Episodes
Tuesday Aug 02, 2016
Freud, Sexuality and Antiquity - Dr Daniel Orrells
Tuesday Aug 02, 2016
Tuesday Aug 02, 2016
Freud's turn to Greek myth is very well known. His Oedipus emerges out of a long history of nineteenth-century obsessions with ancient Greece. But Freud's psychoanalysis of Greek myth was also a response to the nineteenth-century sexological fascination with the sexual decadence of ancient Rome. This talk explores the intriguing story of how the obscene and erotic verse of Roman epigram became an authoritative language for nineteenth-century sexual science, in order to ask, how and why did Freud's interest in Greek myth emerge out of the obscene sexual Latin of Richard von Krafft-Ebing's 1886 book Psychopathia Sexualis, the most famous work of sexology in the nineteenth century?
Sex: Antiquity and it Legacy is published by I.B.Tauris (February, 2013).
Dr Daniel Orrells is Lecturer in Ancient Greek Language and Literature at King's College London. His research examines the presence of classical antiquity in modern cultural, literary and intellectual history. His most recent book Sex: Antiquity and its Legacy offers a fresh, new narrative about the importance of the ancient world for the development of sexology and psychoanalysis.
Friday Oct 31, 2014
Freud and Eros: Love, Lust and Longing - Curator's talk: Dr Janine Burke
Friday Oct 31, 2014
Friday Oct 31, 2014
The god of love is one of the best represented deities in Freud's impressive collection of antiquities. Join Dr Burke, the exhibition's curator, as she discusses the profound connections between classical Greek culture, the artworks collected by Freud and the development of psychoanalysis. Freud understood the god well: Eros could spark the civilizing force of love that resulted in fulfilling relationships as well as unleashing turbulent, unbridled and destructive emotions. Dr Burke will also draw on Freud's personal experience of Eros in his passionate courtship of his future wife Martha Bernays.
Dr Janine Burke is the author of The Gods of Freud: Sigmund Freud's Art Collection (2006). She is Adjunct Lecturer, School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics, Monash University, Melbourne.
Part of a season of talks and events accompanying the exhibition 'Freud and Eros: Love, Lust and Longing' 22 October 2014 - 22 February 2015.
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