The unconscious in the Soviet sphere: psychoanalysis underground and in plain sight.
This paper draws on emerging research that shows how psychoanalysis was remarkably resilient in various parts of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union under Communism. Psychotherapeutic practices came to be shaped by informal meetings and training led by analysts who survived WWII, as well as by contact with western institutions, including the International Psychoanalytic Association and the Tavistock Clinic. I will then discuss my own archival and oral history research which uncovers the forgotten case of the Prague analysts Bohodar Dosužkov, Otakar Kučera and Jaroslav Stuchlík, tracing how psychoanalytic thought developed prior to 1938 in dialogue with Otto Fenichel, Sándor Ferenczi, and the Czech surrealist movement; and how it persisted both underground and in plain sight throughout the Communist period.
Date: 26 November 2018, 20:15 (Monday, 8th week, Michaelmas 2018)
Venue: Lecture Room, St John's College Research Centre, 45 St Giles'; on the west side of St Giles', north of Eagle and Child; ring entryphone from 20.05
Speaker: Sarah Marks (Birkbeck University of London)
Organisers: Louise Braddock (Department of Philosophy), Paul Tod (St John's College)
Organiser contact email address: paul.tod@sjc.ox.ac.uk
Part of: Interdisciplinary Seminars in Psychoanalysis
Booking required?: Not required
Cost: free of charge
Audience: University members and mental health professionals; if in doubt, email me.
Editor: Paul Tod