{"podcast":{"title":"New Books in Psychoanalysis","slug":"new-books-in-psychoanalysis-774396","podcast_index_feed_id":774396,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/LIT2509539662","website_url":null,"image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/46891bc6-ee3e-11e8-93b3-b3490145f18f/image/01e6486ebb4d1bc7338171e33e6a93c2.png?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"New Books Network","episode_count":406,"summary":"This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field. Discover our 150+ channels and browse our 28,000+ episodes on our website: ⁠newbooksnetwork.com⁠ Subscribe to our free weekly Substack newsletter to get informative, engaging content straight to your inbox: ⁠https://newbooksnetwork.substack.com/⁠ Follow us on Instagram and Bluesky to learn about more our latest interviews: @newbooksnetwork Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychoanalysis","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-psychoanalysis-774396"},"episode":{"title":"Anna Fishzon, \"The Impossible Return - Psychoanalytic Reflections on Breast Cancer, Loss, and Mourning\" (Routledge, 2025)","slug":"anna-fishzon-the-impossible-return-psychoanalytic-reflections-on-breast-cancer-loss-and-mourning-routledge-2025","published_at":"2026-01-20T09:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-psychoanalysis-774396/anna-fishzon-the-impossible-return-psychoanalytic-reflections-on-breast-cancer-loss-and-mourning-routledge-2025","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-psychoanalysis-774396","url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK1528934097.mp3?updated=1768793984","audio_url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK1528934097.mp3?updated=1768793984","summary":"Today I spoke with Anna Fishzon about her new book The Impossible Return - Psychoanalytic Reflections on Breast Cancer, Loss, and Mourning (Routledge, 2025). The Impossible Return is a hybrid work of cancer memoir, psychoanalytic theory, and Soviet history that explores the author's experience with breast cancer through the lens of mourning, loss, and identity. Fishzon weaves together her personal narrative of mastectomy and reconstruction with psychoanalytic concepts—particularly the uncanny, shame, and the impossibility of fully mourning what has been lost—while drawing connections to her late Soviet Ukrainian childhood and her deep engagement with opera. The book examines how the reconstructed breast becomes an uncanny double, how the prosthetic oscillates between absence and presence, and how cancer survivorship involves living with \"scanxiety\" and perpetual waiting. Through this autotheoretical approach, Fishzon explores broader questions about memory as scar tissue, the relationship between voice and embodiment, and what she calls the \"terribly obscure utopian\" work of psychoanalysis—asking the impossible of both analyst and patient, much like perestroika's call for reconstruction. The work treats cancer survival not as a triumph narrative but as an ongoing, repetitive process of attempting to mourn something that remains fundamentally unmournable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychoanalysis","meta_description":"Today I spoke with Anna Fishzon about her new book The Impossible Return - Psychoanalytic Reflections on Breast Cancer, Loss, and Mourning (Routledge, 2…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3103,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/new-books-in-psychoanalysis-774396/episodes/anna-fishzon-the-impossible-return-psychoanalytic-reflections-on-breast-cancer-loss-and-mourning-routledge-2025/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-psychoanalysis-774396/anna-fishzon-the-impossible-return-psychoanalytic-reflections-on-breast-cancer-loss-and-mourning-routledge-2025.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}