**FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD AND LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE; SHORT-LISTED FOR THE J. ANTHONY LUKAS PRIZE; A BCALA 2023 HONOR NONFICTION AWARD WINNER.A landmark biography by two prizewinning Washington Post reporters that reveals how systemic racism shaped George Floyd's life and legacy—from his family’s roots in the tobacco fields of North Carolina, to ongoing inequality in housing, education, health care, criminal justice, and policing—telling the sto...

Hamlet: Psychoanalysis, Ideology, and the Crisis of ModernityThis book offers a bold reinterpretation of Hamlet through five interwoven frames-ironic, ideological, psycho-social, emotional, and scientific-to reveal how Shakespeare's play speaks directly to today's cultural, political, and psychological dilemmas. Drawing on Freud, Lacan, Hegel, and Marx, the author argues that Hamlet is not only a metaphorical autobiography of Shakespeare ...

Trauma, Pedagogy, and the College Mental Health Crisis argues that psychoanalytic theory and practice offers a solution to the large increase in students seeking mental health services.Robert Samuels returns to the roots of psychoanalysis, drawing from Freud’s and Lacan’s conceptions of hysteria and narcissism. This book examines the idea that the repression of psychoanalysis has resulted in a situation where students are being misdiagnosed and mistreated as the underlying...

Lesbia Newman by Henry Robert Samuel Dalton is a compelling work of early fiction that weaves together themes of identity, emotion, and social constraint within a richly drawn narrative landscape. Through its carefully developed characters and thoughtful storytelling, the novel explores the tensions between personal desire and societal expectation. At the center of the story is Lesbia Newman, a figure whose experiences reflect the struggles of navigating love, reputation, and independence ...

Globalism, Psychoanalysis, and the Integration of Eight Global Ideologies argues that psychoanalysis helps us comprehend the different ideologies shaping our world today by examining eight distinct belief systems through their psychological and rhetorical roots, moving beyond simple Left-Right political polarization.The work uses Freud's theory of psychology and politics to answer pressing contemporary questions including why people believe in conspiracy theories, why poli...

This book interrogates the notion that artificial intelligence may represent a threat to the world because it lacks both empathy and reason and suggests that - if we do not intervene to limit and control AI - we are at risk of being overtaken by machines, which are not aligned with human ethics and values. To outline how we should counter the worst tendencies of automated intelligence, we must first understand the roots of morality and reason and why we have been misunderstanding the funda...

This book offers a unique approach by using psychoanalytic theory to explain how we can resolve the most important issues facing the world today and in the future. One of my main arguments is that we need to move beyond national politics in order to provide global solutions to global problems. However, there is a misplaced fear concerning global governance, and much of this phobia is derived from a misunderstanding of history and human psychology. Not only do we have to learn to give up ou...

The Psychoanalytic Understanding of Consciousness, Free Will, Language, and Reason examines the ways in which we can use psychoanalysis in order to better understand humanity and explores the question of what makes us human.For thousands of years, thinkers have been trying to define what makes us human. Some of the main questions they have asked is: What is consciousness? Do we have free will? Do animals use language? And what does reason mean? Samuels argues that we need ...

This book sets out to clarify five key Freudian concepts (the pleasure principle, the primary processes, the unconscious, transference, and the reality principle) elaborated early on in Freud’s work but, it is argued, rarely understood—even by psychoanalysts themselves. It examines in turn the post-Freudian paradigms employed in neuropsychoanalysis, Lacan, Zizek, object relations, and psychoanalytic approaches to identity politics, and in doing so reveals the extent to which they have been...

Political Pathologies from The Sopranos to Succession argues that highly praised prestige TV shows reveal the underlying fantasies and contradictions of uppermiddle-class political centrists.Through a psychoanalytic interpretation of The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, The Wire, House of Cards, Dexter, Game of Thrones, and Succession, Robert Samuels uncovers how moderate “liberals” have helped to produce and maintain t...

Politicians and school officials often argue that higher education is the solution to many of our social, and economic problems. Educating Inequality argues that in order to reduce inequality and enhance social mobility, public policies are needed to revamp the financial aid system and increase the number of good jobs. Exploring topics such as the fairness of the current social system, the focus on individual competition in an unequal society, and democracy and capitalism in higher educati...

Universities tend to be judged by the test scores of their incoming students and not on what students actually learn once they attend these institutions. While shared tests and surveys have been developed, most schools refuse to publish the results. Instead, they allow such publications as U.S. News & World Report to define educational quality. In order to raise their status in these rankings, institutions pour money into new facilities and extracurricular activities while underfu...