Existential Pioneers. 11. Freud as Existential Analyst. Inner Circle Seminar 174 (25 March 2012)



Sigmund Freud

Existential Pioneers

11. Sigmund Freud
(1856–1939)
Freud as Existential Analyst

Anthony Stadlen
conducts
Inner Circle Seminar No. 174
Sunday 25 March 2012
10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Existential analysis and psychoanalysis are taught nowadays as if they were diametrically opposed disciplines. But this is a tragic misunderstanding: an ill-informed and destructive split. The pioneering existential analysts were all psychoanalysts. For example, the Daseinsanalysts Medard Boss and Alice Holzhey-Kunz wrote that Daseinsanalysis ‘wants only to be a purified psychoanalysis’ – purified, that is, of the scientistic ‘metapsychology’ in which Freud framed his findings. It is true that Freud took, or affected to take, as a compliment Binswanger’s criticism that he saw man as homo natura, an object for natural science; but there is more to Freud than this. Today’s seminar will reveal how, despite his scientistic and psychiatric aspirations, Freud – at his best – was an existential pioneer. We aim, as in previous Inner Circle Seminars on Freud from 1996 on, to renew the existential and phenomenological heart of his quest. Your contribution will be welcome.

Venue: Durrants Hotel, 26–32 George Street, Marylebone, London W1H 5BJ (http://www.durrantshotel.co.uk/)
Cost: Psychotherapy trainees £50, others £135, some bursaries; coffee, tea, biscuits, mineral water and liquorice allsorts included; no refunds unless seminar cancelled
Apply to: Anthony Stadlen, ‘Oakleigh’, 2A Alexandra Avenue, London N22 7XE
Tel: +44 (0) 20 8888 6857 E-mail: stadlen@aol.com
For further information on seminars, visit: http://anthonystadlen.blogspot.com/

The Inner Circle Seminars were founded by Anthony Stadlen in 1996 as an ethical, existential, phenomenological search for truth in psychotherapy. They have been kindly described by Thomas Szasz as ‘Institute for Advanced Studies in the Moral Foundations of Human Decency and Helpfulness’. But they are independent of all institutes, schools and colleges.