Introduction

This book is a result of the 2nd International Psychoanalytic Conference: "Aggression: From Fantasy to Action", held in May 2010. It contains papers that were delivered to the conference, together with edited summaries of discussions from the floor that followed each paper. The standard of the papers given was extremely high. What was noticeable from the outset of the conference was the intensity of focus on understanding the origins of aggression and violence, from a psychoanalytic perspective. This intensity persisted throughout the two days, leading to a number of the fascinating discussions that are summarized in this book.