From psychoanalysis to the psychoanalytical act: Review of Erik Hansson’s The Begging Question: Sweden’s Social Responses to the Roma Destitute

Abstract

This review focuses on Erik Hansson’s The Begging Question. It is a magnificent book that is both beautifully written and develops a highly innovative, perceptive, and incisive analysis of the political, economic, and cultural processes shaping the issue of (Roma) begging in public spaces in Sweden over the past two decades. The book’s argument combines critical political economic analysis with psychoanalysis, resulting in an insightful and pioneering perspective that opens a vital area for considering progressive action and politics aimed at creating a more inclusive society in a world increasingly leaning towards the conservative Right. In this engagement paper, I want to explore some of the ways in which psychoanalytical thought is indispensable and insightful when considering the future of progressive politics more broadly speaking beyond the specific questions that the book explores.