Freud Museum London

Bharti Kher’s inquiry in the realm of the domestic and its dramas finds its perfect counterpart in the Freud Museum London. Equally exploring Freud’s family life as well as his theories, Kher’s new exhibition is a dialogue with the house. Vivid and full of history, the artist calls into being the voices that echo through the house and refers to Maresfield Gardens as an organism, a “breathing entity“. Kher overlays, subverts, conserves and erases memories – of herself and of her own life, of her family and of the people who lived here. She adds traces to the house of conversations past and present that also engage with Freud’s references to the mind as a complex energy system. Kher extends the conversation to include the body.

Admission

Free with admission

Website

https://freud.org.uk/exhibitions/76590/this-breathing-house/

Tutor: Keith Barrett BA PhD

As Freud is so frequently referred to it is natural to assume that we already know everything about him, but the superficial manner in which his ideas are normally discussed – often intended to justify dismissing psychoanalysis out of hand – conceals the fact that his thinking is little understood, despite the controversy that has raged around his ideas since they first became internationally known. This course will offer the opportunity to engage directly with Freud’s writings, clarifying the meaning of his most important concepts and theories, as well as his views on the practice of psychoanalysis. We will place Freud accurately in his historical context – as well as bringing into focus the relevance of his work to debates that are taking place now. The course will be accessible to beginners but will also stimulate those who already have some knowledge of Freud and psychoanalysis. Each session will be based around selected passages from Freud’s writings (all the readings are taken from ‘The Freud Reader’ edited by Peter Gay).

Week 1: Introduction: The nature and status of psychoanalysis: perspectives and debates. (p3 – 17 & p783 – 796)

Week 2: Hysteria (1): What is (or was) ‘hysteria’? A ‘female malady’? The case of ‘Anna O’: dissociation, hypnosis and the ‘cathartic method’. Freud’s early practice as a psychotherapist. (p60 – 78)

Week 3: Hysteria (2): Symptoms and ‘defence’: from hypnosis to ‘free association’. From the ‘Lucy R’ case to the ‘seduction theory’. The reasons for Freud’s abandonment of the ‘seduction theory’ (p78 – 86 & p96 – 113)

Week 4: Dreams (1): The meaning of dreams and how Freud learned to interpret them. The dream of ‘Irma’s Injection’. Freud’s theory of dreams. (p129 – 172)

Week 5: Dreams (2): Freud’s use of his own dreams in his ‘self-analysis’. His reconstruction of his own early childhood. The limitations of self- analysis. The role of dreams in psychodynamic psychotherapy. (p111-126)

Week 6: Sexuality (1): The meaning of ‘Infantile sexuality’. Freud’s ‘stages’ of psychosexual development. The Oedipus complex. Freud on the sexual abuse of children. (p 239 – 293)

Week 7: Sexuality (2): Sexuality in adulthood. Perversion, heterosexuality and homosexuality. Freud’s view of ‘love’. His later theory of the neuroses. The nature and functions of human sexuality. (p387 – 400 & p443 – 481)

Week 8: The Principles of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy: The ‘Dora’ case and the importance of ‘transference’. Freud’s ‘Papers on Technique’. (p172 – 239 & p356 – 387)

Week 9: Narcissism and the Death instinct. (p545 – 562 & p601 – 617)

Week 10: Mourning and the structure of the psyche. (p584 – 589 & 626 – 645)

Week 11: Freud’s later views on the difference between the sexes. (p670 – 678)

Week 12: Society and human happiness. (p 722 – 772)

RECOMMENDED READING

Phillips, A. ‘Becoming Freud: the making of a psychoanalyst’ (Yale U.P. 2014)

Thurschwell, P. ‘Sigmund Freud ( 2nd edition)’ (Routledge 2009)

Frosh, S. ‘A brief introduction to psychoanalytic theory' (Palgrave Macmillan 2012)

Zaretsky, E. ‘Secrets of the soul: a social and cultural history of psychoanalysis’ (Knopf 2004)

Breger, L. ‘Freud: Darkness in the midst of vision’ (Wiley 2000)

Micale, M. ‘Hysterical men: the hidden history of male nervous illness’ (Harvard U. P. 2008)

Rabate, J-M. ‘Literature and Psychoanalysis’ (Cambridge U.P. 2014)

Appignanesi, L. ‘Freud’s Women’ (Penguin 1997) & Forrester

J Grosz, S. ‘The Examined Life: How We Lose and Find Ourselves’. (Vintage 2014)

Minsky, R. ‘Psychoanalysis and gender: an introductory reader’ (Routledge, 1996)

Bergman, M.,‘The anatomy of loving: The story of man’s quest to know what love is’ (Columbia U. P. 1987)

Malan, D. ‘Individual psychotherapy and the science of psychodynamics’ (Butterworths 1995)

Admission

Full price £180

Friend of the Freud Museum £155 - join today and receive 15 months membership for the price of 12 when you pay by annual Direct Debit.

Student/concession £120

Tutor: Keith Barrett BA PhD

Psychoanalysis was initiated by Freud, then transformed by a series of powerful creative figures who both extended and deepened its range, opening new intellectual horizons as they applied its methods to new problems and new fields. We will focus on four leading innovators, carefully examining their criticisms of Freud and the manner in which they modified his theories and therapeutic practice. In this way, the course will give an overview of the development of psychoanalysis across its first century and into the beginning of its second. While intended to be accessible to beginners, it will also stimulate those who already have some knowledge of the field.

(The course is self-contained – as is ‘Introducing Freud at the Freud Museum’ which precedes it in the autumn term. The two courses can be taken in either order, or as ‘stand alone’ modules, but complete beginners wanting a thorough introduction to psychoanalysis should take ‘Introducing Freud’ first, then follow on with the present course.)

Admission

Full price - £190

Friend of the Freud Museum £160 - join before 15 December 2016 and receive 15 months membership for the price of 12 when you pay by annual Direct Debit.

Student/concession - £125

Website

https://freud.org.uk/events/76448/psychoanalysis-after-freud/