Alfie Bown, "Post-Comedy" (Polity, 2025)

Alfie Bown, "Post-Comedy" (Polity, 2025)

Not so long ago, comedy and laughter were a shared experience of relief, as Freud famously argued. At their best, ribbing, roasting, piss-taking and insulting were the foundation of a kind of universal culture from which friendship, camaraderie and solidarity could emerge. Now, comedy is characterized by edgy humour and misplaced jokes that provoke personal and social anxiety, causing divisive cultural warfare in the media and among people. Our comedy is fraught with tension like never before, and so too is our social life. We often hear the claim that no one can take a joke anymore. But what if we really can’t take jokes anymore? Post-Comedy (Polity, 2025) argues that the spirit of comedy is the first step in the building of society, but that it has been lost in the era of divisive identity politics. Comedy flares up debates about censorship and cancellation, keeping us divided from one other. This goes against the true universalist spirit of comedy, which is becoming a thing of the past and must be recovered. Alfie Bown is a Senior Lecturer in Digital Media at Kings College London. His research focuses on psychoanalysis, digital media and popular culture. He has also worked as a journalist, writing for The Guardian, Paris Review, New Statesman, Tribune, and others. His books include The Playstation Dreamworld, Post-Memes, and Dream Lovers: The Gamification of Relationships. He is the founder of Everyday Analysis which publishes pamphlets and essay collections with contemporary social and political issues. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychoanalysis

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Bruce Fink, “Against Understanding. Volume 1: Commentary and Critique in a Lacanian Key” (Routledge, 2014)

Bruce Fink, “Against Understanding. Volume 1: Commentary and Critique in a Lacanian Key” (Routledge, 2014)

What can possibly be wrong with the process of understanding in psychoanalytic treatment? Everything, according to Bruce Fink. In Against Understanding. Volume 1: Commentary and Critique in a Lacanian...

17 Nov 20141h 2min

Sophia Richman, “Mended By the Muse: Creative Transformations of Trauma” (Routledge, 2014)

Sophia Richman, “Mended By the Muse: Creative Transformations of Trauma” (Routledge, 2014)

In a wide ranging and courageous interview that touched on the creative process, personal history, memoir and self-disclosure, the psychoanalyst and writer Sophia Richman explored the connections betw...

21 Okt 201452min

Mark Epstein, “The Trauma of Everyday Life” (Penguin Press, 2013)

Mark Epstein, “The Trauma of Everyday Life” (Penguin Press, 2013)

Being human, much of our energy goes into resisting the basic mess of life, but messy it is nonetheless. The trick (as psychoanalysts know) is to embrace it all anyway. “Trauma is an indivisible part ...

13 Okt 201453min

Thomas Kohut, “A German Generation: An Experiential History of the Twentieth Century” (Yale UP, 2012),

Thomas Kohut, “A German Generation: An Experiential History of the Twentieth Century” (Yale UP, 2012),

Germans belonging to the generation born at the turn of the twentieth century endured staggering losses, many of which became difficult to mourn or even acknowledge: their parents in World War I, fina...

6 Okt 20141h 6min

John Fletcher, “Freud and the Scene of Trauma” (Fordham UP, 2013)

John Fletcher, “Freud and the Scene of Trauma” (Fordham UP, 2013)

Putting Freud’s books — not the man but the writings — on the couch, listening closely for the breaks, the retractions, the internal conflicts, the sudden about-faces. John Fletcher, professor of Engl...

29 Sep 20141h 10min

Mari Ruti,  “The Call of Character: Living a Life Worth Living” (Columbia UP, 2013)

Mari Ruti, “The Call of Character: Living a Life Worth Living” (Columbia UP, 2013)

Exploring everything from the impact of her own psychoanalysis on her mode and mien to the effect of consumer culture on the psyche, the delightful Mari Ruti keeps the ball rolling.  We pondered with ...

21 Sep 201454min

Elizabeth Lunbeck, “The Americanization of Narcissism” (Harvard UP, 2014)

Elizabeth Lunbeck, “The Americanization of Narcissism” (Harvard UP, 2014)

Elizabeth Lunbeck has made a major contribution to the historical study of psychoanalysis with the publication of The Americanization of Narcissism (Harvard University Press, 2014). Exploring the conc...

21 Aug 201452min

Claudia Luiz, “Where’s My Sanity? Stories That Help” (CreateSpace, 2013)

Claudia Luiz, “Where’s My Sanity? Stories That Help” (CreateSpace, 2013)

Join us for a maximum dopamine experience as Dr. Claudia Luiz discusses the making of her book Where’s My Sanity? Stories That Help, an everyman’s tour de force that’s poised to create a seismic shift...

2 Aug 201451min

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