The Repression and Abandonment of Oedipus: oedipal situations in life, distress and disorder

Conference Abstract

Psychoanalysis addresses the instinctual individual as he or she has been formed in just one of the many cultures human nature is capable of generating. The two poles of our individual experience are paradoxically disposed: we are made by the family structures of our culture of origin yet in our innermost being we centre ourselves around a single other. In their manifold forms, Oedipal relationships are the link between them.

This Conference aims to arrive at a current view of how to understand - and work with clinically -  this, the most nuclear of psychoanalytic theses. It is that cross-generational patterns of triangular love, hatred and rivalry, in which two form a sexual pair, a couple transgressing the incest taboo, while the displaced other is feared, defeated or murdered, do actually exist.

Conference Registration

Please note that the conference is now fully booked. For those wishing to be sign up to the waiting list, please do so by contacting events.psychoanalysis@ucl.ac.uk

Ticket Prices

• Friday afternoon clinical seminar rate: £45
• Friday evening clinical seminar rate (delegates can only attend one evening seminar): £45*
• Conference only standard rate: £165
• Conference only candidate / part time student rate: £130
• Conference only student rate: £55

*Please note that places for the Friday afternoon and evening clinical seminars are limited, and booking will be on a first come first served basis. Tickets for these seminars must be purchased in advance.

Keynote papers will be:

Denis Flynn | British Psychoanalytical Society

The Oedipus Complex, Alienation and Loss of Psychic Structure

Francesca Hume | British Psychoanalytical Society, and Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust

 ‘Oedipus Wrecked’: Constructing the unconscious phantasy through its emergence in the analyst’s mind

David Taylor | British Psychoanalytical Society, Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, and University College London

Fateful Affinities: oedipal love, hate and guilt

The Parallel paper programme will include papers looking at oedipal relations:

• In psychoanalytic treatments of children and adults, including the impact of seduction, sexual abuse and parental pathology
• In different types of psychopathology: neurosis, psychosis, perversion, and criminal acts
• In psychoanalytic group therapy settings
• And what the myth and literature of Classical Greece still tells us

Call for Parallel Papers

Guidelines for parallel paper submissions can be found here: docs/Repression_and_Abandonment_of_Oedipus_Conference_PP_Guidelines

Clinical Workshops will also be available. Leaders will be:  

Robin Anderson, David Bell, Donald Campbell, Denis Flynn, Peter Fonagy, Francesca Hume, Chris Mawson, Rosine Jozef Perelberg, Irma Brenman Pick, Gigliola Fornari Spoto, Mary Target, David Taylor, and David Tuckett

Call for Friday Clinical Seminar Presenters

At the Friday evening clinical seminars, those attending can elect to present clinical cases. If you would like to present, please contact events.psychoanalysis@ucl.ac.uk

For those that attend the Friday afternoon and evening clinical seminars, please note that there is a possibility that you will be invited to present at the seminar that you have chosen to attend.

Further Information

For any additional queries in the meantime please contact events.psychoanalysis@ucl.ac.uk