Audiences with Authors: ‘Rethinking the Psychoanalysis of Masculinity: From Toxic to Seminal.” with Karl Figlio

Non-members may attend if they are a member of an external therapy organisation, as the discussion will be about psychoanalytic theory. Please email [email protected] and you will be able to make your payment and book there. Please ensure you say which organisation you are part of. 

Aggressive, misogynistic masculinity has become a major topic in recent years, spreading throughout popular culture, the media and research. Often called ‘phallic’, it simmers in everyday life and hits the headlines for turning florid and violent in maintaining its dominance, especially towards women. At the extreme, phallic masculinity has recently crystallized as toxic masculinity, and ‘toxic’ has become the near-universal epithet for extreme destructiveness in a ‘toxic culture’. It has brought into focus, and named as masculine, an anxiety over toxicity in every corner of everyday life. 

Karl has explored this concept in depth, drawing on a broad range of psychoanalytic, cultural and social influences. He traces its impact on nature, society and personal relationships. In doing so, he throws a sharp light on normal masculinity, drawing out a different, more positive alternative, with particular reference to underlying fears around fertility and reparation, which he gathers under ‘seminality’.

This evening will offer an opportunity to expand on the relevance of his ideas, and, in particular, to emphasise the importance of his concept of ‘seminal masculinity’, an overlooked area in psychoanalysis, but one which is of increasing relevance today.

About the Speaker

Karl Figlio came to psychoanalysis from natural science and history and philosophy of science, reflected in his book, Psychoanalysis, Science and Masculinity, published by Whurr and Brunner-Routledge in 2000/2001, and in teaching history of science and medicine at Cambridge He is a Clinical Associate, British Psychoanalytical Society; Senior Member, Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Association, BPF; Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex (of which he was the founding director in 1993); and in private practice. He is interested in the way psychoanalytic understanding, deeply embedded in clinical work, can enter into discussion among clinicians and between clinicians and non-clinicians, an aim embodied in Remembering as Reparation: Psychoanalysis and Historical Memory, published by Palgrave in 2017; and Rethinking the Psychoanalysis of Masculinity: From Toxic to Seminal, published by Routledge in 2024. He is currently working on a book with the tentative title, Depressive Collapse.

*If you are a psychotherapist or counsellor residing in an active conflict zone, you are eligible to attend this event free of charge (regardless of whether you are a bpf member or not). Please email membership@bpf-psychotherapy to enquire about a ticket.