A01=Stephen Frosh
anxiety
authenticity
Author_Stephen Frosh
Category=JMAF
Category=JPFC
Category=JPSL
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
ethics
forthcoming
Freud
happiness
Klein
left
neoliberalism
non-fiction
politics
psychoanalysis
psychodymanic
psychology
psychosocial
radical
self-help
sociology
stress
trauma
Winnicott
Product details
- ISBN 9781804299203
- Weight: 300g
- Dimensions: 129 x 198mm
- Publication Date: 22 Sep 2026
- Publisher: Verso Books
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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In How to Be Real, leading psychosocial thinker Stephen Frosh tackles one of our most urgent questions: how can we thrive in a world so troubling and confusing? Drawing on thinkers such as Freud, Winnicott and Klein, Frosh argues that we must look to what connects us. Authenticity depends on the quality of our human relationships. Consequently, the question of 'how to be real' has political as well as psychological and ethical implications.
By exploring childhood and the development of the self, the whys and wherefores behind our defences against reality, and the meaning of hate, Frosh shows how we can turn the ghosts that trouble us into ancestors that enrich our lives. We must be brave enough to seek solidarity with others and, finally, to find the humanity in death. How to Be Real is a bold and necessary guide to finding your radical self in difficult times.
By exploring childhood and the development of the self, the whys and wherefores behind our defences against reality, and the meaning of hate, Frosh shows how we can turn the ghosts that trouble us into ancestors that enrich our lives. We must be brave enough to seek solidarity with others and, finally, to find the humanity in death. How to Be Real is a bold and necessary guide to finding your radical self in difficult times.
Stephen Frosh is Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Birkbeck, University of London. He is one of the founders of Psychosocial Studies in the UK, bringing together sociological and psychological (especially psychoanalytic) perspectives. He has published over twenty books as well as over 150 academic articles. He is co-editor of The Palgrave Handbook of Psychosocial Studies (2024) and the Routledge International Handbook of Psychoanalysis and Jewish Studies (2025).
