This excellent book, the fruit of vast learning and passionate commitment, celebrates our complexities, our multiplicity, desiring and acting. The chapter on Fanon and Existential Phenomenology is a good example of how this book engages with important and timely issues. As well as Fanon, this book calls on feminist perspective, on the civil rights and postcolonial movements, as well as LGBTQIA+ movements. How could anyone with an interest in psychology, psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, philosophy, critical theory and the political context in which we live not find this book compelling and rewarding?
Dr Onel Brooks, psychoanalytic psychotherapist, existential-analytic psychotherapist
The shock that his last book Subversion and Desire produced was not enough for Manu Bazzano. He is coming back with a new book, even more radically opposed to the psychotherapy orthodoxies. Its polyphonic language, its openings to philosophy, literature, and the Arts make the reading of the book instructive and exegetic a source of great jouissance. It establishes the author as first among equals with his distinguished colleagues in Queer studies and the Queering of psychoanalysis. This is a book that teaches us how not to betray our Desire.
Chloe Kolyri, queer psychoanalyst, lecturer and author with degrees in Medicine, Psychiatry, and Neurophysiology. A founding member of the Greek anti-psychiatry movement, as well as of the collective on Deleuze-Guattari studies, she has published on queer-gender, Deleuze, and psychoanalysis
Few writers and therapists are capable of fearless critique, sharp socio-cultural observation and seeing below the surface of an argument or opinion. In this book, Bazzano demonstrates this rare ability. Reading it leads me to question what I thought I knew or understood about the art and craft of therapy. I felt shaken out of complacency, unsettled, challenged and stretched. In charting this complex territory, Bazzano has contributed to my development as a therapist. This book instils greater openness and curiosity, providing a key ingredient of compassion.
Dr Rachel Freeth, therapist, trainer, author of several books including Psychiatry and Mental Health: A Guide for Counsellors and Psychotherapists (2020)
Im convinced that Manu Bazzano is the best critical writer in the whole therapy world at this time.
Richard House, former therapist and former university lecturer in psychology, psychotherapy and education. He was editor of Self & Society. His latest book is Pushing Back to Ofsted, (2020)
Manu Bazzano is by far the most empathetic and insightful therapist I have ever encountered. His outstanding intellect and deep compassion mark him out as exceptional within his field.
Tim Lott, award winning novelist and columnist
There are so many 'butoh' people out there, of questionable quality. Manu Bazzano is a performer who is not replicating the 'moth-eaten' tropes of Butoh but has found his own way.
Marie-Gabrielle Rotie, internationally renowned Butoh artist and teacher, senior lecturer at Goldsmiths College, London, and founder/producer of ButohUK
Bazzanos writing reminds me of Thomas Browne, the seventeenth century polymath similar preoccupations, a wide range of interests, deep curiosity and learning in the alignment and conflict of science, religion and myth.
Paul Mayersberg, writer of many screenplays including Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, Croupier, and The Man who Fell to Earth
