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All registrants will receive their link to join via ZOOM. Course material will be sent 1 day before the event. Time includes a tea break. All attendees will also receive access to the recording, available to watch back for 1 month.
The course will explore psychoanalytic perspectives on the problem of violence. We will focus on war and genocide, poverty (‘the worst form of violence’ according to Mahatma Gandhi), empire and colonialism, and the psychology of Fascism. We will also examine the evolution of the understanding of trauma, from Breuer and Freud’s early formulations to the theories of PTSD of today.
SCHEDULE
1st Session: We will explore the question of the nature of ‘violence’ bringing psychoanalytic ideas together with the philosophical perspectives of Marx, Nietzsche, Zizek, Girard and Levinas.
2nd Session: We will trace the key developments in Freud’s thinking on violence – studying in detail the new ideas put forward in ‘Beyond the Pleasure Principle’ (1920) and ‘Civilization and its Discontents’ (1930). We will put this together with the evolution of Freud’s ideas on trauma.
3nd Session: We will examine the way Freud’s ideas were applied and taken forward – and criticized – by the major figures who followed him, including Wilhelm Reich, Melanie Klein, Erich Fromm and Anthony Storr.
4th Session: We will explore psychoanalytic thinking on the psychology of Fascism and on the possible integration of Marx and Freud. In this session we will review Herbert Marcuse’s ‘Eros and Civilization’, the ‘Anti-Oedipus’ of Deleuze and Guattari.
COURSE TUTOR
Keith Barrett BA PhD received his first degree in philosophy from Oxford University after having spent three years working as a nursing assistant in psychiatric hospitals. It was in this practical context that Keith first encountered existentialism and psychoanalysis. He then began postgraduate studies on both Freud and Heidegger, leading finally to a PhD from the Wellcome Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL for a dissertation on ‘Freud’s Self-Analysis’. Keith has been a philosophy teacher for over 20 years, and has been delivering courses at the Freud Museum for over a decade, where he has developed a series of introductory lectures on Freud, psychoanalysis after Freud, and the overlap of philosophy and psychoanalysis.
Members’ Discount
Freud Museum Members will be able to receive a 20% discount on tickets with a special Members code. Details will be circulated to all Members via email.
Bursary
A limited number of £15 bursary places will be available for those under financial hardship. Priority will be given to UK unemployed and PIP/ESA claimants. Click here to apply. A member of our team will be in touch as soon as possible.
