ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that psychoanalysis has often leaned towards a politically conservative vision, even, in some cases, towards the outright reactionary, as people saw in Manganyi's critique of De Ridder's work. The idea of 'Hamletism' emerges in a chapter outlining Sachs's and Hellman's visit to Chavafambira after he and other black residents had been evicted from Rooiyard. It sought to discern the capacity of psychoanalysis both to accommodate itself to the structures of a authoritarian regime and to gesture beyond the horizons of such an authoritarian society, or even to invite revolt against it. Anger a point of thematic unity from which to explore the history of psychoanalysis in South Africa. This provides a promising starting point for future work on the topic. In their attempts to grapple with and theorize anger, the writings of Sachs and Manganyi also manifest the political ambiguities of psychoanalysis.
