Friday, March 16, 2012, 7:30-9:30p.m.

The Illusion of Getting Real and the Reality of Illusion: Constructing and Deconstructing Neurotic, Artistic, and Therapeutic Illusions.

The Denver Psychoanalytic Society at the University of Colorado Denver-School of Medicine.

Bushnell Auditorium, Anschultz Medical Campus.

Building 500, 8th Floor--13001 E. 17th Place, Aurora, CO.

Saturday, January 14, 2012, 5:15pm - 6:45pm.

National Meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Association

The Waldorf Astoria Hotel, New York, NY

Special Symposium: "Freud’s Last Session"--The Creative Process of Playwright, Mark St. Germaine.

Chair and Moderator, Julie Jaffee Nagel, Ph.D.

Presenter: Mark St. Germain, Playwright of Freud’s Last Session

Discussants: Phillip S. Freeman, MD, DMH and Daniel W. Prezant, Ph.D.

Playwright Mark St. Germaine discusses the creation of his award-winning play that centers on the imaginary dialogue between Sigmund Freud and writer, C.S.Lewis in Freud’s study in London. On the day England entered World War II and two weeks before Freud’s death, Freud and Lewis clash on the existence of God, love, sex, and the meaning of life.

Friday, December 2, 2011 and

Friday December 9, 2011

Post-Show Discussion:

Parallel Plays in Psychoanalysis and Theater

The Psych Drama Company pesents:

Hamlet

Boston Center for the Arts

Plaza Black Box Theater

539 Tremont St., Boston

RECENT EVENTS

Wednesday, October 26, 2011 at 8pm

Humor and Crisis

Scientific Meeting, Boston Psychoanalytic Institute

15 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA

Presenter:

Phillip Freeman, MD, DMH

Discussant:

Alexandra Harrison, MD

An invitation to talk to a mixed group of professionals about the ethical use of humor in professional relationships led to observations about shared mechanisms of the successful joke and the successful interpretation. While the psychoanalytic literature regarding the use of humor in the analytic setting has appropriately emphasized the dangers, particularly the dangers of contrived humor, humor and laughter remain an important if not inevitable presence in the clinical setting. We will consider the role of humor in the relation of the professions, the particular circumstances of humor when the professions are the butt of the joke, and the role of humor in the crisis of the professions.

Thursday, April 14, 2011 from 7:30pm to 10:40pm

"Marnie", Narrative as Trojan Horse

Movie screening and discussion

Creativity Throught the Life Cycle

An Interdisciplinary Conference Jointly Sponsored by Emory University, the IPA, APsaA, and the Lucy Daniels Foundation

White Hall, Emory Campus,

Atlanta, Georgia

Saturday, April 9, 2011 from 9am to 12pm

Conflict and Creativity in Psychoanalysis:

Freud, Fleiss, and Jung

Scientific Meeting, Boston Psychoanalytic Institute

15 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA

Presenter:

Joel Whitebook, PhD

Discussants:

Phillip Freeman, MD

Bonnie Smolen, EdD

Saturday, January 15, 2011 from 10:30am to 12:00 noon

The Resilience of Illusion

Scientific Paper

National Meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Association

The Waldorf Astoria Hotel, New York, NY

Author: Phillip S. Freeman, M.D.

Discussant: Stuart W.Twemlow, M.D.

This paper is aimed at practicing analysts and at those who apply analytic concepts to understand cultural developments. The paper draws upon the analytic situation, popular entertainments, anthropology, virtual worlds, and social phenomena to consider the oposition between reality and fanatsy as it plays out clinically, socially, and in psychoanalytic technique.

Thursday, October 14, 2010.

Humor and Crisis

Keynote Speaker.

2010 Dallas Conference of the Professions.

Southern Methodist University.

Maquire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility.

The CotP is a unique and intimate annual meeting of clergy, lawyers, and physicians for the purposes of discussing ethical and professional issues of shared concern. Each year the Conference is built around a particular theme - this year being the ethical use of humor in the professions.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010 from 8:00 - 9:30 p.m.

The Illusion of Getting Real and the Reality of Illusion: Constructing and Deconstructing Neurotic, Artistic, and Therapeutic Illusions

THE PSYCHOANALYTIC EDUCATIONAL FORUM OF BOSTON

Learning Center, 3rd Floor, The Cambridge Hospital, 1493 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA

I would like to consider the possible outcomes of three related sets of circumstances:

What happens when we encounter new technologies that reopen the possibility of realizing omnipotent fanatsies?

What happens when individuals ensconced within fortresses of protective fanatsy are offered invitations to experience pleasures that are partial but real?

What happens when those to whom we have assigned the vestiges of lost perfection, the conjurers we would conjure, the magicians, decide to get real with us?

The PEFB invites trainees, student and recent graduates in mental health professions to participate in this free program. All mental health professionals are welcome. http://www.analysis.com/pefb

Saturday, January 30, 2010 1:30 pm - 4:30 pm
The Music of Fear, Love, and Transformation  

a program of the Psychoanalytic Institute of New England

Presenter: Neal S. Kass, M.D.
Discussants:
Phillip Freeman, M.D.
Martin Miller, M.D.

Macht Auditorium
The Cambridge Hospital
1493 Cambridge Street
Cambridge, MA 02139

December 14, 2009 7:30 p.m.

The Resilience of Illusion in Psychoanalysis and Theater

The San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis (SCFP) Auditorium

2340 Jackson St. 4th FL, San Francisco, CA

September 26, 2009 4:00 p.m.
Ritual, Drama, and Psychoanalysis
Speaker: Phillip Freeman, MD
Discussant: Sanford Schreiber, MD

Western New England Psychoanalytic Society
255 Bradley Street New Haven, CT

Theater and psychoanalysis are relatively divided in the pursuit of entertainment and therapeutic aims respectively but they are linked at their points of origin by an interest in performance and attributions of magic, the role of illusion. In theater, these themes mark an evolution from ritual to drama. In psychoanalysis, they constitute the basis for the centrality of the interpretation of the transference to the work.

There is no fee for these programs. All are welcome, registration is not required.

The Western New England Psychoanalytic Society is a professional association that offers courses, lectures and other programs for the mental health community. For directions to the Society, click here.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009 6:30 p.m.
Theatre, Psychoanalysis, and the Virtual Stage
Dr. Freeman speaks at The Princeton Club of New York

15 West 43rd Street New York, NY
cash bar

Socializing on outdoor terrace before and after.
Reservation required. Your name will be at the door.
RSVP via email Dottie Jeffries at Jeffries Marketing or call (917) 445-7876.

About Dr. Freeman’s talk:

In a time of generic and immediate gratifications, psychoanalysis and theatre offer
something with the potential to be individual, authentic, and profound. In the analytic situation or on the dramatic stage, real persons in real time and space create an illusion that is relatively unbound and temporally fluid.

The illusion so created has the potential to reverberate in the audience, or in the analyst and analysand, on deeper levels and thereby to trace the arc of recognition, revelation, catharsis, and transformation that Aristotle argued justified the poet’s admission to Plato’s Republic.

Of course, as with Oedipus, knowledge can be trouble, and both psychoanalysis and
theatre have histories of being viewed with suspicion if not prohibited outright. Dr. Freeman will discuss the historically shifting emphasis on reality, virtual reality, and illusion in psychoanalysis and popular culture. Ample time will be allowed for discussion following the talk.

Thursday, June 4, 2009.

Psychoanalysis and Theater: Shared Origins, Shared Dilemmas.

Theater Communications Group, National Meeting. Baltimore, MD.

We often hear theatrical work described as a kind of therapy, or emotional outlet. But rarely do we look at the similarities between the two professions, especially in terms of "audience". The challenges facing theater organizations are similar to those of psychoanalytic institutions and other professions that offer labor intensive products with real people in real time. Both must attempt to reach out to the community, produce alliances with allied disciplines, utilize new technologies, and transform their own institutions. The descriptions offered here of these efforts among threatened professionals are intentionally humorous and affectionate but, at the same time, underline the importance of attending to the inevitable tensions between survival strategies and identity preservation.

January, 2009.

Symposium: The Real and the Imagined in Psychoanalysis and Theater.

Winter Meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Association. New York, NY.

Chair: Phillip Freeman

Panelists: Christopher Shinn, Anne Bogart

Discussant: Henry Smith

Dr. Freeman’s paper presents the panelists with points of overlap and intersection bewteen the two disciplines. The real and the imagined are inevitably confronted in theatrical and analytic settings. Attempts to cultivate and demystify illusion have the potential to be liberating and the risk of arriving at the illusion of no illusion.