Discourage a director absorbed by dead topic (8)
I believe the answer is:
dissuade
'discourage' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'a director absorbed by dead topic' is the wordplay.
'director' becomes 'd' (abbreviation eg in film reviews).
'absorbed by' is an insertion indicator.
'dead' becomes 'd' (abbreviation in government records).
'topic' becomes 'issue' (synonyms).
'a'+'d'='ad'
'd'+'issue'='dissue'
'ad' placed within 'dissue' is 'DISSUADE'.
(Other definitions for dissuade that I've seen before include "Try to deter" , "Advise not to proceed" , "Deter by advice" , "Put off" , "Discourage from course of action" .)