In the 1970s and ‘80s, when the Freud Museum archive was being established, conservative social attitudes about lesbian relationships meant that Anna Freud and Dorothy Burlingham’s close relationship and cohabitation were sensitive topics that potentially threatened Sigmund Freud’s legacy. This special tour of the Museum will focus on the two women’s ‘herstory’ in the house, the history of psychoanalytic attitudes towards ‘female homosexuality’, and how Freud, Burlingham and Eissler curated the archive of their letters. There will be the opportunity to view selected items from the archive.
Tickets include a glass of wine on arrival and the opportunity to view the Women & Freud exhibition out of hours..
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Speakers:
Agnes Meadows volunteered in the Freud Museum archive, and her article on Dorothy Burlingham’s collection is published in the History Workshop Journal. She has an MA in psychoanalysis from Birkbeck College, University of London, and is currently working on psychoanalysis and disability.
Harriet Mossop is a PhD student and Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies at the University of Essex, and Research and Development Officer in the Centre for Anthropological Mental Health Research in Action at the School for Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Her research draws on feminist, queer, trans, decolonial and psychoanalytic theory to explore the phenomenon of erotic transference between women in the psychoanalytic clinic, using historiographic, phenomenological and arts-based research methods.
She is a co-founder of the Queer Encounters research network for psychosocial researchers in gender and sexuality (www.queerencounters.org), a member of the Queer Analytic Circle, and convener of the ‘Other Women’ reading group for queer women and non-binary people at Stillpoint Spaces. Her work has been published in the British Journal of Psychotherapy, the Psychoanalytic Review, Feminisms and Psychology, and Stillpoint Magazine. She has presented papers based on her early research at clinical and academic conferences. Her paper Was Anna Freud a “friend of Dorothy”? A queer phenomenological historiography of Anna Freud and Dorothy Burlingham’s personal and professional relationship was recently published in the British Journal of Psychotherapy.
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This is the first of two events at the Freud Museum, London – January/February 2025
Abstract:
Speculation about the nature of the five-decade-long personal and professional partnership between Anna Freud and Dorothy Burlingham is not new. However, early twenty-first Century culture is turning its “queer eye” onto the relationship in particular ways in the context of more open – although not always more accepting – social and psychoanalytic attitudes to non-normative expressions of gender and sexuality. Two events at the Freud Museum, London in early 2025 will explore how their relationship was portrayed during Freud and Burlingham’s lifetime, by their biographers in the 1980s, and in the film Freud’s Last Session (2023), as well as recent research which sheds light onto how more personal elements of their relationship were omitted from the archive. The events will be an opportunity to reflect on how cultural representations of their relationship have changed in the 40 years since Anna Freud’s death, and to relate this to work in the psychoanalytic clinic with different expressions of gender and sexuality. There will be a panel discussion and a special tour of the Freud Museum focusing on Anna and Dorothy’s life together in the house, and the archive of their letters.
These events are part of an ongoing programme with the Queer Encounters network for psychosocial PhD and early-career researchers in gender and sexuality (www.queerencounters.org), considering the history of psychoanalysis from a queer and trans perspective, and have been supported by the Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies at the University of Essex.
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Tickets: £25
Freud Museum Members and Patrons receive 20% off the standard ticket price on all events, courses, conferences and On Demand programming.
A limited number of £10 bursary tickets are available for those under financial hardship. Priority will be given to UK unemployed and PIP/ESA claimants. Please email [email protected] to apply for a bursary.
The purpose of this event is to raise funds for the Freud Museum London, which receives no regular Government income. We are grateful to you for supporting our independent museum as generously as possible.
