Freud Museum London: Psychoanalysis Podcasts

Narcissus, Oedipus and the Persistence of Memory

Why does the myth of Narcissus continue to fascinate and provoke the contemporary artistic imagination?

In what ways does classical mythology in general hold up a mirror to the anxieties and aspirations of the here-and-now?

This lecture will address these and other questions relating to the enduring power of ancient myth – above all, the tales of metamorphosis contained in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Writer and academic James Cahill will discuss how these stories have continued to infiltrate and inspire the art of the last hundred years, both overtly and in more oblique or unexpected ways, while also giving fundamental shape to modern literature and psychoanalysis. He will argue that Salvador Dalí’s iconic reimagining of the Narcissus myth stands at the crux between different modes of ‘response’ to the classical, looking simultaneously backwards (to the mythologizing paintings of the Renaissance, for instance) and forwards to the experiments of conceptual art and postmodernism – at once an illustration of the ancient myth and an enactment of its subliminal themes.

Part of an exciting series of talks and events which coincide with ‘Freud, Dali and the Metamorphosis of Narcissus’ on display at the museum from 3 October 2018 – 24 February 2019.

James Cahill is a writer based in London. He is the lead author of Flying Too Close to the Sun, a major new survey of classical myth in western art published by Phaidon in 2018. His book Ways of Being, an anthology of artists’ statements, was published this summer by Laurence King. In 2017 he completed a PhD at Cambridge University examining the relationship between contemporary British art and the classical tradition. He previously studied at the Courtauld Institute of Art and Oxford University. His writing has appeared in publications including Apollo, The Burlington Magazine, Elephant, The Erotic Review, Frieze, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The London Review of Books, and The Times Literary Supplement. He has authored or co-authored books on artists including Angus Fairhurst, Maggi Hambling and Richard Patterson, and has curated exhibitions at King’s College London and the Museum of Classical Archaeology, Cambridge. His PhD research led to a postdoctoral fellowship (2017-18) at King’s College London, where he helped to set up Modern Classicisms, a multidimensional research project exploring the connections between antiquity and modern art.

Flying Too Close to the Sun, by Phaidon Editors, with an introduction by James Cahill
is available from the Freud Museum Shop.

 

Grief Works

Psychotherapist Julia Samuel in conversation with Rabbi Baroness Julia Neuberger on loss and bereavement.

Julia Neuberger and Julia Samuel have been friends for many years.

Both know bereavement from every angle.

Julia Samuel wrote Grief Works as the definitive guide for anyone who is grieving the death of someone they care about. Julia Neuberger works with bereaved families and has written textbooks for nurses and others on how best to treat dying people and their families from diverse communities.

The two Julias will discuss the grieving process, how friends and family can support the bereaved, and when it is time to call in the professionals.

Grief Works is available from the Freud Museum Shop.

 

Speakers:

Julia Samuel MBE, author of Grief Works: Stories of Life, Death and Surviving, is a psychotherapist specialising in grief, who has spent the last twenty-five years working with bereaved families. She has worked both in private practice and in the NHS at St Mary’s Hospital Paddington where she pioneered the role of maternity and paediatric psychotherapist. In 1994 she worked to launch and establish Child Bereavement UK as its Founder Patron, where she continues to play a central role. Julia was awarded an MBE in the 2015 New Year’s Honours list for services to bereaved children. Julia is a Vice President of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy.

Rabbi Baroness Julia Neuberger DBE is the second female rabbi to be ordained in Britain, and the first to lead her own synagogue. She was Chancellor of the University of Ulster from 1994 to 2000, Chief Executive of The King’s Fund from 1997-2004, and Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s champion for volunteering from 2007-9. A member of numerous public bodies and trustee of several charities, Julia became a DBE and a life peer in 2004. She is well known as an author, social reformer and broadcaster, whose books include Dying Well, Not Dead Yet – a Manifesto for old age, and Is that all there is?   In 2011 she was appointed Senior Rabbi at West London Synagogue, making her the most senior woman in Jewish religious life in the UK.

Magic, Myth and Madness

Occult and Psychoanalytical Theory in the Art of Surrealism, with Nadia Choucha

The surrealist movement began shortly after the end of World War I. It aimed to liberate the individual from the constraints of bourgeois morality and thus cause revolutionary change in society. The early years of the movement were characterised by an emphasis on Marxist politics and psychoanalytical theory. Freudian theories about hysteria, dream symbolism, psychosexual imagery and the uncanny were used by surrealists to create haunting and provocative works of art. Freud’s use of myth to explain aspects of the psyche and his concept of the ‘omnipotence of thought’ opened doors for the surrealists to conduct their own explorations of magic and mythology. From the 1930s onwards, the surrealists became increasingly engaged with mythological themes and the hidden, symbolic language of magic and occult philosophy which is expressed through a wide range of works by artists such as Max Ernst, André Masson and Salvador Dalí.

In this presentation, Nadia Choucha analyses and compares the creative strategies of surrealist artists and writers whose work combined elements of occult symbolism with psychoanalytical and mythological themes. They aimed to reveal the secrets of the unconscious and create a ‘new myth’ for their time and, in doing so, they redefined the role of the artist as magician and the purpose of art as a means towards self-knowledge, transformation and illumination.

Part of an exciting series of talks and events which coincide with ‘Freud, Dali and the Metamorphosis of Narcissus’ on display at the museum from 3 October 2018 – 24 February 2019.

Nadia Choucha has degrees from the University of Edinburgh and King’s College London. Her book Surrealism and the Occult was published by Mandrake, Oxford in 1991 (2nd edition, 2016). She is based in London where she works for an academic research institute and is also an independent scholar and member of ESSWE (European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism).

 

Curator's talk: Dawn Ades in conversation with Darian Leader

Join distinguished art historian and curator, Dawn Ades as she discusses her latest exhibition ‘Freud, Dali and the Metamorphosis of Narcissus’ with psychoanalyst Darian Leader.

Dalí was a passionate admirer of the father of psychoanalysis and finally met him in London on July 19th 1938. This year marks the 80th anniversary of this event. A new exhibition at the Freud Museum will explore the connection between the two men, starting from their one meeting, to which Dalí brought his recently completed painting The Metamorphosis of Narcissus.

The painting, on loan from the Tate, will be the central point in the exhibition for an exploration of the extensive influence of Freud on Dalí and on Surrealism. Also considered will be Freud’s own attitude to painting, illuminated by his response to this encounter with Dalí.

Part of an exciting series of talks and events which coincide with ‘Freud, Dali and the Metamorphosis of Narcissus’ on display the Museum from 3 October 2018 – 24 February 2019.

Dawn Ades is Professor Emerita of the History and Theory of Art at the University of Essex, Professor of the History of Art at the Royal Academy, a former trustee of Tate (1995-2005) and of the National Gallery (2000-2005) and a Fellow of the British Academy. In 2013 she was appointed CBE for services to higher education.

The many exhibitions she has organized or co-curated, in the UK and abroad, include Dada and Surrealism Reviewed (1978); Art in Latin America: the Modern Era 1820-1980 (1989); Dalí’s Optical Illusions (2000); Salvador Dalí: the Centenary Exhibition (2004); Undercover Surrealism: Georges Bataille and Documents (2006); Close-Up: Proximity and Defamiliarisation in Art, Photography and Film (2008); and Dalí/Duchamp, (Royal Academy and the Dalí Museum 2017-18).

Darian Leader is a psychoanalyst working in London and a member of the Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research and of The College of Psychoanalysts-UK. He is the author of several books including: ‘Why do women write more letters than they post?’; ‘Freud’s Footnotes’; ‘Stealing the Mona Lisa: What Art Stops Us From Seeing’; ‘Why do people get ill?’ (with David Corfield) , ‘The New Black: Mourning, Melancholia and Depression’, ‘What is Madness?’ , ‘Strictly Bipolar’ and ‘Hands’, and frequently about contemporary art.

Sheila Melzak, Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist and Director of the Baobab Centre for Young Survivors in Exile
Sigmund Freud published at the start of the First World War in 1914 that experiences that we have not processed will be repeated in life and through the generations. Anna Freud published in 1936 about the Ego and the Mechanisms we develop unconsciously to defend and protect ourselves. This paper explores how these two in many ways opposite ideas influence our reflections and practice of therapeutic work with young refugees and asylum seekers in 2018.

Leonie Ansems de Vries, Lecturer in International Relations at King’s College London and Coordinator of the Migration Research Group.
“We are in between”: Narrating migrant experiences in France and the UK
This paper will address Leonie Ansems de Vries’ work in ‘The Jungle’ in Calais and Dunkirk. It will go on to include some insights from her current research with migrants and refugees in London today.

Julia Hoffbrand, Acting Curator at the Freud Museum
An introduction to the current exhibition Leaving Today: the Freuds in Exile 1938 held at the Freud Museum

Diane Silverthorne, Art Historian and Lecturer in Cultural Studies at Central St. Martins, University of the Arts
Vienna-London Passage to Safety: the Portrait-Photographer as Secondary Witness in Émigré Narratives
An examination of  the role of the artist  as ‘secondary witness’, in this case the work of Marion Trestler and her documentary portraiture of twenty-one emigres who fled Austria for London in the inter-war period, some as young adults, others as children on the Kindertransport. The portraits recorded in the book, Vienna-London Passage to Safety Emigre Portraits in Photographs and Words (2017),  have also been the subject of exhibitions in Vienna and in London, and a film, released to co-incide with the anniversary of the Anschluss.

David Cohen, Author and FilmmakerThe Escape of Sigmund Freud
The story of Freud’s flight from Nazi-occupied Vienna, his life in England and the effect this had on him, based upon his publication The Escape of Sigmund Freud (2010).

Alicia Kent, Lecturer at King’s College London in Comparative Literature and Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies

The Fragile Phallus-A conference about the precarious nature of masculinity in the modern world.Renata Salecl

Renata Salecl
The Fear of Being Ignored: From Incel to Imposters
This lecture will address the question of masculinity in light of neoliberal ideology of success and failure. First, it will question why it seems to be harder for men to deal with sexual rejection and lack of social recognition. And second, it will look at violence against women in the context of the neoliberal ideals of masculinity.

Renata Salecl is philosopher and sociologist. She is Professor at the School of Law, Birkbeck College, London and Senior Researcher at the Institute of Criminology at the Faculty of Law, Ljubljana, Slovenia. Her last book Tyranny of Choice has been translated into 15 languages.

The latest string of sexual assault and harassment scandals invites critical reflection into the structure of masculinity.

While much of the media focus has been on abuses of power, popular responses such as the #MeToo movement have emphasised the everydayness of sexual harassment, shifting the focus to masculinity as such.

Psychoanalysis has long held that masculinity is not a biological given, nor is it simply the sum total of patriarchal values operating on an individual. Rather, it is characterised by a peculiar, fraught and anxious relation to the psychical emblem of the ‘phallus’.

How might psychoanalysis enrich popular notions of ‘fragile’ and ‘toxic’ masculinity?

This conference brings together perspectives from psychoanalysis and beyond to bring out some of these troubling (and troubled) dimensions of the subjective structure popularly known as ‘masculinity’.

The Fragile Phallus-A conference about the precarious nature of masculinity in the modern world.Renata Salecl questions

Renata Salecl
The Fear of Being Ignored: From Incel to Imposters
This lecture will address the question of masculinity in light of neoliberal ideology of success and failure. First, it will question why it seems to be harder for men to deal with sexual rejection and lack of social recognition. And second, it will look at violence against women in the context of the neoliberal ideals of masculinity.

Renata Salecl is philosopher and sociologist. She is Professor at the School of Law, Birkbeck College, London and Senior Researcher at the Institute of Criminology at the Faculty of Law, Ljubljana, Slovenia. Her last book Tyranny of Choice has been translated into 15 languages.

The latest string of sexual assault and harassment scandals invites critical reflection into the structure of masculinity.

While much of the media focus has been on abuses of power, popular responses such as the #MeToo movement have emphasised the everydayness of sexual harassment, shifting the focus to masculinity as such.

Psychoanalysis has long held that masculinity is not a biological given, nor is it simply the sum total of patriarchal values operating on an individual. Rather, it is characterised by a peculiar, fraught and anxious relation to the psychical emblem of the ‘phallus’.

How might psychoanalysis enrich popular notions of ‘fragile’ and ‘toxic’ masculinity?

This conference brings together perspectives from psychoanalysis and beyond to bring out some of these troubling (and troubled) dimensions of the subjective structure popularly known as ‘masculinity’.

 

The Fragile Phallus-A conference about the precarious nature of masculinity in the modern world. Plenary discussion

Plenary discussion

The latest string of sexual assault and harassment scandals invites critical reflection into the structure of masculinity.

While much of the media focus has been on abuses of power, popular responses such as the #MeToo movement have emphasised the everydayness of sexual harassment, shifting the focus to masculinity as such.

Psychoanalysis has long held that masculinity is not a biological given, nor is it simply the sum total of patriarchal values operating on an individual. Rather, it is characterised by a peculiar, fraught and anxious relation to the psychical emblem of the ‘phallus’.

How might psychoanalysis enrich popular notions of ‘fragile’ and ‘toxic’ masculinity?

This conference brings together perspectives from psychoanalysis and beyond to bring out some of these troubling (and troubled) dimensions of the subjective structure popularly known as ‘masculinity’.

The Fragile Phallus -A conference about the precarious nature of masculinity in the modern world. Jordan Osserman

Jordan Osserman
Is the Phallus Uncut? On Male Circumcision and ‘Intactivism’
Female circumcision (also known as ‘FGM’) has been debated and opposed by feminists, policymakers, and the public at large for a long time. More recently, a movement opposed to male circumcision, which goes under the banner of ‘intactivism’, has been gathering steam. Based initially in the United States, many intactivists are men who were circumcised at birth and now attribute a range of psychological and sexual ailments to the procedure. They often portray themselves as victims of feminist ideology, aligning themselves with the ‘men’s rights movement’. Some attempt ‘foreskin restoration’ to retrieve, or regrow, the part of their penis they feel to have traumatically lost.
The term ‘intactivist’ invites psychoanalytic criticism, as it references that wish for ‘intactness’ that psychoanalysis alleges to be a defensive fantasy against the subject’s foundational fracture — the wish to ‘restore’ a prelapsarian wholeness that never actually existed. How can psychoanalysis help us understand the psychical dimensions of such stances on male circumcision? And what might the seemingly fringe concerns of intactivists reveal about the nature of masculinity as such?

Jordan Osserman completed his PhD in Gender Studies and Psychoanalysis at University College in London in 2017. His dissertation, entitled ‘On the Foreskin Question’, drew on psychoanalysis and philosophy to examine the surprisingly pivotal role of stances towards male circumcision in Christianity, medicine, and politics. His work has been published in Transgender Studies Quarterly and Blunderbuss Magazine, and he is a host on the podcast New Books in Psychoanalysis.

The latest string of sexual assault and harassment scandals invites critical reflection into the structure of masculinity.

While much of the media focus has been on abuses of power, popular responses such as the #MeToo movement have emphasised the everydayness of sexual harassment, shifting the focus to masculinity as such.

Psychoanalysis has long held that masculinity is not a biological given, nor is it simply the sum total of patriarchal values operating on an individual. Rather, it is characterised by a peculiar, fraught and anxious relation to the psychical emblem of the ‘phallus’.

How might psychoanalysis enrich popular notions of ‘fragile’ and ‘toxic’ masculinity?

This conference brings together perspectives from psychoanalysis and beyond to bring out some of these troubling (and troubled) dimensions of the subjective structure popularly known as ‘masculinity’.

 

The Fragile Phallus- A conference about the precarious nature of masculinity in the modern world.Jordan Osserman questions

Jordan Osserman
Is the Phallus Uncut? On Male Circumcision and ‘Intactivism’
Female circumcision (also known as ‘FGM’) has been debated and opposed by feminists, policymakers, and the public at large for a long time. More recently, a movement opposed to male circumcision, which goes under the banner of ‘intactivism’, has been gathering steam. Based initially in the United States, many intactivists are men who were circumcised at birth and now attribute a range of psychological and sexual ailments to the procedure. They often portray themselves as victims of feminist ideology, aligning themselves with the ‘men’s rights movement’. Some attempt ‘foreskin restoration’ to retrieve, or regrow, the part of their penis they feel to have traumatically lost.
The term ‘intactivist’ invites psychoanalytic criticism, as it references that wish for ‘intactness’ that psychoanalysis alleges to be a defensive fantasy against the subject’s foundational fracture — the wish to ‘restore’ a prelapsarian wholeness that never actually existed. How can psychoanalysis help us understand the psychical dimensions of such stances on male circumcision? And what might the seemingly fringe concerns of intactivists reveal about the nature of masculinity as such?

Jordan Osserman completed his PhD in Gender Studies and Psychoanalysis at University College in London in 2017. His dissertation, entitled ‘On the Foreskin Question’, drew on psychoanalysis and philosophy to examine the surprisingly pivotal role of stances towards male circumcision in Christianity, medicine, and politics. His work has been published in Transgender Studies Quarterly and Blunderbuss Magazine, and he is a host on the podcast New Books in Psychoanalysis.

The latest string of sexual assault and harassment scandals invites critical reflection into the structure of masculinity.

While much of the media focus has been on abuses of power, popular responses such as the #MeToo movement have emphasised the everydayness of sexual harassment, shifting the focus to masculinity as such.

Psychoanalysis has long held that masculinity is not a biological given, nor is it simply the sum total of patriarchal values operating on an individual. Rather, it is characterised by a peculiar, fraught and anxious relation to the psychical emblem of the ‘phallus’.

How might psychoanalysis enrich popular notions of ‘fragile’ and ‘toxic’ masculinity?

This conference brings together perspectives from psychoanalysis and beyond to bring out some of these troubling (and troubled) dimensions of the subjective structure popularly known as ‘masculinity’.

The Fragile Phallus- A conference about the precarious nature of masculinity in the modern world. Ivan Ward questions

Ivan Ward
The Tory Power Stance: A Developmental Perspective
Whether adopted by a man or woman, the ‘Tory Power Stance’, as it has been dubbed, is a pose designed to project masculine power and authority. Various hypotheses have been offered as to the origin of the pose and what it might signify. In this paper I will offer an alternative view.

Ivan Ward is Deputy Director and Head of Learning at the Freud Museum London and manager of the museum’s conference programme. He is the author of a number of books and papers on psychoanalytic theory and on the applications of psychoanalysis to social and cultural issues. His latest publication is ‘Parsifal as Castration Drama’ (2017) in a special issue of The Wagner Journal based on a conference organised by the Freud Museum in 2016.

The latest string of sexual assault and harassment scandals invites critical reflection into the structure of masculinity.

While much of the media focus has been on abuses of power, popular responses such as the #MeToo movement have emphasised the everydayness of sexual harassment, shifting the focus to masculinity as such.

Psychoanalysis has long held that masculinity is not a biological given, nor is it simply the sum total of patriarchal values operating on an individual. Rather, it is characterised by a peculiar, fraught and anxious relation to the psychical emblem of the ‘phallus’.

How might psychoanalysis enrich popular notions of ‘fragile’ and ‘toxic’ masculinity?

This conference brings together perspectives from psychoanalysis and beyond to bring out some of these troubling (and troubled) dimensions of the subjective structure popularly known as ‘masculinity’.

The Fragile Phallus- A conference about the precarious nature of masculinity in the modern world. Introduction

Introduction
Stefan Marianski

The latest string of sexual assault and harassment scandals invites critical reflection into the structure of masculinity.

While much of the media focus has been on abuses of power, popular responses such as the #MeToo movement have emphasised the everydayness of sexual harassment, shifting the focus to masculinity as such.

Psychoanalysis has long held that masculinity is not a biological given, nor is it simply the sum total of patriarchal values operating on an individual. Rather, it is characterised by a peculiar, fraught and anxious relation to the psychical emblem of the ‘phallus’.

How might psychoanalysis enrich popular notions of ‘fragile’ and ‘toxic’ masculinity?

This conference brings together perspectives from psychoanalysis and beyond to bring out some of these troubling (and troubled) dimensions of the subjective structure popularly known as ‘masculinity’.

The Fragile Phallus- A conference about the precarious nature of masculinity in the modern world. Dorothée Bonnigal-Katz

Dorothée Bonnigal-Katz
From Machismo to Medusa: The Question of Masculinity and Maternal Omnipotence
This paper looks for the roots of masculinity in maternal omnipotence and in the mirage of wholeness and plenitude of primary narcissism. A bit of a reaction formation, masculinity could be read as the construct erected against the tyranny of the phallic mother, an attempt to appropriate her murderous power. But the horror of castration persists all the same and the hollow phallus of masculinity ultimately is its best poster boy. Masculinity and maternal omnipotence will be examined across a variety of cultural and mythological references and an array of clinical situations including fetishism, hysteria and psychosis.

Dorothée Bonnigal-Katz is a psychoanalyst and a translator. She is a member of the SITE for Contemporary Psychoanalysis and one of the editors of Sitegeist: A Journal of Psychoanalysis and Philosophy. She is the founder of the Psychosis Therapy Project. She has translated a number of psychoanalytic works including Dominique Scarfone’s Laplanche: An Introduction (2015) and she translates for the International Journal of Psychoanalysis on a regular basis.

The latest string of sexual assault and harassment scandals invites critical reflection into the structure of masculinity.

While much of the media focus has been on abuses of power, popular responses such as the #MeToo movement have emphasised the everydayness of sexual harassment, shifting the focus to masculinity as such.

Psychoanalysis has long held that masculinity is not a biological given, nor is it simply the sum total of patriarchal values operating on an individual. Rather, it is characterised by a peculiar, fraught and anxious relation to the psychical emblem of the ‘phallus’.

How might psychoanalysis enrich popular notions of ‘fragile’ and ‘toxic’ masculinity?

This conference brings together perspectives from psychoanalysis and beyond to bring out some of these troubling (and troubled) dimensions of the subjective structure popularly known as ‘masculinity’.

The Fragile Phallus-A conference about the precarious nature of masculinity in the modern world.Dorothée Bonnigal-Katz questions

Dorothée Bonnigal-Katz
From Machismo to Medusa: The Question of Masculinity and Maternal Omnipotence
This paper looks for the roots of masculinity in maternal omnipotence and in the mirage of wholeness and plenitude of primary narcissism. A bit of a reaction formation, masculinity could be read as the construct erected against the tyranny of the phallic mother, an attempt to appropriate her murderous power. But the horror of castration persists all the same and the hollow phallus of masculinity ultimately is its best poster boy. Masculinity and maternal omnipotence will be examined across a variety of cultural and mythological references and an array of clinical situations including fetishism, hysteria and psychosis.

Dorothée Bonnigal-Katz is a psychoanalyst and a translator. She is a member of the SITE for Contemporary Psychoanalysis and one of the editors of Sitegeist: A Journal of Psychoanalysis and Philosophy. She is the founder of the Psychosis Therapy Project. She has translated a number of psychoanalytic works including Dominique Scarfone’s Laplanche: An Introduction (2015) and she translates for the International Journal of Psychoanalysis on a regular basis.

The latest string of sexual assault and harassment scandals invites critical reflection into the structure of masculinity.

While much of the media focus has been on abuses of power, popular responses such as the #MeToo movement have emphasised the everydayness of sexual harassment, shifting the focus to masculinity as such.

Psychoanalysis has long held that masculinity is not a biological given, nor is it simply the sum total of patriarchal values operating on an individual. Rather, it is characterised by a peculiar, fraught and anxious relation to the psychical emblem of the ‘phallus’.

How might psychoanalysis enrich popular notions of ‘fragile’ and ‘toxic’ masculinity?

This conference brings together perspectives from psychoanalysis and beyond to bring out some of these troubling (and troubled) dimensions of the subjective structure popularly known as ‘masculinity’.

The Fragile Phallus-A conference about the precarious nature of masculinity in the modern world. Callum Neill

Calum Neill
The Only Good Father
In unravelling the question of sexual difference and the (non-)relation between the sexes, Jacques Lacan alludes to, draws on and restages Freud’s infamous myth of the primal horde. Core to this myth is, of course, the figure of the father. The contemporary suspicion of a crisis in masculinity – variously linked to a toxic (sexual) aggression, a de-masculisation, dislocation and failure of identity – would suggest that the myth has lost its relevance and its explanatory value. This paper will revisit Lacan’s reading of the myth, drawing on two contemporary cinematic examples; Xavier Legrand’s Custody and Antony and Joe Russo’s Avengers: Infinity War. The films might be understood to each present something of the fantasy of masculinity, its crisis and the concerns these might raise.

Calum Neill is Associate Professor of Psychoanalysis and Cultural Theory at Edinburgh Napier University. He is the editor of The Palgrave Lacan Series and co-editor of the forthcoming three volume set, Reading Lacan’s Ecrits. He is the author of Without Ground: Lacanian Ethics and the Assumption of Subjectivity (Palgrave, 2014), Ethics and Psychology: Beyond Codes of Practice (Routledge, 2016) and Jacques Lacan: The Basics (Routledge, 2019).

The latest string of sexual assault and harassment scandals invites critical reflection into the structure of masculinity.

While much of the media focus has been on abuses of power, popular responses such as the #MeToo movement have emphasised the everydayness of sexual harassment, shifting the focus to masculinity as such.

Psychoanalysis has long held that masculinity is not a biological given, nor is it simply the sum total of patriarchal values operating on an individual. Rather, it is characterised by a peculiar, fraught and anxious relation to the psychical emblem of the ‘phallus’.

How might psychoanalysis enrich popular notions of ‘fragile’ and ‘toxic’ masculinity?

This conference brings together perspectives from psychoanalysis and beyond to bring out some of these troubling (and troubled) dimensions of the subjective structure popularly known as ‘masculinity’.

 

The Fragile Phallus- A conference about the precarious nature of masculinity in the modern world. Callum Neill questions

Calum Neill
The Only Good Father
In unravelling the question of sexual difference and the (non-)relation between the sexes, Jacques Lacan alludes to, draws on and restages Freud’s infamous myth of the primal horde. Core to this myth is, of course, the figure of the father. The contemporary suspicion of a crisis in masculinity – variously linked to a toxic (sexual) aggression, a de-masculisation, dislocation and failure of identity – would suggest that the myth has lost its relevance and its explanatory value. This paper will revisit Lacan’s reading of the myth, drawing on two contemporary cinematic examples; Xavier Legrand’s Custody and Antony and Joe Russo’s Avengers: Infinity War. The films might be understood to each present something of the fantasy of masculinity, its crisis and the concerns these might raise.

Calum Neill is Associate Professor of Psychoanalysis and Cultural Theory at Edinburgh Napier University. He is the editor of The Palgrave Lacan Series and co-editor of the forthcoming three volume set, Reading Lacan’s Ecrits. He is the author of Without Ground: Lacanian Ethics and the Assumption of Subjectivity (Palgrave, 2014), Ethics and Psychology: Beyond Codes of Practice (Routledge, 2016) and Jacques Lacan: The Basics (Routledge, 2019).

The latest string of sexual assault and harassment scandals invites critical reflection into the structure of masculinity.

While much of the media focus has been on abuses of power, popular responses such as the #MeToo movement have emphasised the everydayness of sexual harassment, shifting the focus to masculinity as such.

Psychoanalysis has long held that masculinity is not a biological given, nor is it simply the sum total of patriarchal values operating on an individual. Rather, it is characterised by a peculiar, fraught and anxious relation to the psychical emblem of the ‘phallus’.

How might psychoanalysis enrich popular notions of ‘fragile’ and ‘toxic’ masculinity?

This conference brings together perspectives from psychoanalysis and beyond to bring out some of these troubling (and troubled) dimensions of the subjective structure popularly known as ‘masculinity’.

'Endings, Loss and Grief' with Author Julian Barnes

Breathe - Talks Series: On Loss and Creativity

This is the final event in the series of talks 'On Loss and Creativity', which coincide with the exhibition Breathe by artists Fay Ballard and Judy Goldhill.

Julian Barnes – Winner of 2011 Man Booker Prize and author of ‘Nothing to Be Frightened Of’ - in conversation with Jon Stokes

Julian Barnes has written movingly about his personal experiences of loss and grief in ‘Levels of Life’ and in ‘Nothing to Be Frightened Of’, a memoir on mortality that touches on faith and science and family as well as a rich array of exemplary figures who over the centuries have confronted the same questions he now poses about the most basic fact of life: its inevitable extinction. He will talk about his attitude to death and what brought him to write these two books.

Barnes’ writing has earned him considerable respect as an author who deals with the themes of history, reality, truth and love. He has received several awards and honours for his writing, including the 2011 Man Booker Prize for ‘The Sense of an Ending’. Three other of his novels were shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize - ‘Flaubert's Parrot’, ‘England, England’ and ‘Arthur & George’. Garrison Keillor described ‘Nothing to be Frightened Of’ as "a beautiful and funny book, still booming in my head."

“He reveals crystalline truths that have taken a lifetime to harden” - The New York Times.

The series will be chaired by Jon Stokes, Clinical Psychologist and Psychotherapist, Senior Fellow Oxford University; former Chair, Adult Department Tavistock Clinic.

‘I saw the Spring Return: on Wordsworth and Loss’ with Ronald Britton

The second in the series of talks ‘On Loss and Creativity’, which coincide with the exhibition Breathe by artists Fay Ballard and Judy Goldhill.

Ronald Britton’s work is characterised by his preoccupation with truth; with what is real, and how we know this. His answer follows Keats, ‘nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced’ and his contributions follow from this.

In his book Belief and Imagination he examines the relationship between psychic reality and fictional writing, and the ways in which belief, imagination and reality are explored in the works of Wordsworth, Rilke, Milton and Blake. He explores questions such as the status of phantasies in an individual’s mind – are they facts or possibilities? How the notions of objectivity and subjectivity are interrelated and have their origins in the Oedipal triangle. How phantasies which are held to be products of the imagination, can be accounted for in psychoanalytic terms.

Ronald Britton is a training and supervising analyst with the British Psychoanalytical Society. He first trained as a doctor, and as a child psychiatrist was Chair of the Department of Children and Parents at the Tavistock Clinic, where he was involved in treatment of deprived children and their parents. This experience was influential to his psychoanalytic thinking where he maintains the importance of ‘childhood’ as a formative experience. His theoretical background is that of Freud, Klein and post-Kleinians. Additionally, he brings his own wide interests, including philosophy, theology, science, and particularly, his passion for poetry, which he uses as a basis for psychological understanding. Arguably, it is from the last that his most original contribution was inspired, namely his psychoanalytic understanding of the source of inspiration: the imagination.

The series will be chaired by Jon Stokes, Clinical Psychologist and Psychotherapist, Senior Fellow Oxford University; former Chair, Adult Department Tavistock Clinic.

For the discontent of our times we propose a marathon reading of Freud’s Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego.

First published in 1921, the text raises questions about the role of the leader today, tribalism, the triumph of modern masses, and what separates the individual from his or her subjectivity and lived history.

This event will breathe fresh life into this classic text and help both readers and listeners to think about our own era in the beautiful context of Freud’s final home on the 80th anniversary of his arrival in London.

The event is part of the ‘Weekend of Discontent’ at the Freud Museum. It is free with admission on a first come, first served basis. If you prefer, please buy a ticket for the whole weekend HERE. There are no specific tickets and audience members can come and go as they please. This is a staged reading and interactive performance.

Reading: 1pm – 4:30pm

Discussion: 4:30pm – 6pm

Readers include:

Janet Haney, event coordinator, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Sophia Berouka, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Sue Blundell, playwright

Faisal Bokhammas, Birkbeck, University of London

Howard Britton, economist

Marie-Hélène Brousse, psychoanalyst, editor of The Lacanian Review

Bernard Burgoyne, psychoanalyst, mathematician

Vincent Dachy, psychoanalyst, scribbler and resolute amateur

Francine Danniau, psychoanalyst, writer, Belgium

Paul Dineen, actor

Philip Dravers, Chair, London Society NLS

Alasdair Duncan, autism support worker

Jeff Evans, statistician

Stephen Frosh, Birkbeck, University of London

Nancy Gillespie, Lacanian Compass, NYC

John Haney, writer, co-curator, PoetrySlabs

Earl Hopper, group analyst

Ven. Julian Hubbard, Director of Ministry for the Church of England

Michele Julien, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Joan Raphael-Leff, psychoanalyst, Anna Freud Centre

Roger Litten, Director, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Henrik Lynggaard, clinical psychologist, systemic psychotherapist

Max Maher, Essex University

Aino-Marjatta Mäki, Kingston University

Peggy Papada, clinical psychologist, practicing analyst, former dancer

Ivan Ward, Freud Museum

Scott Wilson, Kingston University

Bogdan Wolf, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Colin Wright, Nottingham University

Alejandro Sessa, accueillant, Le Courtil, Belgium

Anthony Stadlen, psychoanalyst, daseinsanalyst

Laura Tarsia, psychoanalyst

Patricia Tassara, psychoanalyst, Spain

For the discontent of our times we propose a marathon reading of Freud’s Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego.

First published in 1921, the text raises questions about the role of the leader today, tribalism, the triumph of modern masses, and what separates the individual from his or her subjectivity and lived history.

This event will breathe fresh life into this classic text and help both readers and listeners to think about our own era in the beautiful context of Freud’s final home on the 80th anniversary of his arrival in London.

The event is part of the ‘Weekend of Discontent’ at the Freud Museum. It is free with admission on a first come, first served basis. If you prefer, please buy a ticket for the whole weekend HERE. There are no specific tickets and audience members can come and go as they please. This is a staged reading and interactive performance.

Reading: 1pm – 4:30pm

Discussion: 4:30pm – 6pm

Readers include:

Janet Haney, event coordinator, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Sophia Berouka, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Sue Blundell, playwright

Faisal Bokhammas, Birkbeck, University of London

Howard Britton, economist

Marie-Hélène Brousse, psychoanalyst, editor of The Lacanian Review

Bernard Burgoyne, psychoanalyst, mathematician

Vincent Dachy, psychoanalyst, scribbler and resolute amateur

Francine Danniau, psychoanalyst, writer, Belgium

Paul Dineen, actor

Philip Dravers, Chair, London Society NLS

Alasdair Duncan, autism support worker

Jeff Evans, statistician

Stephen Frosh, Birkbeck, University of London

Nancy Gillespie, Lacanian Compass, NYC

John Haney, writer, co-curator, PoetrySlabs

Earl Hopper, group analyst

Ven. Julian Hubbard, Director of Ministry for the Church of England

Michele Julien, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Joan Raphael-Leff, psychoanalyst, Anna Freud Centre

Roger Litten, Director, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Henrik Lynggaard, clinical psychologist, systemic psychotherapist

Max Maher, Essex University

Aino-Marjatta Mäki, Kingston University

Peggy Papada, clinical psychologist, practicing analyst, former dancer

Ivan Ward, Freud Museum

Scott Wilson, Kingston University

Bogdan Wolf, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Colin Wright, Nottingham University

Alejandro Sessa, accueillant, Le Courtil, Belgium

Anthony Stadlen, psychoanalyst, daseinsanalyst

Laura Tarsia, psychoanalyst

Patricia Tassara, psychoanalyst, Spain

For the discontent of our times we propose a marathon reading of Freud’s Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego.

First published in 1921, the text raises questions about the role of the leader today, tribalism, the triumph of modern masses, and what separates the individual from his or her subjectivity and lived history.

This event will breathe fresh life into this classic text and help both readers and listeners to think about our own era in the beautiful context of Freud’s final home on the 80th anniversary of his arrival in London.

The event is part of the ‘Weekend of Discontent’ at the Freud Museum. It is free with admission on a first come, first served basis. If you prefer, please buy a ticket for the whole weekend HERE. There are no specific tickets and audience members can come and go as they please. This is a staged reading and interactive performance.

Reading: 1pm – 4:30pm

Discussion: 4:30pm – 6pm

Readers include:

Janet Haney, event coordinator, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Sophia Berouka, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Sue Blundell, playwright

Faisal Bokhammas, Birkbeck, University of London

Howard Britton, economist

Marie-Hélène Brousse, psychoanalyst, editor of The Lacanian Review

Bernard Burgoyne, psychoanalyst, mathematician

Vincent Dachy, psychoanalyst, scribbler and resolute amateur

Francine Danniau, psychoanalyst, writer, Belgium

Paul Dineen, actor

Philip Dravers, Chair, London Society NLS

Alasdair Duncan, autism support worker

Jeff Evans, statistician

Stephen Frosh, Birkbeck, University of London

Nancy Gillespie, Lacanian Compass, NYC

John Haney, writer, co-curator, PoetrySlabs

Earl Hopper, group analyst

Ven. Julian Hubbard, Director of Ministry for the Church of England

Michele Julien, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Joan Raphael-Leff, psychoanalyst, Anna Freud Centre

Roger Litten, Director, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Henrik Lynggaard, clinical psychologist, systemic psychotherapist

Max Maher, Essex University

Aino-Marjatta Mäki, Kingston University

Peggy Papada, clinical psychologist, practicing analyst, former dancer

Ivan Ward, Freud Museum

Scott Wilson, Kingston University

Bogdan Wolf, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Colin Wright, Nottingham University

Alejandro Sessa, accueillant, Le Courtil, Belgium

Anthony Stadlen, psychoanalyst, daseinsanalyst

Laura Tarsia, psychoanalyst

Patricia Tassara, psychoanalyst, Spain

For the discontent of our times we propose a marathon reading of Freud’s Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego.

First published in 1921, the text raises questions about the role of the leader today, tribalism, the triumph of modern masses, and what separates the individual from his or her subjectivity and lived history.

This event will breathe fresh life into this classic text and help both readers and listeners to think about our own era in the beautiful context of Freud’s final home on the 80th anniversary of his arrival in London.

The event is part of the ‘Weekend of Discontent’ at the Freud Museum. It is free with admission on a first come, first served basis. If you prefer, please buy a ticket for the whole weekend HERE. There are no specific tickets and audience members can come and go as they please. This is a staged reading and interactive performance.

Reading: 1pm – 4:30pm

Discussion: 4:30pm – 6pm

Readers include:

Janet Haney, event coordinator, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Sophia Berouka, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Sue Blundell, playwright

Faisal Bokhammas, Birkbeck, University of London

Howard Britton, economist

Marie-Hélène Brousse, psychoanalyst, editor of The Lacanian Review

Bernard Burgoyne, psychoanalyst, mathematician

Vincent Dachy, psychoanalyst, scribbler and resolute amateur

Francine Danniau, psychoanalyst, writer, Belgium

Paul Dineen, actor

Philip Dravers, Chair, London Society NLS

Alasdair Duncan, autism support worker

Jeff Evans, statistician

Stephen Frosh, Birkbeck, University of London

Nancy Gillespie, Lacanian Compass, NYC

John Haney, writer, co-curator, PoetrySlabs

Earl Hopper, group analyst

Ven. Julian Hubbard, Director of Ministry for the Church of England

Michele Julien, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Joan Raphael-Leff, psychoanalyst, Anna Freud Centre

Roger Litten, Director, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Henrik Lynggaard, clinical psychologist, systemic psychotherapist

Max Maher, Essex University

Aino-Marjatta Mäki, Kingston University

Peggy Papada, clinical psychologist, practicing analyst, former dancer

Ivan Ward, Freud Museum

Scott Wilson, Kingston University

Bogdan Wolf, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Colin Wright, Nottingham University

Alejandro Sessa, accueillant, Le Courtil, Belgium

Anthony Stadlen, psychoanalyst, daseinsanalyst

Laura Tarsia, psychoanalyst

Patricia Tassara, psychoanalyst, Spain

For the discontent of our times we propose a marathon reading of Freud’s Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego.

First published in 1921, the text raises questions about the role of the leader today, tribalism, the triumph of modern masses, and what separates the individual from his or her subjectivity and lived history.

This event will breathe fresh life into this classic text and help both readers and listeners to think about our own era in the beautiful context of Freud’s final home on the 80th anniversary of his arrival in London.

The event is part of the ‘Weekend of Discontent’ at the Freud Museum. It is free with admission on a first come, first served basis. If you prefer, please buy a ticket for the whole weekend HERE. There are no specific tickets and audience members can come and go as they please. This is a staged reading and interactive performance.

Reading: 1pm – 4:30pm

Discussion: 4:30pm – 6pm

Readers include:

Janet Haney, event coordinator, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Sophia Berouka, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Sue Blundell, playwright

Faisal Bokhammas, Birkbeck, University of London

Howard Britton, economist

Marie-Hélène Brousse, psychoanalyst, editor of The Lacanian Review

Bernard Burgoyne, psychoanalyst, mathematician

Vincent Dachy, psychoanalyst, scribbler and resolute amateur

Francine Danniau, psychoanalyst, writer, Belgium

Paul Dineen, actor

Philip Dravers, Chair, London Society NLS

Alasdair Duncan, autism support worker

Jeff Evans, statistician

Stephen Frosh, Birkbeck, University of London

Nancy Gillespie, Lacanian Compass, NYC

John Haney, writer, co-curator, PoetrySlabs

Earl Hopper, group analyst

Ven. Julian Hubbard, Director of Ministry for the Church of England

Michele Julien, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Joan Raphael-Leff, psychoanalyst, Anna Freud Centre

Roger Litten, Director, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Henrik Lynggaard, clinical psychologist, systemic psychotherapist

Max Maher, Essex University

Aino-Marjatta Mäki, Kingston University

Peggy Papada, clinical psychologist, practicing analyst, former dancer

Ivan Ward, Freud Museum

Scott Wilson, Kingston University

Bogdan Wolf, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Colin Wright, Nottingham University

Alejandro Sessa, accueillant, Le Courtil, Belgium

Anthony Stadlen, psychoanalyst, daseinsanalyst

Laura Tarsia, psychoanalyst

Patricia Tassara, psychoanalyst, Spain

For the discontent of our times we propose a marathon reading of Freud’s Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego.

First published in 1921, the text raises questions about the role of the leader today, tribalism, the triumph of modern masses, and what separates the individual from his or her subjectivity and lived history.

This event will breathe fresh life into this classic text and help both readers and listeners to think about our own era in the beautiful context of Freud’s final home on the 80th anniversary of his arrival in London.

The event is part of the ‘Weekend of Discontent’ at the Freud Museum. It is free with admission on a first come, first served basis. If you prefer, please buy a ticket for the whole weekend HERE. There are no specific tickets and audience members can come and go as they please. This is a staged reading and interactive performance.

Reading: 1pm – 4:30pm

Discussion: 4:30pm – 6pm

Readers include:

Janet Haney, event coordinator, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Sophia Berouka, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Sue Blundell, playwright

Faisal Bokhammas, Birkbeck, University of London

Howard Britton, economist

Marie-Hélène Brousse, psychoanalyst, editor of The Lacanian Review

Bernard Burgoyne, psychoanalyst, mathematician

Vincent Dachy, psychoanalyst, scribbler and resolute amateur

Francine Danniau, psychoanalyst, writer, Belgium

Paul Dineen, actor

Philip Dravers, Chair, London Society NLS

Alasdair Duncan, autism support worker

Jeff Evans, statistician

Stephen Frosh, Birkbeck, University of London

Nancy Gillespie, Lacanian Compass, NYC

John Haney, writer, co-curator, PoetrySlabs

Earl Hopper, group analyst

Ven. Julian Hubbard, Director of Ministry for the Church of England

Michele Julien, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Joan Raphael-Leff, psychoanalyst, Anna Freud Centre

Roger Litten, Director, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Henrik Lynggaard, clinical psychologist, systemic psychotherapist

Max Maher, Essex University

Aino-Marjatta Mäki, Kingston University

Peggy Papada, clinical psychologist, practicing analyst, former dancer

Ivan Ward, Freud Museum

Scott Wilson, Kingston University

Bogdan Wolf, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Colin Wright, Nottingham University

Alejandro Sessa, accueillant, Le Courtil, Belgium

Anthony Stadlen, psychoanalyst, daseinsanalyst

Laura Tarsia, psychoanalyst

Patricia Tassara, psychoanalyst, Spain

For the discontent of our times we propose a marathon reading of Freud’s Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego.

First published in 1921, the text raises questions about the role of the leader today, tribalism, the triumph of modern masses, and what separates the individual from his or her subjectivity and lived history.

This event will breathe fresh life into this classic text and help both readers and listeners to think about our own era in the beautiful context of Freud’s final home on the 80th anniversary of his arrival in London.

The event is part of the ‘Weekend of Discontent’ at the Freud Museum. It is free with admission on a first come, first served basis. If you prefer, please buy a ticket for the whole weekend HERE. There are no specific tickets and audience members can come and go as they please. This is a staged reading and interactive performance.

Reading: 1pm – 4:30pm

Discussion: 4:30pm – 6pm

Readers include:

Janet Haney, event coordinator, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Sophia Berouka, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Sue Blundell, playwright

Faisal Bokhammas, Birkbeck, University of London

Howard Britton, economist

Marie-Hélène Brousse, psychoanalyst, editor of The Lacanian Review

Bernard Burgoyne, psychoanalyst, mathematician

Vincent Dachy, psychoanalyst, scribbler and resolute amateur

Francine Danniau, psychoanalyst, writer, Belgium

Paul Dineen, actor

Philip Dravers, Chair, London Society NLS

Alasdair Duncan, autism support worker

Jeff Evans, statistician

Stephen Frosh, Birkbeck, University of London

Nancy Gillespie, Lacanian Compass, NYC

John Haney, writer, co-curator, PoetrySlabs

Earl Hopper, group analyst

Ven. Julian Hubbard, Director of Ministry for the Church of England

Michele Julien, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Joan Raphael-Leff, psychoanalyst, Anna Freud Centre

Roger Litten, Director, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Henrik Lynggaard, clinical psychologist, systemic psychotherapist

Max Maher, Essex University

Aino-Marjatta Mäki, Kingston University

Peggy Papada, clinical psychologist, practicing analyst, former dancer

Ivan Ward, Freud Museum

Scott Wilson, Kingston University

Bogdan Wolf, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Colin Wright, Nottingham University

Alejandro Sessa, accueillant, Le Courtil, Belgium

Anthony Stadlen, psychoanalyst, daseinsanalyst

Laura Tarsia, psychoanalyst

Patricia Tassara, psychoanalyst, Spain

For the discontent of our times we propose a marathon reading of Freud’s Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego.

First published in 1921, the text raises questions about the role of the leader today, tribalism, the triumph of modern masses, and what separates the individual from his or her subjectivity and lived history.

This event will breathe fresh life into this classic text and help both readers and listeners to think about our own era in the beautiful context of Freud’s final home on the 80th anniversary of his arrival in London.

The event is part of the ‘Weekend of Discontent’ at the Freud Museum. It is free with admission on a first come, first served basis. If you prefer, please buy a ticket for the whole weekend HERE. There are no specific tickets and audience members can come and go as they please. This is a staged reading and interactive performance.

Reading: 1pm – 4:30pm

Discussion: 4:30pm – 6pm

Readers include:

Janet Haney, event coordinator, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Sophia Berouka, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Sue Blundell, playwright

Faisal Bokhammas, Birkbeck, University of London

Howard Britton, economist

Marie-Hélène Brousse, psychoanalyst, editor of The Lacanian Review

Bernard Burgoyne, psychoanalyst, mathematician

Vincent Dachy, psychoanalyst, scribbler and resolute amateur

Francine Danniau, psychoanalyst, writer, Belgium

Paul Dineen, actor

Philip Dravers, Chair, London Society NLS

Alasdair Duncan, autism support worker

Jeff Evans, statistician

Stephen Frosh, Birkbeck, University of London

Nancy Gillespie, Lacanian Compass, NYC

John Haney, writer, co-curator, PoetrySlabs

Earl Hopper, group analyst

Ven. Julian Hubbard, Director of Ministry for the Church of England

Michele Julien, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Joan Raphael-Leff, psychoanalyst, Anna Freud Centre

Roger Litten, Director, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Henrik Lynggaard, clinical psychologist, systemic psychotherapist

Max Maher, Essex University

Aino-Marjatta Mäki, Kingston University

Peggy Papada, clinical psychologist, practicing analyst, former dancer

Ivan Ward, Freud Museum

Scott Wilson, Kingston University

Bogdan Wolf, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Colin Wright, Nottingham University

Alejandro Sessa, accueillant, Le Courtil, Belgium

Anthony Stadlen, psychoanalyst, daseinsanalyst

Laura Tarsia, psychoanalyst

Patricia Tassara, psychoanalyst, Spain

For the discontent of our times we propose a marathon reading of Freud’s Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego.

First published in 1921, the text raises questions about the role of the leader today, tribalism, the triumph of modern masses, and what separates the individual from his or her subjectivity and lived history.

This event will breathe fresh life into this classic text and help both readers and listeners to think about our own era in the beautiful context of Freud’s final home on the 80th anniversary of his arrival in London.

The event is part of the ‘Weekend of Discontent’ at the Freud Museum. It is free with admission on a first come, first served basis. If you prefer, please buy a ticket for the whole weekend HERE. There are no specific tickets and audience members can come and go as they please. This is a staged reading and interactive performance.

Reading: 1pm – 4:30pm

Discussion: 4:30pm – 6pm

Readers include:

Janet Haney, event coordinator, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Sophia Berouka, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Sue Blundell, playwright

Faisal Bokhammas, Birkbeck, University of London

Howard Britton, economist

Marie-Hélène Brousse, psychoanalyst, editor of The Lacanian Review

Bernard Burgoyne, psychoanalyst, mathematician

Vincent Dachy, psychoanalyst, scribbler and resolute amateur

Francine Danniau, psychoanalyst, writer, Belgium

Paul Dineen, actor

Philip Dravers, Chair, London Society NLS

Alasdair Duncan, autism support worker

Jeff Evans, statistician

Stephen Frosh, Birkbeck, University of London

Nancy Gillespie, Lacanian Compass, NYC

John Haney, writer, co-curator, PoetrySlabs

Earl Hopper, group analyst

Ven. Julian Hubbard, Director of Ministry for the Church of England

Michele Julien, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Joan Raphael-Leff, psychoanalyst, Anna Freud Centre

Roger Litten, Director, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Henrik Lynggaard, clinical psychologist, systemic psychotherapist

Max Maher, Essex University

Aino-Marjatta Mäki, Kingston University

Peggy Papada, clinical psychologist, practicing analyst, former dancer

Ivan Ward, Freud Museum

Scott Wilson, Kingston University

Bogdan Wolf, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Colin Wright, Nottingham University

Alejandro Sessa, accueillant, Le Courtil, Belgium

Anthony Stadlen, psychoanalyst, daseinsanalyst

Laura Tarsia, psychoanalyst

Patricia Tassara, psychoanalyst, Spain

For the discontent of our times we propose a marathon reading of Freud’s Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego.

First published in 1921, the text raises questions about the role of the leader today, tribalism, the triumph of modern masses, and what separates the individual from his or her subjectivity and lived history.

This event will breathe fresh life into this classic text and help both readers and listeners to think about our own era in the beautiful context of Freud’s final home on the 80th anniversary of his arrival in London.

The event is part of the ‘Weekend of Discontent’ at the Freud Museum. It is free with admission on a first come, first served basis. If you prefer, please buy a ticket for the whole weekend HERE. There are no specific tickets and audience members can come and go as they please. This is a staged reading and interactive performance.

Reading: 1pm – 4:30pm

Discussion: 4:30pm – 6pm

Readers include:

Janet Haney, event coordinator, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Sophia Berouka, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Sue Blundell, playwright

Faisal Bokhammas, Birkbeck, University of London

Howard Britton, economist

Marie-Hélène Brousse, psychoanalyst, editor of The Lacanian Review

Bernard Burgoyne, psychoanalyst, mathematician

Vincent Dachy, psychoanalyst, scribbler and resolute amateur

Francine Danniau, psychoanalyst, writer, Belgium

Paul Dineen, actor

Philip Dravers, Chair, London Society NLS

Alasdair Duncan, autism support worker

Jeff Evans, statistician

Stephen Frosh, Birkbeck, University of London

Nancy Gillespie, Lacanian Compass, NYC

John Haney, writer, co-curator, PoetrySlabs

Earl Hopper, group analyst

Ven. Julian Hubbard, Director of Ministry for the Church of England

Michele Julien, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Joan Raphael-Leff, psychoanalyst, Anna Freud Centre

Roger Litten, Director, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Henrik Lynggaard, clinical psychologist, systemic psychotherapist

Max Maher, Essex University

Aino-Marjatta Mäki, Kingston University

Peggy Papada, clinical psychologist, practicing analyst, former dancer

Ivan Ward, Freud Museum

Scott Wilson, Kingston University

Bogdan Wolf, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Colin Wright, Nottingham University

Alejandro Sessa, accueillant, Le Courtil, Belgium

Anthony Stadlen, psychoanalyst, daseinsanalyst

Laura Tarsia, psychoanalyst

Patricia Tassara, psychoanalyst, Spain

For the discontent of our times we propose a marathon reading of Freud’s Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego.

First published in 1921, the text raises questions about the role of the leader today, tribalism, the triumph of modern masses, and what separates the individual from his or her subjectivity and lived history.

This event will breathe fresh life into this classic text and help both readers and listeners to think about our own era in the beautiful context of Freud’s final home on the 80th anniversary of his arrival in London.

The event is part of the ‘Weekend of Discontent’ at the Freud Museum. It is free with admission on a first come, first served basis. If you prefer, please buy a ticket for the whole weekend HERE. There are no specific tickets and audience members can come and go as they please. This is a staged reading and interactive performance.

Reading: 1pm – 4:30pm

Discussion: 4:30pm – 6pm

Readers include:

Janet Haney, event coordinator, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Sophia Berouka, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Sue Blundell, playwright

Faisal Bokhammas, Birkbeck, University of London

Howard Britton, economist

Marie-Hélène Brousse, psychoanalyst, editor of The Lacanian Review

Bernard Burgoyne, psychoanalyst, mathematician

Vincent Dachy, psychoanalyst, scribbler and resolute amateur

Francine Danniau, psychoanalyst, writer, Belgium

Paul Dineen, actor

Philip Dravers, Chair, London Society NLS

Alasdair Duncan, autism support worker

Jeff Evans, statistician

Stephen Frosh, Birkbeck, University of London

Nancy Gillespie, Lacanian Compass, NYC

John Haney, writer, co-curator, PoetrySlabs

Earl Hopper, group analyst

Ven. Julian Hubbard, Director of Ministry for the Church of England

Michele Julien, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Joan Raphael-Leff, psychoanalyst, Anna Freud Centre

Roger Litten, Director, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Henrik Lynggaard, clinical psychologist, systemic psychotherapist

Max Maher, Essex University

Aino-Marjatta Mäki, Kingston University

Peggy Papada, clinical psychologist, practicing analyst, former dancer

Ivan Ward, Freud Museum

Scott Wilson, Kingston University

Bogdan Wolf, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Colin Wright, Nottingham University

Alejandro Sessa, accueillant, Le Courtil, Belgium

Anthony Stadlen, psychoanalyst, daseinsanalyst

Laura Tarsia, psychoanalyst

Patricia Tassara, psychoanalyst, Spain

For the discontent of our times we propose a marathon reading of Freud’s Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego.

First published in 1921, the text raises questions about the role of the leader today, tribalism, the triumph of modern masses, and what separates the individual from his or her subjectivity and lived history.

This event will breathe fresh life into this classic text and help both readers and listeners to think about our own era in the beautiful context of Freud’s final home on the 80th anniversary of his arrival in London.

The event is part of the ‘Weekend of Discontent’ at the Freud Museum. It is free with admission on a first come, first served basis. If you prefer, please buy a ticket for the whole weekend HERE. There are no specific tickets and audience members can come and go as they please. This is a staged reading and interactive performance.

Reading: 1pm – 4:30pm

Discussion: 4:30pm – 6pm

Readers include:

Janet Haney, event coordinator, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Sophia Berouka, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Sue Blundell, playwright

Faisal Bokhammas, Birkbeck, University of London

Howard Britton, economist

Marie-Hélène Brousse, psychoanalyst, editor of The Lacanian Review

Bernard Burgoyne, psychoanalyst, mathematician

Vincent Dachy, psychoanalyst, scribbler and resolute amateur

Francine Danniau, psychoanalyst, writer, Belgium

Paul Dineen, actor

Philip Dravers, Chair, London Society NLS

Alasdair Duncan, autism support worker

Jeff Evans, statistician

Stephen Frosh, Birkbeck, University of London

Nancy Gillespie, Lacanian Compass, NYC

John Haney, writer, co-curator, PoetrySlabs

Earl Hopper, group analyst

Ven. Julian Hubbard, Director of Ministry for the Church of England

Michele Julien, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Joan Raphael-Leff, psychoanalyst, Anna Freud Centre

Roger Litten, Director, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Henrik Lynggaard, clinical psychologist, systemic psychotherapist

Max Maher, Essex University

Aino-Marjatta Mäki, Kingston University

Peggy Papada, clinical psychologist, practicing analyst, former dancer

Ivan Ward, Freud Museum

Scott Wilson, Kingston University

Bogdan Wolf, Laboratory for Lacanian Politics UK

Colin Wright, Nottingham University

Alejandro Sessa, accueillant, Le Courtil, Belgium

Anthony Stadlen, psychoanalyst, daseinsanalyst

Laura Tarsia, psychoanalyst

Patricia Tassara, psychoanalyst, Spain

Freud's Women Lisa Appignanesi in conversation with Susie Orbach

Despite Freud’s traditional views on women, psychoanalysis was one of the first professions to open its doors to them. Feminists past and present may have contested Freud’s ever-changing understandings of femininity. They have also elaborated on them. 

In this discussion, Lisa Appignanesi co-author of the now classic Freud’s Women and psychoanalyst Susie Orbach, founder of the Women’s Therapy Centre and author of that perennial bestseller Fat is A Feminist Issue explore what women past and present have contributed to psychoanalysis.

Freud's Women is held in conjunction with the Freud Museum London's winter exhibition, So This is the Strong Sex, Early Women Psychoanalysts.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Lisa Appignanesi is Chair of the Royal Society of Literature and the Man Booker International Prize. Her many books include Mad, Bad and Sad: A History of Women and the Mind Doctors and Trials of Passion: Crimes in the Name of Love and Madness.

Susie Orbach is a leading psychoanalyst. Amongst her many books are Bodies and In Therapy. Founder of the Women's Therapy Centre and the Women's Therapy Centre Institute, Susie has recently received the first ever Lifetime Achievement Award from the British Psychoanalytic Council.

Conference: Solitary Pleasures in art and psychoanalysis- Open discussion end of session 4

Open Discussion 

Solitary Pleasures in art and psychoanalysis is a day-long conference to accompany Solitary Pleasures, a group exhibition at the Freud Museum.

The conference, like the exhibition, reveals masturbation as a topic that can transform our understanding of human subjectivity and sexuality. Perhaps the most common form of human eroticism, it is also one of the least theorised. The conference will explore our complex sexual, erotic, and intimate encounters with ourselves and one another by viewing masturbation as an all-inclusive practice – gay, lesbian, heterosexual, bisexual, trans, queer, +, offering possibilities of a shared exchange and an intimate encounter between couples, lovers and strangers in ways that redefine desires and eroticism’s possibilities.

Conference themes:

History – the cultural history of masturbation
Talking – masturbation in clinical practice and literature
Educating – masturbation in sexual health and wellbeing
Making – masturbation in creativity and art practice

 

Conference: Solitary Pleasures in art and psychoanalysis- Open discussion end of session 2

Open Discussion 

Solitary Pleasures in art and psychoanalysis is a day-long conference to accompany Solitary Pleasures, a group exhibition at the Freud Museum.

The conference, like the exhibition, reveals masturbation as a topic that can transform our understanding of human subjectivity and sexuality. Perhaps the most common form of human eroticism, it is also one of the least theorised. The conference will explore our complex sexual, erotic, and intimate encounters with ourselves and one another by viewing masturbation as an all-inclusive practice – gay, lesbian, heterosexual, bisexual, trans, queer, +, offering possibilities of a shared exchange and an intimate encounter between couples, lovers and strangers in ways that redefine desires and eroticism’s possibilities.

Conference themes:

History – the cultural history of masturbation
Talking – masturbation in clinical practice and literature
Educating – masturbation in sexual health and wellbeing
Making – masturbation in creativity and art practice

Conference: Solitary Pleasures in art and psychoanalysis- Open discussion end of session 1

Open Discussion 

Solitary Pleasures in art and psychoanalysis is a day-long conference to accompany Solitary Pleasures, a group exhibition at the Freud Museum.

The conference, like the exhibition, reveals masturbation as a topic that can transform our understanding of human subjectivity and sexuality. Perhaps the most common form of human eroticism, it is also one of the least theorised. The conference will explore our complex sexual, erotic, and intimate encounters with ourselves and one another by viewing masturbation as an all-inclusive practice – gay, lesbian, heterosexual, bisexual, trans, queer, +, offering possibilities of a shared exchange and an intimate encounter between couples, lovers and strangers in ways that redefine desires and eroticism’s possibilities.

Conference themes:

History – the cultural history of masturbation
Talking – masturbation in clinical practice and literature
Educating – masturbation in sexual health and wellbeing
Making – masturbation in creativity and art practice

 

Conference: Solitary Pleasures in art and psychoanalysis- Adrian Rifkin

Adrian Rifkin
Two’s Company: One’s a Crowd

A short fiction in the style of the writer Barbara Pym in which a series of characters will mull over the role of masturbation in their individual and collective lives, vexed not so much by the matter of celebrating masturbation as that of who might be its celebrant? There will be a discrete background soundtrack of gay self porn videos with the visual left blank.

Prof. Adrian Rifkin is a visiting professor at CSM, UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS. He has written extensively on queer and gay sexualities amongst other things. His latest publication is Communards and Other Cultural Histories (Haymarket, 2018), a collection of essays edited by Steve Edwards.

Solitary Pleasures in art and psychoanalysis is a day-long conference to accompany Solitary Pleasures, a group exhibition at the Freud Museum.

The conference, like the exhibition, reveals masturbation as a topic that can transform our understanding of human subjectivity and sexuality. Perhaps the most common form of human eroticism, it is also one of the least theorised. The conference will explore our complex sexual, erotic, and intimate encounters with ourselves and one another by viewing masturbation as an all-inclusive practice – gay, lesbian, heterosexual, bisexual, trans, queer, +, offering possibilities of a shared exchange and an intimate encounter between couples, lovers and strangers in ways that redefine desires and eroticism’s possibilities.

 

Conference themes:

History – the cultural history of masturbation
Talking – masturbation in clinical practice and literature
Educating – masturbation in sexual health and wellbeing
Making – masturbation in creativity and art practice

 

 

Conference: Solitary Pleasures in art and psychoanalysis- Jordan McKenzie

Jordan McKenzie
The Art of Cuming: Getting Jizzy With It

Jordan Mckenzie presents a live reading examining SPENT, a series of auto-drawings made over a two year period that explored repetition and mark making in relation to onanistic production. 

Jordan McKenzie has presented performances, films, drawings and installations both nationally and internationally, including ‘Shame Chorus’, an uplifting project developed with the London Gay Men’s Choir and commissioned by the Freud Museum London. He is Lecturer in Drawing at Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London.

Solitary Pleasures in art and psychoanalysis is a day-long conference to accompany Solitary Pleasures, a group exhibition at the Freud Museum.

The conference, like the exhibition, reveals masturbation as a topic that can transform our understanding of human subjectivity and sexuality. Perhaps the most common form of human eroticism, it is also one of the least theorised. The conference will explore our complex sexual, erotic, and intimate encounters with ourselves and one another by viewing masturbation as an all-inclusive practice – gay, lesbian, heterosexual, bisexual, trans, queer, +, offering possibilities of a shared exchange and an intimate encounter between couples, lovers and strangers in ways that redefine desires and eroticism’s possibilities.

Conference themes:

History – the cultural history of masturbation
Talking – masturbation in clinical practice and literature
Educating – masturbation in sexual health and wellbeing
Making – masturbation in creativity and art practice

 

 

 

Conference: Solitary Pleasures in art and psychoanalysis- Sarah Forbes

Sarah Forbes
Exhibiting Sex: Education, Entertainment and
Filling the Gap in Adult Sex Education

Based on experiences curating at the Museum of Sex in New York for more than a decade, which inspired my book Sex in the Museum, I have a unique insight into the role of fusing education and entertainment within the walls of the museum. Unlike other forms of education, sex content creators must overcome societal perceptions that ‘sex’ is meant to be salacious and it's goal to be erotically arousing, rather than mentally illuminating. With varying degrees of genuine sex education, when creating content for adults about sex and sexuality, there can be no assumptions what base of information or rather misinformation one will be encountering.

Sarah Forbes is author of Sex in the Museum: My Unlikely Career at New York’s Most Provocative Museum (2016), a book about her time as Curator at the Museum of Sex in New York. She is a sexual culturalist, writer, and Curator-in-Residence at Kindred Studios.

 

Conference: Solitary Pleasures in art and psychoanalysis- Florence Schechter

Florence Schechter
Why The World Needs A Vagina Museum

There is a penis museum in Iceland, but no vagina equivalent anywhere in the world. Florence discusses her experience in why she chose to set up the world's first bricks and mortar vagina museum and the strange reactions she's got along the way.

Florence Schechter is a Science Communicator and Director of The Vagina Museum.

Solitary Pleasures in art and psychoanalysis is a day-long conference to accompany Solitary Pleasures, a group exhibition at the Freud Museum.

The conference, like the exhibition, reveals masturbation as a topic that can transform our understanding of human subjectivity and sexuality. Perhaps the most common form of human eroticism, it is also one of the least theorised. The conference will explore our complex sexual, erotic, and intimate encounters with ourselves and one another by viewing masturbation as an all-inclusive practice – gay, lesbian, heterosexual, bisexual, trans, queer, +, offering possibilities of a shared exchange and an intimate encounter between couples, lovers and strangers in ways that redefine desires and eroticism’s possibilities.

Conference themes:

History – the cultural history of masturbation
Talking – masturbation in clinical practice and literature
Educating – masturbation in sexual health and wellbeing
Making – masturbation in creativity and art practice

Conference: Solitary Pleasures in art and psychoanalysis- Natika Halil

Natika Halil
Learning About Pleasure – Your Body,
Yourself!

Masturbation in relation to education could be the last taboo to be broken. As relationships and sex education (RSE) is due to become statutory in 2019 and the guidance to how this is taught is updated for the first time in 20 years, consideration is given to whether masturbation will make it into the classroom. The importance of pleasure is highlighted and also how knowledge of RSE is the best protection from abuse we can give our children.

Natika Halil is Chief Executive of the sexual health charity Family Planning Association.

Solitary Pleasures in art and psychoanalysis is a day-long conference to accompany Solitary Pleasures, a group exhibition at the Freud Museum.

The conference, like the exhibition, reveals masturbation as a topic that can transform our understanding of human subjectivity and sexuality. Perhaps the most common form of human eroticism, it is also one of the least theorised. The conference will explore our complex sexual, erotic, and intimate encounters with ourselves and one another by viewing masturbation as an all-inclusive practice – gay, lesbian, heterosexual, bisexual, trans, queer, +, offering possibilities of a shared exchange and an intimate encounter between couples, lovers and strangers in ways that redefine desires and eroticism’s possibilities.

Conference themes:

History – the cultural history of masturbation
Talking – masturbation in clinical practice and literature
Educating – masturbation in sexual health and wellbeing
Making – masturbation in creativity and art practice

 

 

Conference: Solitary Pleasures in art and psychoanalysis- Johnny Golding

Prof. Johnny Golding is Professor of Philosophy & Fine Art at the RCA where she leads the PhD Research Group ‘Entanglement’. Internationally renowned for her philosophy-poetic enactments and sound-scape exhibitions, her research covers the entangled dimensionalities of Radical Matter, an intra-disciplinary arena of art, philosophy and the wild sciences.

Solitary Pleasures in art and psychoanalysis is a day-long conference to accompany Solitary Pleasures, a group exhibition at the Freud Museum.

The conference, like the exhibition, reveals masturbation as a topic that can transform our understanding of human subjectivity and sexuality. Perhaps the most common form of human eroticism, it is also one of the least theorised. The conference will explore our complex sexual, erotic, and intimate encounters with ourselves and one another by viewing masturbation as an all-inclusive practice – gay, lesbian, heterosexual, bisexual, trans, queer, +, offering possibilities of a shared exchange and an intimate encounter between couples, lovers and strangers in ways that redefine desires and eroticism’s possibilities.

Conference themes:

History – the cultural history of masturbation
Talking – masturbation in clinical practice and literature
Educating – masturbation in sexual health and wellbeing
Making – masturbation in creativity and art practice

Conference: Solitary Pleasures in art and psychoanalysis- David Morgan

David Morgan (psychoanalyst)
Giving a Toss: From Onan's Simple Pleasure to Developmental Cul de Sac

Masturbation is a dress rehearsal for what hopefully becomes a sexual relationship. It operates in the main at a fantasy level in the mind of one, and leads sometimes, as part of a sexual lexicon, to two person mutuality.

However in this time of market economy pornography it can become a developmental Cul de sac where fantasy provides an endless cornucopia in which the real person with real limitations is commodified and becomes a ‘second eleven’ choice.

David Morgan is a Psychoanalyst at the BPAS and a Training Analyst at the BPA. He is the organiser of the Political Minds seminars at the British Psychoanalytic Society and hosts the 'Frontier Psychoanalyst' podcasts. He is co-editor with Stan Ruszczynski of Sexuality Delinquency and Violence, published by Karnac Books. He has worked as a consultant psychotherapist in the NHS for 25 years at Camden Psychotherapy Unit and the Portman Clinic, regularly contributes to radio and television programmes, and lectures nationally and internationally. 

Solitary Pleasures in art and psychoanalysis is a day-long conference to accompany Solitary Pleasures, a group exhibition at the Freud Museum.

The conference, like the exhibition, reveals masturbation as a topic that can transform our understanding of human subjectivity and sexuality. Perhaps the most common form of human eroticism, it is also one of the least theorised. The conference will explore our complex sexual, erotic, and intimate encounters with ourselves and one another by viewing masturbation as an all-inclusive practice – gay, lesbian, heterosexual, bisexual, trans, queer, +, offering possibilities of a shared exchange and an intimate encounter between couples, lovers and strangers in ways that redefine desires and eroticism’s possibilities.

Conference themes:

History – the cultural history of masturbation
Talking – masturbation in clinical practice and literature
Educating – masturbation in sexual health and wellbeing
Making – masturbation in creativity and art practice

Conference: Solitary Pleasures in art and psychoanalysis- Ivan Ward

Ivan Ward Whacking and Strumming: A Freudian Perspective

Freud called it the ‘primal addiction’, but is there a more positive way of looking at masturbation from a Freudian perspective?

Ivan Ward is Deputy Director and Head of Learning at the Freud Museum London and manager of the museum’s conference programme. He is the author of a number of books and papers on psychoanalytic theory and on the applications of psychoanalysis to social and cultural issues. His latest publication is ‘Parsifal as Castration Drama’ (2017) in a special issue of The Wagner Journal based on a conference organised by the Freud Museum in 2016.

Solitary Pleasures in art and psychoanalysis is a day-long conference to accompany Solitary Pleasures, a group exhibition at the Freud Museum.

The conference, like the exhibition, reveals masturbation as a topic that can transform our understanding of human subjectivity and sexuality. Perhaps the most common form of human eroticism, it is also one of the least theorised. The conference will explore our complex sexual, erotic, and intimate encounters with ourselves and one another by viewing masturbation as an all-inclusive practice – gay, lesbian, heterosexual, bisexual, trans, queer, +, offering possibilities of a shared exchange and an intimate encounter between couples, lovers and strangers in ways that redefine desires and eroticism’s possibilities.

Conference themes:

History – the cultural history of masturbation
Talking – masturbation in clinical practice and literature
Educating – masturbation in sexual health and wellbeing
Making – masturbation in creativity and art practice

Conference: Solitary Pleasures in art and psychoanalysis- Milja Kaunisto

Milja Kaunisto (novelist)
A Man’s Right Hand — Dr. Tissot’s Crusade Against Masturbation

In 18^th century Switzerland, at the time of Enlightment, the beginning of industrialization, great luxury and social injustice, Dr. Samuel-August Tissot believes he has found a disease that he claims “has killed more young men than any other diseases combined”. With the help of his research assistant, Dr. Petrus von Taube, Tissot embarks on a journey to cure the world of masturbation once and for all.

Milja Kaunisto is a Finnish author of best-selling historical novels, and acclaimed for her frankness in depicting human sexual behaviour. She is currently writing her eighth novel, A Man’s Right Hand, a portrait of 18th-century Swiss physician, Dr. Tissot, and his campaign against masturbation. Through writing this novel, Kaunisto wants to both demystify and celebrate the humankind’s most hidden, underrated and long-lasting love affair: the solitary pleasure.

Solitary Pleasures in art and psychoanalysis is a day-long conference to accompany Solitary Pleasures, a group exhibition at the Freud Museum.

The conference, like the exhibition, reveals masturbation as a topic that can transform our understanding of human subjectivity and sexuality. Perhaps the most common form of human eroticism, it is also one of the least theorised. The conference will explore our complex sexual, erotic, and intimate encounters with ourselves and one another by viewing masturbation as an all-inclusive practice – gay, lesbian, heterosexual, bisexual, trans, queer, +, offering possibilities of a shared exchange and an intimate encounter between couples, lovers and strangers in ways that redefine desires and eroticism’s possibilities.

Conference themes:

History – the cultural history of masturbation
Talking – masturbation in clinical practice and literature
Educating – masturbation in sexual health and wellbeing
Making – masturbation in creativity and art practice

Conference: What Might Clinical Psychoanalysis Learn from Queer Theories of Sexuality?

 

Opening remarks from Dr Noreen Giffney and Eve Watson