Events and Seminars

Event	:	UCL: Societies of Outsiders - British Psychoanalysis and the Bloomsbury Group: 2-day Conference
Venue	:	Online or In-Person at UCL: Sir David Davies LT (G08), Roberts Building, Torrington Place, London WC
Date	:	17/09/2022 - 18/09/2022
Duration	:	17 September 2022–18 September 2022, 9:30 am–1:30 pm
Extra Info	:	A two-day UCL Psychoanalysis Unit hybrid conference exploring the cultural encounters that shaped a formative period in British psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis in the UK has always existed outside the medical establishment and has a proud tradition of lay analysis, and the so-called Bloomsbury Group, which included feminists, pacifists, political radicals, gay men and lesbians, never existed as an organisation. This interdisciplinary conference will explore the complex and reciprocal ways in which these two ‘societies of outsiders’* influenced each other. To mention just a few of the connections, Leonard and Virginia Woolf were Freud’s English publishers, although Virginia resisted reading Freud for a long time. Marion Milner’s early life-writing self-consciously referenced Woolf’s work (A Life of One’s Own). Ella Freeman Sharpe, a psychoanalyst with a passion for literature, was also very aware of Woolf’s work. Virginia’s younger brother Adrian Stephen, together with his wife Karin, trained as a psychoanalyst and played an important role in initiating the Controversial Discussions. James Strachey (Lytton Strachey’s brother) was Donald Winnicott’s analyst and later Freud’s translator. Strachey’s wife Alix was one of the first British analysts to appreciate the significance of Melanie Klein’s work, and encouraged her to come from Berlin to London, where she became the analyst of the art critic Adrian Stokes. The conference will be delivered from UCL's Bloomsbury campus. Join us there in person or virtually to explore some of the cultural encounters that helped to shape this formative period in the history of British psychoanalysis. Further programme details to follow shortly.
Organised By	:	UCL Psychoanalysis Unit: events.psychoanalysis@ucl.ac.uk
Web Link	:	https://www.ucl.ac.uk/psychoanalysis/events/2022/may/societies-outsiders-british-psychoanalysis-and-bloomsbury-group