The Philoctetes Center
October 27, 2009
I’ve only recently come across the Philoctetes Center in New York
The Philoctetes Center for the Multidisciplinary Study of the Imagination was established to promote an integrated, interdisciplinary approach to the understanding of creativity and the imaginative process.
They have a public programme of events most of which are archived on audio and video and available to view on the site. I’m enjoying Is Freud Dead?: The Relevance of Freud’s Theory of Group Psychology in Today’s World amongst others. (Update, there’s a pdf copy of Jane Hall’s lecture here).
I’m enjoying the number and variety of psychodynamic offerings in New York – particularly those open to the public and made accessible to an interested and non-expert audience. So far I have attended
The International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations’ regional meeting at which Brendan Duddy talked about his role in brokering the ceasefire in northern Ireland. The Centre for Modern Psychoanalytic Studies’ Sunday Film and Brunch series in which two episodes of In Treatment were given the psychoanalytic treatment by a group of candidates and interested others. (Update it has just been confirmed that In Treatment has been re-commissioned for a third series beginning in 2010). I then attended a lecture entitled Psychoanalytic Work in Today’s World: Would Freud Approve? by Jane Hall organised by the Metropolitan Institute for Training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy at the Karen Horney Clinic.
This is in marked contrast to the dearth of offerings in Dublin…so I’m cramming as much in as I can and really enjoying the opportunity to think about the relevance of psychodynamic thinking to organisational work.