The Mind of the Artist
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October 26, 2018 - October 27, 2018
8:00 pm - 3:30 pm
A Two-Day Conference jointly sponsored by the Scientific Program Committee and The Pfeffer Center for Neuropsychoanalysis:
“The Mind of the Artist”
Friday, October 26, 2018 & Saturday, October 27, 2018
8:00 pm – 10:00 pm 10:00 am – 3:30 pm
Speaking from a theoretical perspective, Friday evening’s panelists will consider the relation between artistic creativity and psychoanalytic treatment, the significance (if any) of the high incidence of affective disorders among literary and visual artists, the paradigm of art as reparation of early object relations, and the like. The relevance of Freud’s notion of sublimation to more recent explanations of the intra- and inter-psychic valuations of imaginative expression and the relationship of imagination to the self, to mechanisms of defense and agency, will be explored. Saturday morning’s session will be devoted to a discussion with literary and visual artists on the notion of art as play, the neurobiological aims of that instinct in the making of meaning, the relation of id and ego function to unconscious fantasy and its expression in art, and how artistic expression bears upon our neuroscientific understanding of pleasure and reward. A plenary session by Nobel Laureate Eric Kandel will be offered in the afternoon to be followed by a wrap-up Q & A with all participants.
Training, Treatment & Outreach