Don’t miss our major exhibition Women & Freud: Patients, Pioneers, Artists (30 October 2024-5 May 2025). Supported by the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Trust.

Freudian Wisdom for the Times of Turmoil

Freudian Wisdom for the Times of Turmoil, our programme for NHS workforce

‘Carried through by Freud’s ideas’? Freudian Wisdom for the Times of Turmoil, our programme for NHS workforce.

Freudian Wisdom for the Times of Turmoil

Passionate about the difference Sigmund and Anna’s legacy can make to people’s lives in an increasingly complex world, we continue to create new learning opportunities for ever wider and more diverse audiences. Vigorously reaching out to under-served communities and forming partnerships with academic and professional groups, we offer dedicated formats which engage with Freud’s collections and the fascinating world of his ideas which we seek to make relevant and accessible.

Our motto follows Freud’s own famous dictum: ‘to learn something about psychoanalysis and something from it.’ During the long and gloomy months of the pandemic, however, we took on a slightly different course, encouraging learning about Freud himself as well as from him. What sustained him? How did he deal with adversity? What did he think about life? We were asking many such questions together with the NHS workforce whom we invited to an online series of talks and creative workshops ‘Freudian Wisdom for the Times of Turmoil’.

Words to Live By

They were often surprised to learn about the multiple pandemics of poverty, bereavement, illness or antisemitism which had haunted Freud both before and after the outbreak of the 1918 Influenza (‘Spanish flu’) which claimed the life of his beloved daughter Sophie. However, astonishment at the scale of Freud’s personal sufferings quickly gave way to curiosity about his personal reflections. Perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the most popular workshops in the series was ‘Words to Live By’ which explored the power of the word in life’s defining moments. We observed how the world, lost for words, communicated through numbers – against the backdrop of racing death tolls and infection rates, we remained mesmerised by Freudian lines, such as:

it is to be hoped that once the mourning is over, it will be found that our high opinion of the riches of civilization has lost nothing from our discovery of their fragility. We shall build up again and perhaps on firmer ground and more lastingly than before’.

As the programme continued over the long months of lockdown, we tried to recreate something of the warm tranquillity of Maresfield Gardens using new digital solutions, such as virtual navigation around the house or close-ups on family photographs and objects from Freud’s magnificent collection of artefacts through which his ideas were introduced.

Working closely with the wonderful Imperial Health Charity, we reached staff from five London hospitals of the Imperial College NHS Trust, and later also from other Trusts: University College London Hospitals, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and St George’s University Hospitals. The programme was supported by the Arts Council England, allowing us to engage over one hundred NHS staff, key workers and volunteers free of charge. Many were initially weary of participating in anything associated with the pandemic. Feeling alternatingly revered and instrumentalised in public narratives, those on the frontline would often seek breathing spaces away from the topics which dominated their daily lives:

‘I had been fed up with being asked how I was or what could be done for me. After an exhausting shift you are just trying not to fall apart. I was attracted to this programme because it seemed to understand that, it met us where we where, it placed no demands on us to discuss our experience, instead it invited us to discuss life in general starting with Freud himself and in fact his collection. And then the magic happened: it was all so relevant and interesting without being overwhelming. I felt less scared to revisit my own scary thoughts, it was liberating.’

Our greatest joy? The fact that, in true spirit of outreach, the programme surpassed its own constraints: many in the audience reported sharing key insights with colleagues whose schedules didn’t allow them to tune in. Those who did participate appreciated how ‘refreshing’ and ‘inspiring’ it was to look at things through the Freudian lens, ‘without the urge to find quick fixes’.

‘I feel humbled by the passion and skill that went into creating this extraordinary programme. You didn’t put a foot wrong . You showed us Freud’s humanity, and his ideas you covered have been accompanying me throughout my work week, or shall I say carrying me through it!’

We are exploring ways of funding and scaling up this work, to make it available to anyone who might wish to learn something about Freud and something from him – in times of turmoil or not at all.

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