Overview
Highlights
I am currently working on the SOMIC project. The ‘States of Mind in Conflict’ (SOMIC) project launched in August 2020, based in the Centre for Researching & Embedding Human Rights at Birkbeck, University of London, and is due to present its findings in July/August 2021. The project is funded by the Swiss federal government research programme, with subject matter expertise provided by the Human Security Division of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA).
Qualifications
- PhD in Social Psychology, UCL (University College London), 1996
- Clinical Training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Arbours/ UKCP (United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy), 1989
Administrative responsibilities
- In January 2021 I will return to being Programme Director of the MSc in Psychodynamics of Human Development
Professional activities
I am Assistant Editor for The International Journal of Human Rights https://www.scimagojr.com
On 8/9th March 2019 I co-organised the “Palestinian Childhoods; Mental Health, Human Rights, and Resistance ” conference, co-sponsored by CREHR (Centre for Researching and Embedding Human Rights), Birkbeck and the UK-Palestine Mental Health Network. For more details see CREHR website.
International PhD examinations:
Professional memberships
- Scholar of the British Psychoanalytic Council
- Full Member, UKCP, College of Psychoanalysis and Jungian Analysis
- HRRN – Human Rights Researchers Network
- UCL Alumni Association
- Full Member ILT (Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education)
- Full Member AAP (Arbours Association for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy)
- Member of APS (Association of Psychosocial Studies)
Research
Research interests
- Denial, Acknowledgment and Reparation following human rights violations;
- Psychosocial approaches to human rights;
- Conciliation and peace processes
- Humanitarianism and public responses to humanitarian crises
- Qualitative methods, in particular Discourse Analysis and biographical methods
- Psychoanalysis and applied psychodynamic theory, in particular in relation to denial, acknowledgement, reparation and peace processes
- Psychology of peace mediation
Research Centres and Institutes
- Founding Director , Centre for Researching and Embedding Human Rights
Post doctoral staff
- Dr. Dominic Reilly
- Dr. Marci Lopez-Levy
Supervision and teaching
Supervision
Doctoral alumni
-
ANNA FLEMING
Teaching
Teaching modules
- Psychoanalytic or Jungian Analytic Theory (PSSL001H7)
- Dissertation MSc Psychodynamics of Human Development (PSSL003D7)
- Independent Research Module (SSPA085D7)
Publications
Article
- Seu, Irene Bruna (2021) States of mind in conflict: offerings and translations from the psychoanalytic and psychosocial fields. New England Journal of Public Policy 33 (1), pp. 1-24. ISSN 0749-016X.
- Seu, Irene Bruna (2016) ‘The deserving’: Moral reasoning and ideological dilemmas in public responses to humanitarian communications. British Journal of Social Psychology 55 (4), pp. 739-755. ISSN 0144-6665.
- Seu, Irene Bruna (2015) Appealing children: UK audiences’ responses to the use of children in humanitarian communications. International Communication Gazette 77 (7), pp. 654-667. ISSN 1748-0485.
- Seu, Irene Bruna and Flanagan, Frances and Orgad, S. (2015) The Good Samaritan and the marketer: public perceptions of humanitarian and international development NGOs. International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing 20 (3), pp. 211-225. ISSN 1479-103X.
- Seu, Irene Bruna (2015) A double-edge sword: the role of psychoanalysis in public responses to human rights violations – denial, justifications and passivity. Psychodynamic Practice 21 (1), pp. 5-18. ISSN 1475-3634.
- Orgad, S. and Seu, Irene Bruna (2014) ‘Intimacy at a distance’ in humanitarian communication. Media, Culture & Society 36 (7), pp. 916-934. ISSN 0163-4437.
- Orgad, S. and Seu, Irene Bruna (2014) The mediation of humanitarianism: towards a research framework. Culture, Communication and Critique 7 (1), pp. 6-36. ISSN 1753-9129.
- Seu, Irene Bruna (2013) Book review: “Gender, Shame and Sexual Violence: The Voices of Witnesses and Court Members at War Crimes Tribunals”. European Journal of Women’s Studies 20 (4), pp. 471-474. ISSN 1350-5068.
- Phoenix, A. and Seu, Irene Bruna (2013) Negotiating daughterhood and strangerhood: retrospective accounts of serial migration. Feminism and Psychology 23 (3), pp. 299-316. ISSN 0959-3535.
- Seu, Irene Bruna and Cameron, L. (2013) Empathic mutual positioning in conflict transformation and reconciliation. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology 19 (3), pp. 266-280. ISSN 1078-1919.
- Cameron, L. and Seu, Irene Bruna (2012) Landscapes of empathy: spatial scenarios, metaphors and metonymies in responses to distant suffering. Text & Talk 32 (3), pp. 281-305. ISSN 1860-7330.
- Seu, Irene Bruna (2012) ‘In countries like that. . .’ moral boundaries and implicatory denial in response to human rights appeals. The International Journal of Human Rights 16 (8), pp. 1-13. ISSN 1364-2987.
- Moore, L. and Seu, Irene Bruna (2011) Giving children a voice: children’s positioning in family therapy. Journal of Family Therapy 33 (3), pp. 279-301. ISSN 0163-4445.
- Seu, Irene Bruna (2011) ‘Shoot the messenger’: dynamics of positioning and denial in response to human rights appeals. Journal of Human Rights Practice 3 (2), pp. 131-169. ISSN 1757-9619.
- Seu, Irene Bruna (2010) The ‘anti-social’ nature of prosocial research; a psychosocial critique. Social and Personality Psychology Compass 4 (9), pp. 651-662. ISSN 1751-9004.
- Seu, Irene Bruna (2010) ‘Doing denial’: audience reaction to human rights appeals. Discourse & Society 21 (4), pp. 438-457. ISSN 0957-9265.
- Moore, L. and Seu, Irene Bruna (2010) ‘Doing family therapy’; a Foucauldian discourse analysis. European Journal of Psychotherapy & Counselling 12 (4), pp. 323-343. ISSN 1364-2537.
- Seu, Irene Bruna (2008) ‘Everybody is welcome, but..’ Talking of emotions and with emotions about refugees; a psychosocial discursive analysis. Annual Review of Critical Psychology 6, pp. 71-88. ISSN 1746-739X.
- Seu, Irene Bruna (2006) Shameful selves: women’s feelings of inadequacy and constructed façades. European Journal of Psychotherapy & Counselling 8 (3), pp. 285-303. ISSN 1364-2537.
Book
- Seu, Irene Bruna and Orgad, S., eds. (2017) Caring in crisis? Humanitarianism, the public and NGOs. London, UK and New York, U.S.: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9783319502588.
- Seu, Irene Bruna (2013) Passivity generation: human rights and everyday morality. Studies in the Psychosocial. London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781137305022.
- Seu, Irene Bruna (2000) Who am I? the self and ego in psychoanalysis. Encyclopedia of Psychoanalysis. Encyclopedia of Psychoanalysis 5, London, UK: Karnac Books. ISBN 9781900877282.
- Seu, Irene Bruna and Heenan, M.C., eds. (1998) Feminism and psychotherapy: reflections on contemporary theories and practices. London, UK: Sage. ISBN 9780761951919.
Book Section
- Orgad, S. and Seu, Irene Bruna (2017) Building paths to caring in crisis and mitigating the crisis of caring. In: Orgad, S. and Seu, Irene Bruna (eds.) Caring in Crisis? Humanitarianism, the Public and NGOs. Springer. pp. 127-142. ISBN 9783319502588.
- Seu, Irene Bruna (2017) Caring in crisis and the crisis of caring: toward a new agenda. In: Seu, Irene Bruna and Orgad, S. (eds.) Caring In Crisis? Humanitarianism, the Public and NGOs. London, UK and New York, U.S.: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 1-20. ISBN 9783319502588.
- Seu, Irene Bruna (2017) Caring in crisis? Public responses to mediated humanitarian knowledge. In: Seu, Irene Bruna and Orgad, S. (eds.) Caring In Crisis? Humanitarianism, the Public and NGOs. London, UK and New York, U.S.: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 23-58. ISBN 9783319502588.
- Seu, Irene Bruna (2015) Knowing and not knowing: implicatory denial and defence mechanisms in response to human rights abuses. In: Frosh, Stephen (ed.) Psychosocial Imaginaries: Perspectives on Temporality, Subjectivities and Activism. Studies In The Psychosocial. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 179-199. ISBN 9781137388179.
- Seu, Irene Bruna (2011) Bystanders to human rights abuses; a psychosocial perspective. In: Cushman, T. (ed.) Handbook of Human Rights. Routledge International Handbooks. London, UK: Routledge. pp. 533-547. ISBN 9780415480239.
- Seu, Irene Bruna (2011) Virtual bystanders to human rights abuses: a psychosocial analysis. In: Cushman, T. (ed.) Handbook of Human Rights. Routledge International Handbooks. London, UK: Routledge. pp. 533-547. ISBN 9780415480239.
- Seu, Irene Bruna (2009) Shameful silences: self-protective secrets and methodological omissions. In: Ryan-Flood, R. and Gill, R. (eds.) Secrets and Silences in the Research Process: Feminist Reflections. Transformations. London, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9780415605175.
- Frosh, Stephen (2000) Ego, self and subjectivity: contributions from the object relations school. In: Seu, Irene Bruna (ed.) Who Am I? The Ego and the Self in Psychoanalysis. Karnac Books. ISBN 9781900877282.
Conference Item
- Seu, Irene Bruna (2014) Caring in crisis? communications and public reactions to humanitarian crises and international development causes. Caring in crisis? Communications and public reactions to humanitarian crises and international development causes, 2014, Birkbeck, University of London, London, UK
- Seu, Irene Bruna (2014) Denial and human rights violations. Denialism and Human Rights, 2014, The Maasticht Centre for Human Rights, Maastricht University, The Netherlands
- Seu, Irene Bruna (2014) Helping distant sufferers: the role of ‘lived ideologies’ in public responses to humanitarian communications. The 37th Annual Scientific Meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology, 2014, Rome, Italy
- Seu, Irene Bruna (2014) Moral boundaries and implicatory denial in public responses to human rights appeals. International Human Rights Clinic, 2014, School of Law, SOAS, University of London, London, UK
- Seu, Irene Bruna (2014) The role of acknowledgement and denial in public passivity. Biennial Conference of The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues: Social Action and Change: Opportunities, Resistance, Inertia, and Mobilization, 2014, Portland, Oregon, USA
- Seu, Irene Bruna (2013) Denial and human rights violations. Denial and human rights violations, 2013, Department of International Relations and Politics, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK
- Seu, Irene Bruna and Orgad, S. and Fathi, M. (2013) The deserving victim: public responses to humanitarian communication in the UK. International Communication Association Annual Conference, 2013, London, UK
- Cameron, L. and Seu, Irene Bruna (2012) Landscapes of empathic understanding: spatial metaphors and metonymies in responses to distant suffering. Living with Uncertainty, 2012,
- Seu, Irene Bruna and Cameron, L. (2012) Empathic mutual positioning in conciliation work. Empathy: Dynamics, Dialogue, Conflict, 2012, Royal Institute of British Architects, London, UK
- Seu, Irene Bruna (2011) Emotions, defences and denial in response to Human Rights abuses. International NGOs: Representations of Global Poverty and Development, 2011, Goldsmith College, London, UK
- Seu, Irene Bruna (2011) Emotions, defences and denial in response to Human Rights abuses. Representing Atrocity: Distant Suffering and the Politics of Pity, 2011, London School of Economics, London, UK
- Seu, Irene Bruna (2011) Emotions, defences and denial in response to Human Rights abuses. Emotions, defences and denial in response to Human Rights abuses, 2011, Centre for Psychosocial Studies, University of the West of England, UK
- Seu, Irene Bruna and Cameron, L. (2011) Empathic mutual positioning in reconciliation work. Languages of Emotions, 2011, Free University of Berlin
- Seu, Irene Bruna (2007) Doing denial: justification for unresponsiveness to human rights appeals. ESRC Seminar: Promoting Helping in emergencies, 2007, Lancaster University
Monograph
- Seu, Irene Bruna and Orgad, S. (2009) Mediated humanitarian knowledge: audiences’ reactions and moral actions. London, UK: Birkbeck, University of London.
- Seu, Irene Bruna and Orgad, S. (2009) Mediated humanitarian knowledge: audiences’ reactions and moral actions. London, UK: Birkbeck, University of London.