ADULT LOVE AND ITS ROOTS IN INFANCY
Day Conference

at the Anna Freud Centre, London NW3

This conference investigates adult love by bringing together the worlds of psychoanalysis, literature, and performance. The most sublime, exhilarating and painful of emotions, love puzzles the intellect and almost defies description. It motivates the best and worst of us, overwhelming us with the ferocity of its demands, while thwarted love and perverse love are at the heart of much violent behaviour and neurotic suffering.

Psychoanalysis unlocks the mystery of love by tracing its roots to childhood. The conference will be of interest to anyone involved in adult psychotherapy or counselling, and anyone who has ever been in love.

SPEAKERS

Lisa Appignanesi (Chair)
All About Love: Introductory Remarks

Bernard Barnett
Psychoanalytic Love, Real Love and Love in Anna Karenina

David Morgan
Destroying the Knowledge of the Need for Love: The Perverse and Addictive Transference

Anna Furse
When I touch the keys my flesh melts: On writing Don Juan.Who?

Estela Welldon
The Dangers of First Love

Click here for speaker biographies, booking details and abstracts. And if you go, let me know how it was!

It may be conceded to the mathematicians that four is twice two. But two is not twice one; two is two thousand times one. That is why, in spite of a hundred disadvantages, the world will always return to monogamy.

G. K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday.

Read the article here (PDF 1.7MB).

Led by Lucy Scholes and Richard Martin
10.30-16.00 on 5 June only
10.30-13.00 all the other sessions

Combining film, literary and psychoanalytic theory, this six-week course explores the fascinating theoretical connections within the work of Sigmund Freud, Arthur Schnitzler and Stanley Kubrick. Honing in on Kubrick’s controversial last film, Eyes Wide Shut (1999) – adapted from Schnitzler’s novella Dream Story (1926), which in turn can be traced back to Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams (1900) – we will consider how successfully cinema has depicted the dynamics of desire, dreams and fantasy.

Classes will begin with a short introductory lecture on the main themes of the week, with class discussion – in small break-out groups and as a whole – forming the majority of each session. Eyes Wide Shut will be screened as part of an extended first session, and the course will also include a session led by the film’s executive producer, Jan Harlan, as well as visits to Tate Modern’s Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera exhibition and to the Stanley Kubrick Archive at the University of the Arts London. No prior knowledge is needed.

In order to make the most of this innovative, multi-disciplinary exploration of some of the twentieth century’s most fascinating ideas, participants will be expected to read Schnitzler’s Dream Story and sections of Freudian theory. Additional material and suggested reading will be handed out in class in advance of each session. The class will also be encouraged to consider the course’s written and visual material alongside the artworks in Tate Modern’s collection.

For a course outline, click here

PS: I am after the purple platforms, the ones with the bow!

2001: Westminster Bridge Road. Depression. Finished MA. Started work in academia. Lost ability to make art. Won Mr and Mrs competition.

2002: Tooting. Watched Star Wars for the first time. Got second job.

2003: Colliers Wood. Met most of my friends. ‘To all the lovers and sweethearts we will never meet.’ Ralph disappears.

2004: Met those of of my friends who I hadn’t met in 2003. Depression (unrelated).

2005: Ralph reappeared. Moved to Glasgow. Met those of my friends living in Glasgow. Became a lecturer. Started PhD at Sheffield.

2006: Began psychoanalysis. Began running the MRes. First conference paper on seduction.

2007: Bought flat. Visited Berlin for the first time. Visited New York for the first, second and third times. Saw Étant Donnés and it changed my life.

2008: Ended psychoanalysis. Found ability to make art. Began teaching psychoanalysis. Got married. Fell in love with Portugal again.

2009: Overworked, overwhelmed. Depression. Back in therapy. Ended running the MRes. Started correspondence with Linda. Feel much better. Freud collection almost complete. First published book chapter.

It was sad to read in the post I linked to above, how John Hughes thought Hollywood killed John Candy (who reminds me of my funny uncle a lot, and I like them both). It is probably true and I applaud Hughes’ decision to abandon his film career in the name of principles, for the future of his kids. There should be more people around who take these difficult decisions because life, as he now knows, is only one, and it goes away pretty quickly. There should also be more people around who write letters and maintain a private correspondence, people who read, listen, consider and reply, like John Berger did to Belen. Off to find my Basildon Bond. I know it is still procrastination from that damned chapter 3, but at least it is more worthwhile than playing Solitaire. Anyone up for bringing letter writing back into fashion?