Jan Patočka (1907 –1977): Caring for the Soul. Inner Circle Seminar 120 (4 November 2007)

Jan Patočka

Jan Patočka

(1907 –1977)

Caring for the Soul

Anthony Stadlen
conducts

Inner Circle Seminar No. 120
Sunday 4 November 2007
10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The Czech philosopher Jan Patočka was born on 1 June 1907. He died on 13 March 1977 after intensive interrogation by the StB (secret police). With the playwright (later, President) Václav Havel, he was a spokesman for Charta 77, arguing that the Czechoslovak government was abusing human rights. Patočka was one of the greatest twentieth century phenomenologists, in the tradition of Husserl and Heidegger, but also of Plato and Socrates. Central to his thinking were the notions of ‘living in truth’ and ‘caring for the soul’. Psychotherapy means, etymologically, ‘attending on the soul’. Today, in Patočka’s centenary year, thirty years after his death, we explore whether his ethical thinking on ‘caring for the soul’ and ‘living in truth’ provides an historical and philosophical grounding for the practice and theory of psychotherapy.

Venue: Room F, Regent’s College, Inner Circle, Regent’s Park, London NW1
Cost: Students £88, others £110, in advance
Apply to: Anthony Stadlen, ‘Oakleigh’, 2A Alexandra Avenue, London N22 7XE
Tel: +44 (0) 20 8888 6857 E-mail: stadlen@aol.com