A Staged Reading of Selected Letters between Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung - followed by a panel discussion
This staged reading of selected letters between Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung is the first performance in Britain of a project which originated in the US. The project arose from a desire to foster a dialogue between Freudian and Jungian communities, and has been performed to great acclaim.
The text – extracts from the letters between Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, tracing their complex, eventually doomed, relationship - will be spoken by actors. This will be followed by a discussion between a truly distinguished panel: one of the project’s originators Margaret Klenck, the historian Sonu Shamdasani, and Christopher Hauke, Dany Nobus, and Stephen Gross, writers and analysts.
Margaret Klenck is a Jungian Analyst in private practice in New York City. She is a graduate from the C.G. Jung Institute of New York, and holds a Masters of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary. Margaret is the previous past President of the Jungian Psychoanalytic Association in New York, where she also teaches and supervises. She is also a member and on the faculty of the Philadelphia Association of Jungian Analysts. Margaret has lectured and taught nationally and internationally.
Sonu Shamdasani is an academic, author and leading Jung scholar and biographer. He is a professor at University College London, and Director of the UCL Centre for the History of Psychological Disciplines. He is the editor and co-translator of C. G. Jung’s The Red Book: Liber Novus (Norton, 2009), and has written and published many books on Jung.
Christopher Hauke is a Jungian analyst, a senior lecturer in psychoanalytic studies at Goldsmiths, University of London, a writer, broadcaster and film-maker. His most recent book, Visible Mind: Movies, Modernity and the Unconscious, was published in 2013.
Stephen Gross is an analytic psychotherapist in private practice. He also teaches and supervises at WPF Therapy and other training organisations. He is particularly interested in the overlap between psychotherapy and literature. His play, Freud's Night Visitors, has been performed twice at The Freud Museum London.
Dany Nobus is Professor of Psychology and Psychoanalysis, and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Development and External Relations at Brunel University London, where he also directs the MA Programme in Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Society. He is the Chair of the Freud Museum London, and has published numerous books and papers on the history, theory and practice of psychoanalysis.
Sigmund Freud will be performed by Gerald Davidson, actor and researcher. Gerald has written and staged several presentations at the Freud Museum, including What Little Hans Knew and Aichhorn and Anna.
Notes from the Creative Director, Louise De Costa
“The inspiration for this project comes from a desire to foster a dialogue between contemporary Freudian and Jungian communities. The wish began as a personal one. Having undergone both a Jungian and a Freudian analysis, I emerged with deep gratitude. I consider both men my analytic fathers. The fact that there exists genuine incompatibility in a number of their core beliefs represents, for me, an area of fascination—an opportunity for some paradoxical play in divergent psychoanalytic thought. However, as a candidate in training, I was astounded at how little communication existed between the two communities -- at times, divided by brittle and unyielding allegiances. Was the rupture between these two visionaries of our profession destined to carry on with successive generations of analysts?
My fascination led me to wonder if, historically, we were unable to generate constructive exchange in academia, might we succeed theatrically? The puzzle was how to create a living conversation that would give audiences an opportunity to encounter the complex emotional and highly creative relationship between these two men through their correspondence, (1906-1913), which reveals a remarkable story.
And so, we five, analysts and candidates, began reading the letters three years ago. The process of selection, editing, arguing and further editing has led us to this point. We have morphed into a small troupe of psychoanalytic thespians, taking our show on the road to various analytic institutes including Freudian, Jungian, and Relational folk. We have met with responses ranging from supportive and friendly to hostile and contentious, but fascinatingly, rarely neutral. Our mission has been to honor our therapeutic legacies and attempt to create an ongoing conversation between Freud and Jung, which during their lifetimes, they were unable to maintain.
And so, perhaps, the rest does NOT have to be silence”
