Dr Marita Vyrgioti

Biography

I am a Lecturer in the Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies, where I am also the Director of the BA in Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies I have a long-standing interest in the relationship between psychoanalysis and colonialism, in terms of their historical overlapping and the im/possibilities of the psychoanalytic clinic in colonial settings, but also in the epistemological and ethical implications of coloniality for the theorisation of the psychoanalytic subject. My research often revolves around questions of liminality, especially in relation to the ontological position of the racialised subject, and life on the boundary between life and death, humanness and non-humanness, as well as 'zones of non being'. This research focus is evident in my article 'A child is being eaten: Psychoanalysis in times of anti-blackness', published in the Psychoanalysis and History Journal (December 2023). More broadly, and drawing on my clinical work, my research revolves around psychoanalysis as a theory and a practice that can help us understand extreme states of mind. Theoretically, I am influenced by the works of Sigmund Freud, Frantz Fanon, and the British Object relations tradition, as well as postcolonial theory and Afropessimism. I am currently working on a monograph titled 'The Cannibal Scene: Psychoanalysis in times of Antiblackness', which explores how proto-colonial mythopoesis gave shape to a racialised scene at the heart of psychoanalysis, exposing the colonial unconscious as organised a racialised desire for dealing with difference through appropriation and engulfment. Alongside Professor Stephen Frosh and Dr Julie Walsh, I am co-editor in chief of the first Handbook of Psychosocial Studies, to be published by Palgrave in 2024. This is a capacious work which offers the first comprehensive treatment of the transdisciplinary field of psychosocial studies. I welcome proposals for PhDs on the following topics: -the intersections of psychoanalysis, coloniality and Afropessimism -the works of Sigmund Freud, Melanie Klein, Geza Roheim and Frantz Fanon -British object relations -the politics of the psychoanalytic colonial clinic -the body in psychoanalysis -psychoanalytic theories of eating and digestion -theories of interdependence and nurturance I am also training as a psychodynamic psychotherapist, at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust.

Qualifications

• PhD in Psychosocial Studies Birkbeck College, University of London,

• MA in Foundations of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust/University of Essex,

• MA in Art and Politics, Department of Politics and International Relations Goldsmiths University of London,