Replacement - by Naomi Segal (Hardcover)

About the Book

Replacement is always dramatic, carrying rivalry, envy and supersession: the replacer may be haunted by the uncanny survival of the replacee, they are both distinct and inseparable, substitution is never absolute and yet we all long to be irreplaceable.

Book Synopsis

Replacement is always dramatic. How does one thing or person appearing in the place of another - the second baby, the new lover, the maternity cover or 'surrogate' mother - constitute a threat to the earlier occupant of that place? Or is the superseding figure haunted by the one for whom they substitute? What happens psychologically or socially to the pair-structure which is thus up-ended? Whom do we blame, whom do we hate, when we find ourselves in this drama? What do we want when we imagine ourselves to be irreplaceable? How might the idea of uniqueness lead to an unstoppable chain of repetitions?

About the Author

Naomi Segal is Professor Emerita at the University of London; she researches in comparative cultural studies. She has published 19 books, including monographs Consensuality: Didier Anzieu, gender and the sense of touch (2009) and André Gide: Pederasty & Pedagogy (1998).