Yale Bulletin and Calendar

October 1, 2004|Volume 33, Number 5

Talks will explore century-long
evolution of psychoanalysis

The first of four talks by renowned scholar and author Elisabeth Young-Bruehl examining "One Hundred Years of Psychoanalysis" will be presented on Wednesday, Oct. 6.

Her talks, the 2004-2005 Whitney Gardiner Lectures, are sponsored by the Whitney Humanities Center and the Muriel Gardiner Program in Psychoanalysis and the Humanities.

Young-Bruehl is a practicing psychoanalyst in New York and serves on the faculty of the Columbia Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. She is the author of acclaimed biographies on Hannah Arendt and Anna Freud, as well as "Freud on Women: A Reader," "Creative Characters," "The Anatomy of Prejudices," "Cherishment: A Psychology of the Heart" and, most recently, a collection of essays titled "Where Do We Fall When We Fall In Love?"

Founded by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), the field of psychoanalysis inaugurated a new scientific approach in psychology to explain behavioral inclinations and mental illnesses.

Young-Bruehl's lectures will focus on four areas of psychoanalytic theory and practice, exploring controversial concepts that date back to Freud's time.

In her first lecture, "Is There a Wish in Your Every Dream?" she will consider the basic elements of Freud's theory of dreams and his concept of the unconscious by interpreting a sample dream.

The interplay between theory and practice will be the focus of her second lecture, "Where Have All the Hysterics Gone?" on Nov. 10. She will discuss how Freud distinguished types of mental illness, and why hysteria -- the focus of Freud's earliest clinical studies and theories -- seemed to disappear by the 1920s. Young-Bruehl will consider a case study while addressing the question, "Are there hysterics today?"

In the third lecture on Jan. 26, "Sexuality, Then and Now," Young-Bruehl will consider why Freud's "libido theory," which he reformulated several times, has been so contested throughout the history of psychoanalysis, and particularly since the sexual revolution of the 1960s.

The last lecture, on Feb. 23, is titled "Civilizations and Their Discontents." Late in life, Freud developed a theory of human aggression to analyze civilization -- posing the question "Why War?" in 1932. Young-Bruehl will explain the relevance of that question to a contemporary psychoanalyst.

All lectures, which are free and open to the public, take place at 4:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall St.

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