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Into the Loop
An Ethnography of Compulsive Repetition
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2026
About this book
Into the Loop asks how, and under what conditions, we can interrupt the repetitions that define us. Drawing from more than 200 hours of ethnographic observations of Systemic couples therapy in Buenos Aires, alongside auto-ethnographic recordings of Samuele Collu’s own hypnotherapy sessions, this study traces the psychic forces that compel people to repeat, interrupt, or drift aside from relational loops. Grounding his analysis in affect theory, psychoanalysis, and phenomenology, Collu examines how identification, affective transmission, compulsive repetition, and hypnosis play out within therapeutic encounters observed by teams of psychotherapists through one-way mirrors and closed-circuit television systems. This focus on visual mediation reveals how screens and observational devices both capture and distort the therapeutic process itself—a dynamic that connects to broader questions about digital media and user-screen relations in contemporary society. Written in an experimental and literary style that moves fluidly between the academic, the personal, and their uncanny in-betweens, Into the Loop offers a unique window into the repetitive cycles that shape our most intimate relationships and the possibilities for transformation within them.
Reviews
“Into the Loop is a compelling reflection on the intricacies of subjectivity and relationality in contemporary psychotherapy. Collu delves into the psychologically and interpersonally intense scenes of engagement between systems-based therapists and their clients. With this outstanding and fully realized work, Collu offers an innovative approach to anthropological research and ethnographic writing.”
-- Robert Desjarlais, author of The Visual Afterlife of Abdelkader Bennahar
-- Robert Desjarlais, author of The Visual Afterlife of Abdelkader Bennahar
“Collu effectively and consistently opens a channel between the ordinary and the metaphysical without at all being pedantic or preachy. By moving fluidly between ethnographic scenes and his own life experience, he invites the reader into a sensory if not existential complicity. Beautifully written and never less than engaging, reading Into the Loop is like being strapped to a dragonfly: ducking and diving, flitting and flickering, charming and provoking.”
-- William T. S. Mazzarella, Professor of Anthropology and of Social Science, University of Chicago
-- William T. S. Mazzarella, Professor of Anthropology and of Social Science, University of Chicago
"[Into the Loop] offers a rich resource for rethinking how we inhabit the training clinic, the supervision room, and the therapy session itself, and invites the systemic community to reconsider . . . how our own gazes, bodies, and screens are always already part of the loops we hope to transform."
-- Nathan Smith International Journal of Systemic Therapy
-- Nathan Smith International Journal of Systemic Therapy
"Collu’s overall approach as a well-placed refusal to fall into the loop of being too prescriptive or preachy. In the end, I’m struck by how Collu manages to balance a rare kind of vulnerability on the page, standing right alongside the reader as we gaze into the collective mirror."
-- Danielle Douez Montreal Review of Books
-- Danielle Douez Montreal Review of Books
Topics
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Frontmatter
i -
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Contents
vii -
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Acknowledgments
ix -
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Introduction
1 -
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1 Seeing Yourself Being Seen
15 -
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2 Atmospheric Crisis
47 -
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3 Compulsive Repetitions
79 -
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4 Oscillations
111 -
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Outro
133 -
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Notes
135 -
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Bibliography
177 -
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Index
197
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
November 28, 2025
eBook ISBN:
9781478061700
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook ISBN:
9781478061700
Keywords for this book
affect theory; psychoanalysis; phenomenology; therapy; screens; hypnosis; psychological anthropology; cybernetics; couples therapy; psychotherapy; Argentina; literary turn; Systemic couples therapy; vision; the gaze; projective identification; psychoanalytic third; affective atmospheres; cruel optimism; catharsis; crisis; ritual; Maurice Merleau-Ponty; Jacques Lacan; Fritz Fanon; Lauren Berlant; Teresa Brennan; Repetition; refrains; temporality; death drive; dispositif; image-work; refraction; transformation; ethnographic method; writing modes; mourning; loss
Audience(s) for this book
For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research
