Rustin Michael

As Doctor Who approaches its fiftieth anniversary recent series have taken the show to new heights in terms of popular appeal and critical acclaim. The Doctor and his TARDIS-driven adventures, along with companions and iconic monsters, are now recognised and enjoyed globally. The time is ripe for a detailed analytic assessment of this cultural phenomenon. Focussing on the most recent television output The Inner World of Doctor Who examines why the show continues to fascinate contemporary audiences. Presenting closely-observed psychoanalytic readings of selected episodes, this book examines why these stories of time travel, monsters, and complex human relationships have been successful in providing such an emotionally rich dramatization of human experience. The Inner World of Doctor Who seeks to explore the multiple cultural and emotional dimensions of the series, moving back and forth from behind the famous sofa, where children remember hiding from scary monsters, and onto the proverbial psychoanalytic couch.

This book brings the insights of psychoanalysis to bear on drama in the western dramatic tradition. Plays which are discussed in detail include works by Shakespeare, Ibsen, Chekhov, Wilde, and Beckett among others. The authors seek to show that the subtle understanding of conscious and unconscious emotions achieved by psychoanalytic practice can bring new ways of understanding classic works of drama. The argument of the book, set out in its introduction and exemplified in its discussion of individual dramatists and plays, is that western drama has represented the central tensions of societies as crises in the relationships of gender and generation, through dramatic explorations of the inner life of families. This is the common theme which links the book's analysis of Medea, Macbeth and A Midsummer Night's Dream amongst others. The value of this book lies in the originality of its analysis of individual plays, and the subtlety with which it brings psychoanalytic and sociological insights together.

On its first publication Narratives of Love and Loss was widely recognised as an important and perceptive contribution to the study of children's literature and for its capacity to stimulate deep emotional responses in both child and adult readers. This welcome reissue includes a new postscript exploring in detail the phenomenal success of J. K Rowling's series of Harry Potter stories. The authors succeed in bringing a deep sociological and psychoanalytic close reading to some of the finest writing for children in post-war Britain and America, including works by C. S. Lewis, Rumer Godden, E. B. White and Russel Hoban. Focussed primarily on the 'fantasy genre of stories' the authors identify and sensitively explore the themes of imaginative and emotional growth, language and play, love and loss; always situating these within the broader social and cultural context.