Events and Seminars

Event:Psychoanalysis and the Public Sphere: Authoritarianism
Venue:Online
Date:30/09/2023 - 01/10/2023
Duration:2 Days - 12:30-6pm BST
Extra Info:Is authoritarianism confined to the right? Stalinism alone refuted that notion. Of late there is also ample evidence of an “extreme centre” in adamant action in advanced industrial democracies. One clearly does not have to be a cartoonish 1930s party liner to be Stalinist in attitude or approach. An authoritarian ‘style’ can appear anywhere on the political scale, though its roots, aims and proportions may differ from one ideological cluster to another, including those who fancy they have no ideology. Should one take at face value, or overlook, projection at work in those who claim they are merely resisting (other) authoritarians? These fraught questions require serious and wide-ranging inquiry.

This year’s conference brings together psychoanalytically informed scholars and clinicians from many fields to re-examine the authoritarian personality literature from Adorno onward, and apply, extend and test it on contemporary manifestations. Among the trickiest but key tasks is to establish criteria to define right, left and centre, apart from popular media images fashioned of them. Perennial questions too recur as to whether democratic ends can be gained through authoritarian means or whether the extremes ironically meet in rigid harmony. The panellists aim to generate at least as much light as inevitable heat in considering these profound but all too topical issues.

I. Post-Covid Authoritarianism
Susie Orbach, Lene Auestad, Jill Gentile, Neil McLaughlin / Chair: David Morgan
II. Varieties of Authoritarian Experience
Karl Figlio, Barry Richards, Bob Hinshelwood, Carla Penna / Chair: Janet Sayers
III. Awakening to Woke? (Roundtable)
Samir Gandesha, Don Carveth, Daniel Burston, Lauren Langman / Chair: Ruth McCall
IV. Freud’s The Ego and the Id: 100 Years Later
Sabby Sagall, Rye Dag Holmboe, Nini Fang, John Keene / Chair: Agnieszka Piotrowska
V. Authoritarianism at the Centre?
Michael Chanan, Hilary Westlake, Sally Sales, Les Levidow, Dick Blackwell / Chair: Kurt Jacobsen
VI. How to Be Anti-Authoritarian in the 21st Century
Marilyn Charles, Michael Rustin, Stephen Bronner, Eli Zaretsky / Chair: Lisa Appignanesi
Organised By:Freud Museum & Free Associations Journal
Web Link:https://www.freud.org.uk/event/psychoanalysis-and-the-public-sphere-authoritarianism/
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