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This thesis explores the question: Why does improvisational comedy make people feel free? By drawing on psychoanalysis, in dialogue with comedy studies and Marxist political economy, the thesis surveys the structure of improvisational comedy and discovers the productive tension that exists between freedom and constraints. The thesis charts the psychoanalytic approaches to freedom in order to problematise the signifier "freedom". It argues that the sense of freedom that improvisers, or "players", experience in improv arises from a range of factors. Drawing on Lacanian approaches to language, the thesis argues that the indeterminacy of language and the functions of metaphor and metonymy are central to the generation of incongruous meaning and comic effects. It maintains that improv allows for making "impossible choices", acts that set players apart from everyday life. It suggests that the retroactive fixing and refixing of meaning of signifiers creates an unusual temporality of meanings. The "event-like" structure of improv is a significant factor in allowing both players and audience to experience a measure of freedom in the improvising space. Furthermore, the thesis argues that incongruity is a motor of the comic in improv and is generated by ambiguities in language and the retroactive transformation of meanings that improv encourages. Laughter in improv is ambivalent - it can both guide and ratify the realities created by improvisors, but also mock them, or reward one over others, thus interrupting the imaginary unity of the improvising group. It further argues that the real limits of freedom in improv lie outside the improv space in the logic of capital accumulation which has commodified improv and transformed it into an industry. The thesis suggests that overcoming this limit will require lessons that can be learned from improv, in terms of making impossible choices and improvising new worlds.

What or who is the modern subject? Are people sovereign, filled with passion, creativity, freedom and autonomy; or are we slaves, robots and automatons forever tied to the chains of civilization? It is very common to critique modernity. From the Frankfurt school to Foucault, many seem to have focused primarily on its negative characteristics including the promotion of narcissism and its contribution to alienation and depression. However, this work arose from my general ambivalence toward how society, and ideology, impacts notions of the self or, more importantly, self-consciousness and autonomy. In this work I tried to offer a framework that not only challenges the tenets of a way of conceptualising the human subject by means of extreme objectivity, which is aligned with notions of cognitivism and stems, I argue, from the worldview of Protestantism, but also its antithesis, extreme subjectivity that manifests itself in intense hubris that can present a very real danger to the very foundations of civilization. Thus, the work takes aim at both the consequence of extreme objectivity i.e. nihilism, inherent within some of the tenets of contemporary capitalism, and extreme subjectivity i.e. relativism. This work provides a historical analysis starting with the Protestant Reformation and ending with Contemporary Capitalism. By doing so, I was able to emphasise a new conceptualisation of the master-slave dialectic into a hierarchal structure beginning with the Absolute Master and ending with the Quinary Master vis-à-vis death to work. What I demonstrated, and reinforced, is the notion that human consciousness is a highly complex hybrid of interacting master-slave dynamics that is fuelled by fantasy, structured by the law, is seized upon by the government and the marketplace and finally put to work. However, the essential core of the subject is a radical void that simply punches a hole through the processes of the unconscious, which is swallowed up by the desire of the other i.e. the desire of these given masters. Depression's genesis I view as the subject yielding too much to the desire of a specific type of societal structure. This reached its peak with the Puritans in England during the 16th and 17th century that aimed to purge any type of transcendent experience, which is characteristic of fantasy and led to widespread misery. On the other hand, the period of Romanticism led to a colossal eruption of the imagination that attempted to bypass established conventions and flooded the world with colour. However, this anarchistic worldview presented an extremely dangerous threat to the very foundation of society and thus had to be brought to heel by an evolved state structure. The overall structure of the work is based on a gradual unfolding of a hierarchical system starting with the very foundations of the subject, through the complexities of ideological influence and ending with the subject under contemporary capitalism. The final two chapters aimed to contemporise the critiques from Romanticism toward the Enlightenment by attacking the tenets of cognitivism as being indicative of a system put forward by thinkers prevalent in the 18th century that abstracted the human condition and tried to objectify the psyche. The scope of the work is large and diverse and hopes to contribute to psychoanalytical and philosophical literature by providing a hierarchical system of the master-slave dialectic in the development of self-consciousness. The work also provides a critique of ideology by highlighting how a certain structure of society can contribute to neurosis by either prohibiting or liberating fantasy. I do not endorse the cliché and wholly hostile view toward capitalism, but support the notion that one should remain ambivalent. That is to say that the work highlights that the free market is indeed innocent but only becomes problematic when it begins to work in collusion with a specific state system. In supporting the argument of Protestantism being closely tied to the development of capitalism, what should be viewed with great precaution is the very definition of what is deemed a beneficial characteristic. This meritocratic worldview is indeed essential to stave off overreach from politics, however, and as Rousseau addressed, the concept of meritocracy can promote a society of selfishness and pride as well as reinforce what I call the standard route via new forms of management, leading to a reduction of autonomy and enhancement of conformity. In attempting to generate this framework, I have utilised multiple philosophical paradigms including ancient Greek, Continental, Romantic, Idealist, Psychoanalysis and more to provide an eclectic approach to this inquiry. What the reader will take away from this project is a unique and new understanding of the individual, how the subject is impacted from engaging with different societal systems and a warning of what can happen if one submits too much to passion or reason.

This study is meant to replicate research by O’Toole (1997), investigating the effectiveness of Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy (REBT), and REBT combined with REST, in reducing and treating social anxiety disorder (SAD). The present study used a counselling programme grounded in REBT and/or REST to re-examine the effects of REBT and/or REST on treating SAD in college students in a Saudi Arabian university. An experimental pre-test, post-test, control group design was utilised, and quantitative and content analysis data were collected and analysed using O’Toole’s measures after being ‘Arabicised’ and standardised. Social anxiety was measured using the Interaction Anxiousness Scale and the Shyness Scale. Seventy-five volunteers, who were undergraduate students at King Abdul Aziz University, participated in the study. The measures were used in placing the clients in their respective groups in the empirical study and for comparing pre-testing data with post-testing and follow-up results. Findings indicated that both treatments of REBT-only and REST plus REBT proved effective in the reduction of prior irrational beliefs, considering their reduced irrational thinking scores at the advanced stages of the study. That notwithstanding, follow-up post-comparison analyses confirmed that REST plus REBT therapy is more effective than REBT only. Content analysis data derived from the reflections and cognitions of the participants yielded findings that support and integrate with the results obtained from the quantitative study, which involved the use of numerical scales. The findings were later compared and contrasted with the basal study findings and in congruence with prior research reviewed. Finally, the present study recommended that REBT should be supported by REST to gain more effective psychotherapeutic results with SAD patients by efficaciously reducing their irrational beliefs. The study also recommended conducting future research to tap into the relationship between religiosity and REBT, harnessing REBT/REST counselling programmes.

Over the past two decades, men who have sex with men (MSM) have witnessed both the improvement of HIV living conditions and a certain relaxation of fears around safe sexual behaviour. Research has pointed to the use of drugs and alcohol as a causal factor leading more people to have unprotected sex, which would explain the rise of HIV diagnoses due to this mode of transmission. This project questioned the theoretical underpinnings for such a peculiar association and set out to explore the significance of alcohol and drugs among MSM in London, England. Engaging with a research field fragmented between epidemiological and cultural models of "risk", two studies were devised addressing both social practices and health concerns. In the first study, participant observation was carried out in gay-friendly dance parties where drug use is prevalent. In the second study, a long-term psychotherapeutic group was established for nine men presenting as problem substance users seeking help. Data, in the form of fieldnotes and session transcripts, were analysed using Grounded Theory. Through their consumption substances functioned as relational commodities sometimes turning into overvalued objects of satisfaction. In gay-friendly environments the use of drugs and alcohol fostered the expression of same-sex sexual desire. This recurrently took up features of affirmation of the self, validation, and belonging. Rather than being associated to another person with whom enjoyment had been experienced, however, substances functioned as fetish for some men. Akin to abstract commodities, they became charged with expectations of everlasting and renewable gratification. Findings will be discussed around the conjoined pursuit of pleasure and pain in spite of the limits of enjoyment and around the interchangeable use of different objects, including health-preservative ones, for similar purposes. For those taking part in these practices, the findings give primacy to personal agency over subjectification through object-consumption; a neutral stance towards substances and gay sex might therefore be more authentic for educators and the effects of anxiety and shame in relation to personal distress, beyond HIV risk, might be addressed in future research. Value might be drawn, for harm prevention, from openly discussing the sexual and social disappointments associated with fetishistic object-consumption, whereas neutrality of outcome with regard to the consumption of individual substances by clients and their decisions to leave treatment might be useful for practitioners to consider. This project highlights accountability as central to personal satisfaction and social intercourse: policy makers might want to draw their attention to the direct pharmacological properties of each object at comparable levels of consumption when deciding upon the legal status and limits to their use.

Who are we? Why do we do the things we do? These questions are constantly under scrutiny, forever unable to provide us with adequate answers, it seems. Yet, with the continuing rise in popularity of digital media, we are able to situate these questions in a different sphere and see aspects of the self that we were unable to perceive before. Digital media forms have provided us with the capacity to explore whole new worlds, as well as allowing for new and innovative methods of communication. These changes make a huge impact on the daily lives of individuals. This thesis presents a theoretical contribution to both psychoanalytic thinking and to the rapidly expanding field of games studies, with especial reference to avatar-based games. It considers the status of the bond formed between the individual at play (known here as the ‘user’) and the game itself. Furthermore, it presents this as a model which identifies the user’s relation to the game dynamic through an understanding of the key components of a video game, including aspects such as the control mechanism. Elements which cross the boundary between the user/game realities are also considered with relation to hyperreality, thus forming a more complete imagining of this framework. This also allows for an application of this dynamic to what we define as violent (and associated) acts within games. In turn, this allows for a more complete understanding of the game situation, and can be applied to our understanding of the user as well. This thesis provides a standalone framework which can also be utilised in other types of investigation in future.

The current thesis is based on the research of the psychoanalytical concepts of agency, subject and structure while it correlates the same notions with the clinical observations of patients with personality disorder in crisis [patient group]. It also proposes an answer to the problem of agency and structure, incorporating structuration theory and recursivity. This is done by the construction and outline of a new framework, which is designated as the scaffolding model. The analysis of the analytical observations demonstrated that patients present in the clinical arena with dual narratives that include two accounts, which have been identified as the problem and the solution formed scenarios. This twofold situation is guided by a dyadic functioning process, which is a functional pattern that not only regulates language but it also maintains an integrated function in the brain and in the mind of the subject. It constitutes a new structure, which associates the brain-mind and language [+senses], forming a “self-organization system”. Agency, here, is the power or vacuum that allows symbolic action. This research offers a new tool in the treatment of members of the patient group or in the treatment of subjects who present ambivalently or in conflict. This new approach designated as dual narratives facilitate a different perspective than the ones already established, such as cognitive analytical therapy, which give answers to the same clinical situations. Dual narratives work at two levels. This is done by preventing risks and by looking into the causes of the ambivalence of the subject, using Lacanian concepts, such as the notion of the signifier, and exploring the subjective position.

This text seeks to provide an account of the subject as a consumer of mass-media. As such, the contemporary consumer must interact with corporate entities as socio-cultural institutions that enable a self-administration of gratification. The case under discussion is that of the Walt Disney Company, which is perhaps the most iconic purveyor of consumable media in the world. It is argued that the Walt Disney Company is structurally perverse, that the gratification of the Disney consumer is achieved at their expense, and that this expense is to the benefit of Disney commercially and structurally as a major socio-cultural institution. This text makes use of Lacanian psychoanalytic theory, film and cultural studies, and the industrial-organisational history of the Walt Disney Company to create an account of the subject's interactions within the apparatus of Disney media. The account of consumerism constructed within this text is organised by a synthesis of several theoretical constructs: the animated homunculus, the regressive cinematic apparatus and the Disney consumerist utopia. The homunculus refers to a point of contact for the subject's gratification. It is a fetishistic device used in animated films to create a focal point for the viewer's desire and identifications. This operates within the subject's relation to the screen as apparatus, which in the case of Disney is demonstrated to be regressive in its narrative structure and stylistic content. The regressive pleasures of Disney media support a system and economy of gratification that crystallizes in Disney as a commercial entity. The ideological and structural core of the Disney entity is demonstrated to be a utopian vision of consumerism and self-administration of gratification. The creation of socio-cultural structures that enable the subject to self-administrate their gratification is shown to be related to the problem of addiction; a dependency on consumables and consumption itself. Together these concepts create a holistic account of Disney as an object of study, as both commercial entity, visual medium and cultural institution.

There is accumulating epidemiological evidence of cross-ethnic differences in relation to schizophrenia’s incidence and prevalence. However, there is a dearth of information about the manifestations of cultural differences in schizophrenia’s symptoms. This thesis aims to bridge the gap in our knowledge about the relationship between cross-cultural differences and schizophrenia. Throughout this thesis, I explore the similarities and dissimilarities of the content of clinical manifestation across cultures. I also examine and further develop epidemiological and clinical issues utilizing the ecological theory model. First, I perform a qualitative systematic review which includes 26 publications. I then discuss findings from a statistical analysis of a mental health population of 860 patients in Brent, North London. Lastly, I report results from a semi-structured mental health questionnaire that was devised and disseminated to 48 mental health professionals in London. Results indicate that ethnic groups which experience a higher incidence of schizophrenia also tend to display more positive or first rank symptoms. These ethnic groups that experience a higher incidence of schizophrenia also belong to cultures that culturally legitimise an externalization of their distress. On the other hand, it was found that cultures that internalize their distress experience lower incidence of schizophrenia. My research further demonstrates that schizophrenia’s interpretations are heavily dependent on the diagnosers’ own cultural background, and on the degree to which the externalization of a symptom is tolerable in that context. Furthermore, evidence of intra-cultural diversity in clinical settings underscores the importance of achieving higher cultural competence.

What is pain, what does it mean that the subject has a relationship with it, and how does this affect his identity and existence? My definition of pain is derived from that proposed by scientists such as Melzack and Wall, and Freud. Pain is a dynamic, multilayered, diverse collection of experiences which impact and influence the subject throughout life. Pain is a kind of conglomerate of past, traumatic, neurobiological, psychological and emotional imprints--pain as in suffering or being in pain. The aim of this thesis is to argue that it is not pain, as such, but the relationship of the subject to (his/her) pain which is most significant to his/her processes of life. In examining the combination of two theories of pain, namely, Freud’s psychosexual theory of development and Melzack’s theory of the Neuromatrix, my thesis endeavours to evidence my theory by using case study methodology. The similarities in the theories which are a hundred years apart have sparked my interest to propose that there is the distinct possibility for the existence of what I have named a Psychomatrix--patterns of pain (loss - abandonment, grief, rejection, desire) imprinted from infancy within an innate matrix that are specifically translated by their own ‘psychological and emotional neural loops’ and therefore, similar to the neuromatrix concept. As pain is triggered these ‘loops’ become more ingrained as information is analysed and coded to create a continuous (subjective) experience of suffering or being in pain. This is also true for positive emotions, such as love and joy, however I suggest that pain is the primary, and most significant emotion that needs to be understood in order to understand the others which are triggered by the same neural – psychological and physical – pathways as incidental emotions of the quality of existence. A vast spectrum of (on-going) research has identified the impact of cultural, religious, social and political factors on pain and pain management. I suggest that all of these figure in the conglomerate. Using a psychoanalytical frame of reference this is a theoretical and conceptual thesis. My final conclusion is that pain becomes an object that compels the subject to respond accordingly and consequently, from birth to death, defining his/her identity and existence.

There has been a long-standing and mutually-informing association between psychoanalysis, literature and the arts. Surprisingly, given the oral/aural basis of the ‘talking cure’, music has largely been overlooked by psychoanalysis. On the other hand, neuroscientific research investigating music reception and production has been increasing steadily in range and scope over the years. However, in order to avoid confounding factors, empirical studies have focused primarily on non-vocal music. Operatic vocal music has not featured prominently in either field. Yet the multidimensional, multi-layered nature of opera, which fuses together a number of different arts, would appear to provide fertile soil for both disciplines. This thesis aims to fill that gap, providing a stepping stone for further research. The individual strengths of psychoanalysis and neuroscience are leveraged separately at first, according to a ‘complementarist’ approach, and then jointly as the inter-discipline of neuropsychoanalysis. By combining various theories of mind with current knowledge about music processing in the brain, a more comprehensive understanding of the reception experience can be achieved. As a result, a neuropsychoanalytic theory can be formulated to account for the operatic reception experience in subjective as well as objective terms. According to this theoretical formulation, the bittersweet enjoyment of operatic vocal music, which can literally move an operaphile to tears, lies in a numberof subjective dynamics that are unique to the reception of opera, rather than in any distinct objective neural processes, which are common to the reception of all music. These subjective dynamics, which are recruited during neural processing, are triggered by the equally unique features of the operatic voice, in combination with a number of auxiliary elements that are specific to opera.

Under the shade of escalating violence and fundamentalism, our epoch's diffused aura of liberalism supposedly tolerates difference, by exorcising the evil phantasms of totalitarianism, in favour of a liberal and humane post-modem order. Consequently, behind contemporary versions of evil, one demonises modem 'fascists', 'totalitarian threats', and 'Hitlers'. As if not obscure enough, fascist evil has been equivocally linked with perversion. Considering this link a tenebrous enigma, my thesis suggests that psychoanalysis can successfully elucidate its problematic and feeble basis, by reappraising previous narratives from a number of different discourses that inscribe the liaison between fascism and perversion in their representational stage. In a first approach, the present study dissects texts as heterogeneous, as film, social theory, political philosophy, and psychoanalysis. This is to show that, despite the divergent speculative angle that each discourse espouses, perversion is a common exegetic thread, intertextually sewing their narratives. The objective of my criticism that goes through psychoanalysis, without, however, exempting it from this criticism, is to reveal that both fascism and perversion implicate the non-symbolisable kernel in politics, which becomes the source of their mystification. My thesis argues that the fascist does not take the same discursive position, as the pervert does, regarding this symbolic gap. The first is interested in domination, drawn from the superiority of his ideology's master signifier, whereas the latter is interested in excavating the emptiness of any master signifier and in constantly provoking prefabricated knowledge, similarly to the hysteric. Apart from the level of discourse, on the ethical level, I disengage the view that sees Sade and the Nazi officer, as emblematic figures of a Kantian ethical gesture. Considering the imaginary hypostasis of their ethical performance, I argue that personal interests, fantasies and desires, determine the austerity of their ethical duty. Yet, the fantasies of Sade and Nazism are incongruent, insomuch as they are organised by antithetical ideals. Finally, I develop a new rhetoric, de-pathologised and de-ideologised, regarding the structure of the so-called pervert, introducing new vocabularies and directions for psychoanalytic research that further distance the pervert, or whom I call the extra-ordinary subject, from fascist politics and, instead, expose his diachronic "fascist" isolation from the social edifice. This reveals the fruitful alternatives that can stem from a 'return to Freud cum Lacan, which supports a flexible on-going reformulation of psychoanalytic knowledge.

Studies which examine conflict have identified coping strategies as potent variables for the social competencies of children. To extend these ideas to more specific indicators of social adjustment this study examined emotional impairments and coping strategies of victims and bullies. Inventories measuring emotional impairment: depression, anger, anxiety and self-concept were completed by 103 primary school children aged 9-11. A questionnaire measured five coping strategies: problem solving, social support seeking, distancing, externalising and internalising. Bully and victim nominations identified almost 5 times as many male bullies compared to girls therefore findings which specifically relate to bullying refer to boys only. Emotional impairments were identified as predictory variables for bullying and victimisation particularly for boys where anger was identified as moderating the relationship between externalising and bullying behaviour while anxiety was identified as a mediating variable between problem solving and victimisation. Findings here also suggest that all children learn how to cope with negative emotions through their experiences with adults. For bullies internalisation as a result of poor experiences during problem solving with adults makes problem solving with peers less likely.

Fragmented speech, the discovery of which forms the basis of this dissertation, provides the aim and direction of our thesis. The aim is to clarify precisely what fragmented speech is, and subsequently define its application. In this thesis, we begin by providing the historical background to the initial collision between psychoanalysis and literature. This broad base provides the impetus needed in order to formulate certain conclusions regarding the unconscious and the dialogic. Our methodology involves a combination of Freudo-Lacanian theory and Bakhtinian linguistics. As we approach an understanding of our subject, it becomes increasingly necessary to develop the issues surrounding the significance of fragmented speech. The significance of our work becomes focused when we provide an analysis of a `psychotic discourse', namely, the Memoirs of My Nervous Illness, by President Schreber – using the methodology described. In the final stages of our thesis fragmented speech becomes a symptom of psychosis. Under pressure from the unconscious, the image of speech may fragment. It is the interaction between the body image and the speech image that provides us with a speech complex. Consequently, this dissertation discovers fragmented speech at the very heart of the psychoanalytic session.