Freud Museum London

Freud and Eros: Love, Lust and Longing

• 22 October 2014 — 8 March 2015 *on now

A new exhibition, 'Freud and Eros: Love, Lust and Longing', explores Sigmund Freud's revolutionary ideas on love and the libidinal drive with an innovative combination of Freud's own art collection, his writings and letters, together with the response of contemporary artists.

Love remains an ever intriguing and complex emotion. To examine Freud's theories on this topic, key works in his collection will be displayed, including statues of Eros, and other erotic and related deities and objects. Freud's antiquities are usually arranged in his study at the Freud Museum. This exhibition, situated in the upstairs gallery, will give visitors the opportunity to view more closely and in detail these rare and beautiful works.

Freud's theories on Eros, the love force and libido of psychoanalysis, also provide the context for an investigation of Sigmund Freud's personal experiences. Freud and Eros: Love, Lust and Longing' traces his passionate courtship of his future wife Martha Bernays. The couple exchanged literally hundreds of letters during their four year engagement. A selection of their letters reveals a relationship that was both ardent and intellectual. Memorabilia, including family photographs, supplement this intimate aspect of Freud's life.

Eros, the Greek god of love, the winged messenger of desire, is well represented in Freud's stunning collection of around two and a half thousand antiquities. Freud explored the meaning of Eros in his writings, and the exhibition draws out the profound connections between classical Greek culture, the works collected by Freud and the development of psychoanalysis. To Freud, Eros could spark the civilizing force of love that resulted in fulfilling relationships as well as unleashing turbulent, unbridled and destructive emotions.

The complex ideas raised by psychoanalysis are also examined through the eyes of highly regarded contemporary artists. Works include a newly commissioned sculpture by Jodie Carey, plus contributions by Edmund de Waal, Rachel Kneebone and Hannah Collins. These works not only contextualise Freud's collection but also provide and fresh and insightful ways to consider love, lust and longing.

Admission

Website

http://www.freud.org.uk/exhibitions/75653/freud-and-eros-love-lust-and-longing/

Psychoanalysis after Freud

• 8 January — 26 March 2015 *on now

8 January 2015 - 26 March 2015
Thursdays 6.30-8.30pm

Psychoanalysis after Freud

12 week evening course

The course will offer an overview of the main developments in psychoanalysis since Freud, including Jung, Klein, Winnicott and Lacan. We will examine how the most creative figures in psychoanalysis changed and developed Freud's ideas and methods, and discuss their criticisms of his work.

No prior knowledge will be assumed and you will be guided by an experienced tutor with many years' teaching experience.

Tutor: Keith Barrett BA PhD Having received his PhD from the Wellcome Centre for the History of Medicine at University College London, Dr Barrett specialises in both philosophy and psychoanalysis and has taught at several leading institutions, including Imperial College and Birkbeck College.

Admission

Website

http://freud.org.uk/events/75637/psychoanalysis-after-freud/

THE PHILOSOPHY OF EROTIC LOVE

• 14 January — 25 February 2015 *on now

14 January 2015 - 25 February 2015
6.30-8.30pm

THE PHILOSOPHY OF EROTIC LOVE

Six week evening course

Erotic love – earthy and gross yet transcendent and spiritual, wild yet exclusive, natural yet artificial, spontaneous and conventional. This course examines the Western tradition of erotic love, looking at key philosophers from Plato to the present, and touching on anthropology, literature and neuroscience. In doing so, it examines related ideas about the self, and what it is to be a human, and to be a man or a woman.

The course is led by Jane O’Grady, who co-edited Blackwell’s Dictionary of Philosophical Quotations with A. J. Ayer, and writes philosophers’ obituaries for the Guardian, and reviews and articles for various papers and journals. She has been a Visiting Lecturer at City University for the last twelve years, and is one of the seven founders of the London School of Philosophy.

Admission

Website

http://freud.org.uk/events/75675/the-philosophy-of-erotic-love-/

SCENT AND SEDUCTION: a cultural history

• 3 February 2015 7-8:30pm

3 February 2015
7pm

SCENT AND SEDUCTION: a cultural history.

An interactive talk by Odette Toilette

In this interactive talk by Odette Toilette (aka Lizzie Ostrom, fragrance specialist), the Freud Museum hosts a guided tour on the history of scent to beguile and seduce. Starting with ancient civilisations and ending with now, how has desire been channeled into our use of aromatics? Looking at emotive nomenclature, ingredients, packaging and advertising history, Odette will invite you to sniff and learn about seminal perfumes, including Elsa Schiaparelli's outragious creation Shocking (1937), Christian Dior's Eau Sauvage from 1966 and Christian Dior's infamous Poison.

Since her first event in 2010, fragrance lover Odette Toilette (aka Lizzie Ostrom) has been changing the way we think about our sense of smell ever since. Her interactive experiences have made learning about perfume fun, encompassing teen scent nostalgia workshops, sniffable history lectures, and scented tours of art galleries. An infectious public speaker Odette has presented at institutions such as The British Museum, The Wellcome Collection, The Natural History Museum, Somerset House, the Museum of London and Tate Britain, and frequently appears in broadcast media as a commentator on the industry. She works with personal care brands on new product development and communications, and is co-founder with Rodd Design of ode, a new venture using fragrance to support people with dementia. Odette is currently writing her first book, A Century of Scent in 100 Perfumes (Hutchinson, 2015).

Admission

Website

http://freud.org.uk/events/75747/scent-and-seduction-a-cultural-history-/

White Flags: Screening and Discussion

• 5 February 2015 7-8:30pm

5 February 2015
7pm - doors open at 6.30pm

White Flags: Screening and Discussion

Caroline Rooney and Julia Borossa

Join us for a screening of 'White Flags' (46 minutes), directed by Caroline Rooney and Rita Sakr. Followed by a discussion with Caroline Rooney and Julia Borossa on psychoanalysis, activism, trust-building, memory work and other questions opened up by the film.

Based on extensive fieldwork and research in Lebanon, White Flags is a work based on filmed portraits of individual Lebanese citizens from different backgrounds reflecting on their respective trust-building initiatives.

The documentary explores current issues in Lebanon relating to conflictual post-war memory, ideological and sectarian divisions, socio-economic problems, and peacebuilding initiatives by individuals and organisations who seek to actively intervene in their society and rebuild trust amid the challenges and dangers of ongoing crises. It conceptually and artistically explores the importance of white flags in a country where the national flag has oftentimes had its significance stolen and where the variously coloured flags of embattled political parties have heightened tensions and divisions.

The film features interviews with psychoanalyst Chawki Azouri, journalist Jeanine Jalkh, president of ‘Memory for the Future’ association Amal Makarem, and artists-activists Raouf Rifai and Aurelien Zouki. It was completed with the participation of cinematographer and second unit director Johnny Hchaime and the production management team at The Media Trust, London. It was funded by Research Councils UK.

Admission

Website

http://freud.org.uk/events/75806/white-flags-screening-and-discussion/

EROS AND DEATH

• 11 February 2015 7-8:30pm

11 February 2015
7pm

EROS AND DEATH: Exploring Freud's Eros vs the Death Instinct through Life Drawing

Art Macabre Death Drawing Salon

A few days before Valentine's Day, Art Macabre and the Freud Museum London present a special collaboration on the theme of Eros and Death.

As part of the Museum's exhibition 'Freud and Eros: Love, Lust and Longing', Art Macabre presents a special life drawing salon within the museum. Sketch nude figures and create your own memento mori images, conveying visually the struggle between Eros and death, between the life force and the drive for destruction.

Explore Freud's dichotomy between Eros and the death instinct through drawing, at this evening event that will take place across the museum's rooms. Art Macabre, London's leading purveyors of life drawing with a deathly twist, facilitate an exploration of the concept of Eros through tableaux featuring nude and costumed models and skulls to be sketched, narrative and creative responses to the museum space and the exhibition.

Capture in your life drawings the idea of Eros - "the preserver of life"- interacting and counteracting the death-instinct. A unique opportunity to explore the Freud Museum, including Freud's study, after dark.

Admission

Website

http://freud.org.uk/events/75784/eros-and-death-exploring-freuds-eros-vs-the-death-instinct-through-life-drawing/

Love: a guide for amateurs

• 13 February 2015 7-9pm

This event will be an informal and loving discussion between amateurs on the subject of love. Using different aspects of love in Greek philosophy - agápe, éros, philía, and storgē - and Freud’s conceptualisations of Eros, we will think about why it’s so difficult to love.

David Morgan will look at the profound experiences we face with intimacy, in learning deeply about ourselves.

Candida Yates will look at ‘new intimacies’ in our representations of love, jealousy and flirtation in popular culture.

Matt Gieve and Milena Stateva will think about love as the interplay between emancipation and resistance in an economic view in contemporary notions of love.

Steve Fuller will ask, as the sphere of human concern extends beyond Homo sapiens to other animals and even machines, is our capacity for agape, a ‘higher love’ increased as well?

Yiannis Gabriel will look at what happens when all love is sucked out of a community in the grip of a contagious pathogen which dissolves bonds of solidarity and trust among its members.

Marianna Fotaki will talk about the link between a culture of compulsive consumerism and toxic attachments and propose an ethics of relationality and compassionate care.

The event will be managed compassionately by Elizabeth Cotton and will include publication of an eBook and online activities #loveamateurs in the run up to the event to find out what you really want to know about love.

Suitable for

• Any age

Admission

FREUD AND EROS: LOVE, LUST AND LONGING - Day Conference

• 14 February 2015 9:30am-5pm

Speakers from Psychoanalysis, Philosophy, Psychosocial Studies, Art and Classics come together on St Valentine's Day to discuss Freud’s revolutionary ideas on Eros, and the ever intriguing and complex emotion of love.

Speakers and Titles

Lisa Appignanesi (Writer and researcher) (Biog)
"All About Love" Revisited (Abstract)

Miriam Leonard and Daniel Orrells (Classicists) (Biog)
Freud and Greek Love (Abstract)

Jane O’Grady (Philosopher) (Biog)
From Courtly to Romantic: The Ambivalences of Love (Abstract)

Candida Yates (Psychosocial Studies) (Biog)
Masculinity and the Dilemmas of Love: Lust and Longing in Contemporary Cinema (Abstract)

Gigliola Fornari Spoto (Psychoanalyst) (Biog)
Some Thoughts on Pleasure in the Analytical Session (Abstract)

Luis Rodríguez de la Sierra (Psychoanalyst) (Biog)
From the Cradle to the Couch: The Role of Pleasure in Psychic Development (Abstract)

Emma Talbot (Biog)
The Lovers (on love and intimacy in contemporary art) (Abstract)

David Morgan (Psychoanalyst) (Biog)
Sexual Phantasy, Mourning and Loss (Abstract)

Suitable for

• Any age

Admission

Director's tour: 'Freud and Eros: Love, Lust and Longing'

• 18 February 2015 6:30am-8pm

A guided tour of the Freud Museum’s current exhibition 'Freud and Eros: Love, Lust and Longing'. This new exhibition explores Sigmund Freud's revolutionary ideas on love and the libidinal drive with an innovative combination of Freud's own art collection, his writings and letters, together with the response of contemporary artists.

As the tour is being held out of hours, this is also a chance to explore ‘behind the scenes’ in Sigmund Freud’s last home. See his atmospheric book lined study, his collection of antiquities and famous psychoanalytic couch. The tour will be led by Carol Seigel, Museum Director.

Suitable for

• Any age

Admission

Paper with Sacred Signs

• 2 March 2015 7-8:30pm

2 March 2015
7pm - doors open at 6.30pm

Paper with Sacred Signs: The Sigmund Freud - Martha Bernays Correspondence
(1882-86)

Michael Molnar

All lovers reinvent love - after their fashion. Sigmund Freud and Martha Bernays were no exception. In over 1,500 love letters from 1882 to 1886 they lavishly documented their long engagement, its joys, tribulations and misunderstandings. Their newly-published correspondence paints an amazingly detailed day-to-day picture of the engaged couple’s lives and thoughts. At first sight it seems too much to take in. An encyclopaedic welter of information threatens to overwhelm us. Michael Molnar’s talk will blaze some trails through this unknown territory.


Michael Molnar worked at the Freud Museum London from its opening in1986 until 2009, first as researcher/archivist, then as Director. He edited and translated The Diary of Sigmund Freud 1929-39 (Chatto, 1992). His latest publication is Looking through Freud's Photos (Karnac, 2014).

Part of an exciting and imaginative season of talks and events accompanying the exhibition 'Freud and Eros: Love, Lust and Longing' 22 October 2014 - 22 February 2015.

Admission

Website

http://freud.org.uk/events/75790/paper-with-sacred-signs-the-sigmund-freud-martha-bernays-correspondence-1882-86/

The Real Jouissance of Uncountable Numbers

• 24 March 2015 7-8:30pm

24 March 2015
7pm - doors open at 6.30pm

The Real Jouissance of Uncountable Numbers: The Philosophy of Science within Lacanian Psychoanalysis

Raul Moncayo and Magdalena Romanowicz

We are joined this evening by Raul Moncayo and Magdalena Romanowicz, who will discuss their forthcoming publication, 'The Real Jouissance of Uncountable Numbers: The Philosophy of Science within Lacanian Psychoanalysis' (Karnac Books, 2014).

"Ludwig Wittgenstein famously said “To learn from Freud, you have to be critical”. Much the same can be said of Jacques Lacan’s oeuvre. This wonderful volume provides a rigorous scaffolding to help us penetrate Lacanian density. Using mathematics and clinical experience as a basis, the authors lead us through Lacan’s antisystemic tradition. Their efforts enable us to approach one of the most influential French thinkers of the last century. Our efforts will be rewarded by reaching a deeper understanding of how Lacan manages to radically critique reductionism in psychiatry while expanding the non-reductionist revolution of Freud and psychoanalysis" Professor Hans Steiner.

Admission

Website

http://freud.org.uk/events/75763/the-real-jouissance-of-uncountable-numbers-the-philosophy-of-science-within-lacanian-psychoanalysis/