Unconscious phantasy, and Richard Wollheim on dispositions


As last term, the seminar is online only and will be available to view online from 8.15 pm on Monday December 6th, for 14 days. The link will be sent by email that day. If you were registered last term, you will automatically receive the link this term. To register for the first time, please email paul.tod@sjc.ox.ac.uk. Please note that there will not be an online discussion with viewers, but comments may be posted on http://oxfordpsychoanalysis.blogspot.com Following Elisa Galgut's talk there will be short responses from Damien Freeman (Australian Catholic University), Louise Gyler (Australian Psychoanalytical Society), and Derek Matravers (Open University).

A person’s character can be understood as the dispositions they have to act and respond to others in ways that reflect early experience. Hanna Segal suggested that we can see a difference between acting, rationally, on our desires and acting out, by acting on phantasies. The paper looks at Wollheim’s account of the role of disposition in mental life, and its connection to unconscious phantasy and acting out.