Conference Announcement

The Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies
University of Essex, Colchester

Presents a One-day Conference

Why the Mainstream Needs its Margins: The Function
of the Marginalised in Psyche and Society

Saturday, 13 November 2010

For decades sociologists, politicians, historians and identity theorists have been concerned to reintegrate invisible and discarded groups from the margins of society. We have learned to listen for voices beyond the boundaries of dominant groupings – regarding ethnic or gender identities; the criminalised and disenfranchised; the migrant and the underclass. But the margins are at the same time some of the most highly visible aspects of society. Daily the media turn their lens on immigrants, on anti-social youths, on gays, on ethnic minorities, and on the mentally ill. The engendering of moral panic over those who exist on the margins is central to the way non-marginal and mainstream identities function. This one-day conference brings together sociological, historical and psychoanalytic perspectives to examine the margins as a symptom of so-called ‘normal’ identity. What do we project onto the margins, how are they identified with, how do they operate as part of the psychic economy of the mainstream? Could a centre exist without its margins?

Panels on:

What Happened to Deviance?
Immigration: Fantasies and Realities
Panic, Trauma and Making Enemies
Marginalising the Fear of Madness

Speakers include:

Simon Clarke (UwE), Colin Samson (Essex), Karl Figlio (Essex), Jeffrey Murer (St Andrews), Eamonn Carrabine (Essex), Tim Dartington (Tavistock Institute), Joan Busfield (Essex), Aaron Balick (Essex)

Cost: £55 for the day (£35 students/unwaged)

For booking and registration see attached booking form, or contact Debbie Stewart: Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester C04 3SQ Tel: 01206 873640; Fax: 01206 872746; cpsadmin@essex.ac.uk