Laing and
Esterson
Sanity, Madness and the Family
50 Years On
Family 7: The Golds
Dame Hilary Mantel Anthony Stadlen
conduct
Inner Circle Seminar No. 233
Sunday 12 February 2017
10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Family 7: The Golds
Dame Hilary Mantel Anthony Stadlen
conduct
Inner Circle Seminar No. 233
Sunday 12 February 2017
10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
 |
| Hilary Mantel |
 |
| R. D. Laing |
 |
| Aaron Esterson |
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.
Hilary Mantel wrote that ‘the simple words the people speak’ in Laing and Esterson’s book gave her, at 20, the courage to write her own astonishing books. Her introductions to the seminars in this series have enthralled participants.
Anthony Stadlen continues to interview the eleven families in the twenty-first century. Today, we explore Chapter 7, on ‘Ruth Gold’ and her family, in the light of his discussions with Ruth’s family. We shall play extracts from Esterson’s original tape-recordings from the early 1960s of Esterson’s and Laing’s interviews with the family as well as from Stadlen’s recordings of his own twenty-first-century interviews with Ruth’s brother and his wife. We shall view old and new family photographs. Your contribution to the discussion will be welcomed.
Venue: Durrants Hotel,
Cost: Psychotherapy trainees £120, others £150, some bursaries; coffee, tea, biscuits, mineral water, Durrants rock included; payable in advance; no refunds or transfers unless seminar cancelled
Apply to: Anthony Stadlen, ‘Oakleigh’, 2A
E-mail: stadlen@aol.com stadlenanthony@gmail.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 universities.
1 comment:
I agree with Hilary Mantel’s comment that she is “wary ... the last thing I want to do is to embroider and steal the case histories away and make them over into literature”. In a similar light, although I think we need to understand Ruth’s whole story for the sake of liberty, I felt it verged on voyeuristic listening to Ruth’s torment on cassette. It was so private. I fear to appropriate it.
I had forgotten Ruth’s brother’s anger at Laing and Esterson’s “whitewash” of his and Ruth’s parents. However, I feel I have always sensed the horror and agony of all the women and have always taken the cases as sketches comparable to those of Matisse, where one simple line speaks the whole volume.
I thought it very brave and generous of Ruth’s brother’s beautiful widow to attend this seminar and share her experiences with us.
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