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Organised by Patrick Ffrench (KCL) and Nigel Saint (Leeds), and chaired by Dany Nobus (Brunel), with talks from Mareike Wolf-Fédida, Monique David-Ménard, François Villa, Anne-Marie Smith-Di Biasio, Ana Minozzo and Steven Jaron
Psychoanalysis is in essence an experience of absence, an absence for which psychoanalysts strive to locate a cause: the lost object, or in terms of identifiable figures: separation, mourning, castration. But aren’t the least of our ‘representations’ already relics of an absence? Everything we name as psychic activity is woven from absence (Corps du vide, espace de séance).
The site of the stranger is the strangeness of the unconscious in language, the genealogical memory of the transference and its dream of sepulchre (Le Site de l’étranger).
Pierre Fédida (1934-2002) is a missing link in Franco-British psychoanalysis, as we will see during this conference’s exploration of his work on absence, depression, melancholy and mourning. Fédida also explores the somatic, corporeal experience of psychic suffering through a close exploration of the psychoanalytical session: the liminal elements which punctuate speech, such as the play of the gestural, the respiratory and the visual. His thinking and writing are noted for their rigorous attention to the technical aspects of psychoanalytic theory and practice, including to the texts of Freud, and for an anti-dogmatic and trans-disciplinary approach which enabled him to range widely in his points of reference, including Binswanger and Winnicott.
Fédida’s ‘Complete Works’ have reached volume 8 in the French edition, but he has not benefited from extensive translation into English. Situating Pierre Fédida is a decisive step in bringing Fédida’s work to greater awareness in the U.K. context, and we are fortunate to have speakers closely familiar with Fédida and his work to speak to his legacy and importance. This will be a bilingual event with translations prepared in advance and real-time translation during the discussions.
