“Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void, but out of chaos.” - Mary Shelley, Frankenstein.
Freud saw artists as trailblazers who had anticipated his ideas about the psyche. However, he did not heed his own warning that ‘Before the problem of the creative artist analysis must, alas, lay down its arms’, and his interpretations of artworks tended to understand them as manifestations of psychopathology. In Playing and Reality, Donald Winnicott criticised his fellow analysts for failing to ask ‘what life is like apart from illness or absence of illness’. His own answer to the question of what life itself is about is that a meaningful life is a creative one. The main papers and panels at this conference will explore creativity’s shadowy origins, the complex relationship of creativity with disturbance, and the role of psychoanalysis in creative processes, both in the consulting room and beyond.
Speakers and Chairs
"Chased into the flames": creativity under the spell of repetition Sophie Boswell (British Psychoanalytical Society) Chair: Anuradha Menon (British Psychoanalytical Society) What have I done? Disturbance, creativity, sublimation, and the aesthetic process Francis Grier (International Journal of Psychoanalysis, and British Psychoanalytical Society) Chair: David Bell (British Psychoanalytical Society) Surviving, structuring and finding representation – Disturbance and creativity in the analytic couple Heather Wood (British Psychoanalytical Society) Chair: Alessandra Lemma ( (British Psychoanalytical Society, University College London)
In the spirit of creative exchange, the Saturday programme will include a segment devoted to short contributions on aspects of the conference theme. These presentations should be planned to last a maximum of 15 minutes.
Colleagues are invited to submit proposals for brief contributions. Submissions should include details of your institutional affiliations, the title of your proposed presentation and an abstract of 500 words maximum.
Please note that the expectation is that accepted presenters join the conference in-person only. All short contribution presenters will be offered a complimentary ticket to attend the conference, but please do note that we are unable to cover travel expenses.
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