London Lectures on Psychoanalysis 2026

Dr David Bell has taught at The Tavistock Clinic London and The British Psychoanalytic Society for over 25 years. This series of online lectures now allows these lectures to reach a wider audience.

This series, like previous courses, offers an overview of key psychoanalytic concepts, always keeping in mind their contemporary relevance.

You do not need to have attended the other courses in order to join this course.

Course Information

This new course will begin by exploring, broadly, the relationship between psychoanalysis and socio-political theory. It will then move on to offer psychoanalytic considerations of various contemporary socio-political phenomena such as postmodernity, neoliberalism, the decline of the welfare state , the sudden rise in gender distress in children. We will also review, from a contemporary perspective, psychoanalytic contributions to the human propensity for war.

Weekly Lecture Topics

• General introduction; Civilisation and its discontents
• Primitive mind of state
• Neoliberalism is bad for your mental health
• First do no harm: gender distress in children and adolescents
• Is truth an illusion: psychoanalytic reflections on postmodern relativism
• Freuds war papers
• The conditions of possibility of human destructiveness
• Psychoanalytic reflections on the events in Gaza
• Knowledge and its pretenders

How much does it cost?

Entire course: £150** (approx. €179 or USD184)

Individual lectures: £20** (approx. €24 or USD24)

Applications are invited for subsidised places (e.g. for students or those faced with limited financial resources). For more information, please feel free to contact Dr Bell by clicking "Contact" at the bottom of this page.

** plus a service charge by eventbrite

Preliminary Reading

Attendees will gain access to reading sources after purchasing tickets.

When will it be?

This nine lecture course takes place over ten weeks with weekly lectures running between 15 January - 19 March 2026 (there will be a break on the 26 February).

Lectures will be held Thursdays, 6:00-7:30 GMT/BST* and include a 50 minute lecture and 30 minute discussion.

I would like to participate, but I can't attend at that time

After each lecture, anyone who has purchased a ticket will have access to an online recording of the session.

Is this course for me?

It is aimed at two kinds of student: those who have little prior knowledge of psychoanalysis and also those who are already have familiarity with psychoanalytic ideas (such as psychotherapists, psychiatrists, psychologists) but would like to revisit theory it in a structured and systematic way.