Laing & Esterson: 10. The Kings. Inner Circle Seminar 107 (3 December 2006)

R. D. Laing

Aaron Esterson

R. D. Laing and A. Esterson

Sanity, Madness and the Family
40 Years On

Family 10: The Kings

Anthony Stadlen
conducts
Inner Circle Seminar No. 107
Sunday 3 December 2006
10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

‘We believe that the shift of point of view that these descriptions both embody and demand has an historical significance no less radical than the shift from a demonological to a clinical viewpoint three hundred years ago.’

Thus, in 1964, R. D. Laing and Aaron Esterson introduced their great phenomenological descriptions of eleven families of ‘schizophrenics’. They questioned the existence of ‘schizophrenia’. But, four decades on, the ‘clinical viewpoint’ still reigns supreme. Were Laing and Esterson wrong? Or is current work on families and ‘schizophrenia’ an existential retrogression?

Eleven seminars, studying each family in depth, offer an unprecedented opportunity to explore this question. There have been dramatic moments in the first nine seminars. You are welcome to attend one or both of the remaining two.

Anthony Stadlen, existential psychotherapist and convenor of the Inner Circle Seminars, was a colleague of Aaron Esterson for many years, and continues Esterson’s method of social phenomenology in his own research and practice.

Venue: Room F, Acland Building, Regent’s College, London NW1

Cost: Students £77, others £99, in advance; some bursaries

Apply to: Anthony Stadlen, ‘Oakleigh’, 2A Alexandra Avenue, London N22 7XE
Tel: +44 (0) 20 8888 6857 E-mail: stadlen@aol.com 

Laing & Esterson: 9. The Irwins. Inner Circle Seminar 106 (5 November 2006)

Aaron Esterson

R. D. Laing and A. Esterson

Sanity, Madness and the Family
40 Years On

Family 9: The Irwins

Anthony Stadlen
conducts
Inner Circle Seminar No. 106
Sunday 5 November 2006
10 a.m. to 5 p.m

‘We believe that the shift of point of view that these descriptions both embody and demand has an historical significance no less radical than the shift from a demonological to a clinical viewpoint three hundred years ago.’

Thus, in 1964, R. D. Laing and Aaron Esterson introduced their great phenomenological descriptions of eleven families of ‘schizophrenics’. They questioned the existence of ‘schizophrenia’. But, four decades on, the ‘clinical viewpoint’ still reigns supreme. Were Laing and Esterson wrong? Or is current work on families and ‘schizophrenia’ an existential retrogression?

Eleven seminars, studying each family in depth, offer an unprecedented opportunity to explore this question. There have been dramatic moments in the first eight seminars. You are welcome to attend any or all of the remaining three.

Anthony Stadlen, existential psychotherapist and convenor of the Inner Circle Seminars, was a colleague of Aaron Esterson for many years, and continues Esterson’s method of social phenomenology in his own research and practice.

Venue: Room F, Acland Building, Regent’s College, London NW1
Cost: Students £77, others £99, in advance; some bursaries
Apply to: Anthony Stadlen, ‘Oakleigh’, 2A Alexandra Avenue, London N22 7XE
Tel: +44 (0) 20 8888 6857 E-mail: stadlen@aol.com

Laing & Esterson: 8. The Heads. Inner Circle Seminar 105 (22 October 2006)

R. D. Laing

Aaron Esterson

R. D. Laing and A. Esterson

Sanity, Madness and the Family

40 Years On

Family 8: The Heads

Anthony Stadlen

conducts

Inner Circle Seminar No. 105
Sunday 22 October 2006
10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

‘We believe that the shift of point of view that hese descriptions both embody and demand has an historical significance no less radical than the shift from a demonological to a clinical viewpoint three hundred years ago.’

Thus, in 1964, R. D. Laing and Aaron Esterson introduced their great phenomenological descriptions of eleven families of ‘schizophrenics’. They questioned the existence of ‘schizophrenia’. But, four decades on, the ‘clinical viewpoint’ still reigns supreme. Were Laing and Esterson wrong? Or is current work on families and ‘schizophrenia’ an existential retrogression?

Eleven seminars, studying each family in depth, offer an unprecedented opportunity to explore this question. There have been dramatic moments in the first seven seminars. You are welcome to attend any or all of the remaining four.

Anthony Stadlen, existential psychotherapist and convenor of the Inner Circle Seminars, was a colleague of Aaron Esterson for many years, and continues Esterson’s method of social phenomenology in his own research and practice.

Venue: Room F, Acland Building, Regent’s College, London NW1
Cost: Students £77, others £99, in advance; some bursaries
Apply to: Anthony Stadlen, ‘Oakleigh’, 2A Alexandra Avenue, London N22 7XE
Tel: +44 (0) 20 8888 6857 E-mail: stadlen@aol.com

David Cooper: Anti-Psychiatry and Non-Psychiatry. Inner Circle Seminar 104 (23 July 2006)

David Cooper, 1967

David Cooper

Anti-Psychiatry and Non-Psychiatry

Anthony Stadlen

conducts

Inner Circle Seminar No. 104

Sunday 23 July 2006

10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

David Cooper died 20 years ago, on 29 July 1986. His legendary ‘anti-hospital’ for young ‘schizophrenics’, Villa 21, had died 20 years earlier, in 1966. Shenley Hospital renamed it Villa 20A, and there would never again be a Villa 21 until the hospital itself closed at the end of the twentieth century. Theodore Dalrymple recently called Cooper’s books ‘worthless’. Laing and Esterson disliked them. Szasz wrote (1978): ‘Cooper is often wrong-headed, but he is honest. Laing is level-headed, but is he ever honest?’ Today, we examine Cooper’s writings. Anthony Stadlen also reflects on his own work with Cooper in Villa 21 (1965–6); on the Dialectics of Liberation Congress (1967) and the ‘Anti-University’ (1967–8), both of which Cooper master-minded (or anti-master-anti-minded); and on Cooper’s later activities. We attempt a balanced evaluation. Your participation in the discussion is welcome.

Venue: Room F, Acland, Regent’s College, Inner Circle, London NW1
Cost: Students £72, others £90, some bursaries, in advance
Apply to: Anthony Stadlen, ‘Oakleigh’, 2A Alexandra Avenue, London N22 7XE
Tel: +44 (0) 20 8888 6857 E-mail: stadlen@aol.com

R. D. Laing, H. Phillipson and A. R. Lee: Interpersonal Perception (1966). Inner Circle Seminar 103 (2 July 2006)

R. D. Laing

R. D. Laing, H. Phillipson and A. R. Lee

Interpersonal Perception (1966)

John Heaton

Anthony Stadlen

conduct

Inner Circle Seminar No. 103

Sunday 2 July 2006

10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

‘The human race is a myriad of refractive surfaces staining the white radiance of eternity. Each surface refracts the refractions of refractions of refractions. Each self refracts the refractions of others’ refractions of self’s refractions of others’ refractions... 

Here is glory and wonder and mystery’

This book’s first sentence, above, written by Laing, was nearly never printed. The editor did not know Shelley, and objected to the word, ‘staining’. Today, forty years on, is the book better understood? Dr John Heaton, a colleague of Laing for many years, discusses with Anthony Stadlen whether Laing’s method of studying perspectives and metaperspectives makes sense of personal relationships, or whether it repeats the distorted way of relating it seeks to clarify. We explore the book’s central case study: the ‘Joneses’. Your contribution to the discussion is welcome.

Venue: Room F, Acland Building, Regent’s College, Inner Circle, London NW1

Cost: Students £72, others £90, some bursaries, in advance

Apply to: Anthony Stadlen, Oakleigh, 2A Alexandra Avenue, London N22 7XE
Tel: +44 (0) 20 8888 6857 E-mail: stadlen@aol.com

Erwin Straus: Phenomenological Psychology (1966). Inner Circle Seminar 102 (18 June 2006)

 



Erwin Straus teaching a psychology class ca. 1942
courtesy of Black Mountain College archives

Erwin Straus

Phenomenological Psychology (1966)

Anthony Stadlen

conducts

Inner Circle Seminar No. 102

Sunday 18 June 2006

10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Erwin Straus (1891–1975) was one of the great existential psychiatrists. Today, 40 years on, we explore the astonishing, alive essays in his book Phenomenological Psychology (1966): ‘Lived Movement’, ‘Awakeness’, ‘Objectivity’, ‘The Upright Posture’, ‘Rheoscopic Studies of Expression’, ‘Pseudoreversibility of Catatonic Stupor’. These essays include findings from the laboratory for the study of expressive motions at Lexington, Kentucky where Straus was Director of Research. They disprove the recent claim in Existential Analysis that Straus ‘did not do empirical research’. The last essay reports the use of film to show that ‘catatonia’ is intentional interpersonal action, not the meaningless outcome of a presumed disease process. You are welcome to join the discussion.

Venue: Room G, Acland Building, Regent’s College, Inner Circle, London NW1

Cost: Students £72, others £90, some bursaries, in advance

Apply to: Anthony Stadlen, ‘Oakleigh’, 2A Alexandra Avenue, London N22 7XE
Tel: +44 (0) 20 8888 6857 E-mail: stadlen@aol.com

Freud and Love: Freud’s 150th Birthday. Inner Circle Seminar 101 (7 May 2006)



Freud and Jofi
courtesy of the
Freud Museum, London

Freud and Love

Celebrating Freud’s 150th Birthday

Anthony Stadlen
conducts
Inner Circle Seminar No. 101
Sunday 7 May 2006
10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Freud was born on 6 May 1856. Today, we explore his understanding of love. He wrote to Jung 100 years ago (6 December 1906) that psychoanalysis is ‘a cure through love’ (he meant the patient’s unrequited love for the analyst). The word ‘love’ occurs hundreds of times in Freud’s collected writings. But what did he mean by it? True to his theory, he wrote that his daughter Sophie’s death was a ‘deep narcissistic wound’ for him, though when his beloved dog Jofi (see photograph) died he said, simply, ‘It is very hard’. What are the implications for psychotherapy of Freud’s conception of love, and of the criticisms of it by other thinkers?

Cost: Students £72, others £90, in advance; some bursaries
Venue: Room F, Acland Building, Regent’s College, Inner Circle, London NW1 4NS
Apply to: Anthony Stadlen, ‘Oakleigh’, 2A Alexandra Avenue, London N22 7XE
Telephone: +44 (0) 20 8888 6857 E-mail: stadlen@aol.com

Freud and Freedom: Freud’s 150th Birthday. Inner Circle Seminar 100 (23 April 2006)




Photograph courtesy of the

Freud Museum, London

Freud and Freedom

Celebrating Freud’s 150th Birthday*

Anthony Stadlen
conducts
Inner Circle Seminar No. 100
Sunday 23 April 2006
10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

In the first of two seminars to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Freud’s birth (6 May 1856), we explore his thinking on freedom. At the heart of his practice is what he called ‘freier Einfall’, literally ‘free in-fall’, or ‘free occurrence’, misleadingly translated as ‘free association’, which prejudges what ‘falls in’ as ‘associated’ with what came before. Even Freud thought the freedom of ‘free in-fall’ was only apparent. He explained it by what he called ‘psychic determinism’, and thought this proved free will was an illusion. But is psychoanalysis not designed to help people discover their freedom? We examine this seeming contradiction. Do psychoanalysis and existential psychotherapy contradict each other? Or could it be that Freud was, despite his theory, a great existential psychotherapist?

*Today’s 100th seminar also marks the 10th anniversary of the first Inner Circle Seminar, ‘The stones speak!’, on 21 April 1996, the exact 100th anniversary of Freud’s double announcement, in a lecture in Vienna on 21 April 1896, of the name ‘psychoanalysis’ and of the so-called seduction theory.

Venue: Room F, Acland Building, Regent’s College, Inner Circle, London NW1 4NS
Cost: Students £72, others £90, in advance; some bursaries
Apply to: Anthony Stadlen, ‘Oakleigh’, 2A Alexandra Avenue, London N22 7XE
Telephone: +44 (0) 20 8888 6857 E-mail: stadlen@aol.com

Antony Flew conducts: Crime or Disease? Inner Circle Seminar 99 (26 March 2006)

Antony Flew

Crime or Disease?

Antony Flew

conducts

Inner Circle Seminar No. 99

introduced by

Anthony Stadlen

Sunday 26 March 2006

10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Professor Antony Flew (born 1923) was for decades one of the world’s foremost atheist philosophers. In his book God and Philosophy (1966), he engaged in scholarly debate with theologians. But his honesty has led him recently to say that he is now convinced by the evidence for an Aristotelian God (not a personal God: he has become a deist, not a theist). Apart from this, in his books Crime or Disease? (1973, 2002), Thinking about Thinking (1975), Thinking about Social Thinking (1985), and Agency and Necessity (1987, with G. Vesey), he ruthlessly exposes dishonest thinking, particularly on human agency and responsibility. He is one of the few philosophers in broad agreement with Thomas Szasz on ‘mental illness’ and the insanity defence. Today, Professor Flew honours us by engaging, as a philosopher, with our continuing discussion of this subject, which included Thomas Szasz’s memorable Inner Circle Seminar of 7 December 2003.

Venue: Room F, Acland Building, Regent’s College, Inner Circle, London NW1 4NS

Cost: Students £72, others £90, by 26 February (note early date); some bursaries

Apply to: Anthony Stadlen, ‘Oakleigh’, 2A Alexandra Avenue, London N22 7XE
Telephone: +44 (0) 20 8888 6857 E-mail: stadlen@aol.com

Binswanger: ‘Father of Existential Psychiatry’. Inner Circle Seminar 98 (26 February 2006)

Ludwig Binswanger

Ludwig Binswanger

The ‘Father of Existential Psychiatry’

Anthony Stadlen
conducts
Inner Circle Seminar No. 98
Sunday 26 February 2006
10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Ludwig Binswanger (13 April 1881 – 5 February 1966) died 40 years ago this month. He is called the ‘father of existential psychiatry’, but like other psychiatrists he imprisoned his patients (including Nijinsky) in his ‘sanatorium’. He was a severe critic of Freud, but remained a firm friend. He supplemented Heidegger’s ‘care’ with Buber’s ‘I–Thou’ to do justice to love, but Heidegger said Binswanger had misunderstood him. His dream theory influenced Foucault, and through him the music of Jean Barraqué. Binswanger’s case studies are revered by many, but Laing and Rogers deplored his case of ‘Ellen West’. This seminar discusses what is valuable for existential psychotherapists and others in Binswanger’s work.

Venue: Room F, Acland Building, Regent’s College, Inner Circle, London NW1 4NS
Subscription: Students £72, others £90, in advance; some bursaries

Apply to: Anthony Stadlen, ‘Oakleigh’, 2A Alexandra Avenue, London N22 7XE
Telephone: +44 (0) 20 8888 6857 E-mail: stadlen@aol.com

Lévinas: The Face of the Other. Inner Circle Seminar 97 (22 January 2006)

Emmanuel Lévinas

Emmanuel Lévinas

The Face of the Other

Anthony Stadlen
conducts
Inner Circle Seminar No. 97
Sunday 22 January 2006
10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

 

For Emmanuel Lévinas, the face of the other is what is most urgent, most primordial. The face means: ‘you shall love your neighbour’; ‘you shall love the stranger’; ‘you shall not murder’. Before all else come ethics and responsibility to the other. Lévinas’s thinking challenges not only Freud’s and Jung’s psychological approaches to human relationships, but also Heidegger’s understanding of ‘being-with’ and Sartre’s description of relations with the other. Lévinas is especially critical of Buber’s account of ‘I–Thou’ relationships. This seminar celebrates the 100th anniversary of Lévinas’s birth (on 30 December 1905) and the 10th anniversary of his death (on 25 December 1995). We ask what Lévinas’s thinking implies for the everyday practice of psychotherapy. Your contribution is welcome.

Venue: Room F, Acland Building, Regent’s College, Inner Circle, London NW1
Subscription: Students £72, others £90, in advance; some bursaries
Apply to: Anthony Stadlen, ‘Oakleigh’, 2A Alexandra Avenue, London N22 7XE
Telephone: +44 (0) 20 8888 6857 E-mail: stadlen@aol.com