The Natural History of Mental Life – An Institute of Psychoanalysis Lecture

PR Log (Press Release) – Nov 06, 2009 – Referring to contemporary practice and historical developments in the therapeutic field, he will to try to locate psychoanalysis on a conceptual axis, which puts physical and mental at opposite ends of a continuum - one which as yet does not appear to meet in the middle.

Dr Britton says: "At the present time the neurosciences are approaching from one end of this continuum, and the mental sciences from the other. Freud began at the neurological end. By 1900 and his publication of Interpretation of Dreams he was, and would remain, at the other end. At his new starting point it was not neurones  but ideas that were the atoms of his inquiry. The temptation at either end of this axis is to turn one's back on the other. This is unfortunate because we live in the uncharted middle; this is the ground where psychoanalysis operates, studying mental life in much the same way as Darwin studied natural history, before it was able to join up with the new science of the biology laboratory."

Venue:   The Institute of Psychoanalysis, 112a Shirland Road , London, W9 2EQ
Date:   Friday 20 November 2009
Time:    Drinks from 6.30pm, lecture begins at 7.00pm
Price:    £15
Tickets:    Available in advance or on the door
Buy tickets: marjory.goodall@iopa.org.uk 020 7563 5016
RSVP:    Ginettte Goulston-Lincoln, ginette@goulston-lincoln.com or 07958 448002

Further Information:

Dr Ronald Britton is well known internationally as a psychoanalytic writer, teacher and clinician. His books include The Oedipal Complex Today, Belief and Imagination, Sex, Death and the Superego. He was President of the Institute of Psychoanalysis, a Vice-President of the International Psychoanalytical Association and former Chair of the Tavistock Clinic's Department for Children and Families.  

For clinical enquiries contact the London Clinic of Psychoanalysis on 020 7563 5002, clinic@iopa.org.uk

About Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is based on the theory that the experiences of birth, early relationships with parents, sexuality, love, loss and death lay down patterns in the mind which provide unconscious templates, or models of relationships. Such unconscious versions of relationships are often at the root of the problems which lead people to seek help. Regular sessions with a psychoanalyst provide a setting within which these unconscious patterns can be brought into awareness and worked on with a view to change. To a greater or lesser degree, everyone is trapped by deep-seated unconscious, archaic relationships to others; through psychoanalysis we can become more free to live our lives creatively and fully.  For more information visit: http://www.psychoanalysis.org.uk/frontpage.htm#whatis