Events and Seminars

Event:'Rethinking the Psychoanalysis of Masculinity' - Audiences with Authors
Venue:Online
Date:09/10/2025
Duration:8 - 9:30pm BST
Extra Info:With Karl Figlio

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.
Organised By:British Psychotherapy Foundation
Web Link:https://www.britishpsychotherapyfoundation.org.uk/events/649/audiences-with-authors-rethinking-the-psychoanalysis-of-masculinity-from-toxic-to-seminal-with-karl-figlio/
Sign up for our new titles email   Sign up to our postal mailing list   Sign up for postal updates