Indiana, Rhonda Lieberman, Catherine Liu, Fred Moten, John Mowitt, Klaus Theweleit, and Elisabeth Weber. Laurence A. Rickels is professor of German and comparative literature at the University of California at Santa Barbara. His books include The Vampire Lectures (1999), The Case of California (2001), and Nazi Psychoanalysis, Volume I, II, III (2002). 216 pages | 5 7/8 x 9 | 1999