Aning – A day of mourning

This series started with a day of love, but in this last event for this semester we turn to mourning in order to explore the point of intersection between death and love. We focus on questions such as: What can mourning teach us about being human? How can mourning be conceived of psychoanalytically? What are the ethical implications of mourning?

To accompany us on this journey, we’re proud to present Jonathan Lear, professor of philosophy at The University of Chicago and practicing psychoanalyst (IPA). Jonathan is a well-known global authority in this field and has the gift of making complex philosophical understanding of the human psyche accessible. We also have the honor to have Johan Eriksson, one of Anings most frequent and appreciated lectures with us again. Johan is doctor in theoretical philosophy as well as a practicing psychoanalyst (IPA) and psychotherapist.
And last but not least we are happy to have Alfred Bordado Sköld with us. He is currently doing his Ph.D. on today’s topic at the research centre: “The Culture of Grief” at Aalborg University (www.sorg.aau.dk).

Reading assignment: We recommend that you read:
• Lears seminar: The Unconsciousness of Mental Life – What is Fundamental About the Fundamental Rule? International Journal of Psychoanalysis. Can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1D4GOZc7FGOJ7LeG4mbyNHKy7z8NEcVSR/view
• Johans seminar: – Att bli människa – övervinnandet av oidipuskomplexet och etablerandet av det själsliga livets fundament. Går att finna här: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_uLjCG_fcnpcidMygPqBmOFT_X6o57TM/view
• For Alfreds seminar: Freud’s Mourning and melancholia.

This is the fifth and ambitious part of ”Aning hardcore”. An extra track to ”Psykoanalytisk salong – Sexualitet*5”. It´s for those who´s desire for psychoanalytic and existential explorations into topics of love, sexuality, the voice etc. goes a bit further.

(An evening lecture is included in the price for the full day. For those who only want to attend the lecture at 19.00 you can buy separate tickets here: https://kulturcentralen.nu/evenemang/good-mourning)

Full day: 09.00-21.15

Schedule:

09.00 – 09.30 – Introducing the day to come

09.30 – 10.30 – Lecture by Alfred Bordado Sköld
Title: The impossibilities of grief: Melancholia and Despair in Freud, Kierkegaard and Derrida
Both despair in Kierkegaard’s sense and Freudian melancholia are described as ways of avoiding grief, of not wanting to grieve. In this talk, Alfred pose the question: Is grief even possible? And if so, what would a successful grief-process amount to? Inspired by psychoanalytical accounts of limitations and Derrida’s notion of “impossible mourning”, he suggests that grief is one of the areas at the limit of sense, where we’re doomed to failure – and further, that this is a good thing.

10.30 – 11.00 – Coffee

11.00 – 12.00 – Lecture by Johan Eriksson
. Titel: Becoming human: on the overcoming of the Oedipal complex and establishment of the foundations of mental life.
Johan invites us in his presentation to an alternative interpretation of the Oedipal complex: the Oedipus complex presents the child with the task of having to internalize the existential structures that constitute what we call being human. The murderous and incestuous drives that according to Freud make up the affective atmosphere of the Oedipus complex, are really manic defences against the depressive anxiety, and the mourning, that this process of becoming human actualizes.

14:00 – 16:00 Reading seminar with Jonathan Lear
Titel: Freedom of speech, truthfulness and the psychoanalytical setting
The fundamental rule of psychoanalysis: to say out loud whatever comes to mind, allows us to get a glimpse of the unconsciousness of mental life. In letting our minds wonder and speak them – we achieve a particular form of freedom and truthfulness that in Lear’s view is fundamental, not only to the psychoanalytical practice but for an understanding of the constitution of humanity as such. In this reading seminar, we explore this broader meaning of the psychoanalytical setting.

16:00 – 17:00 Discussion on the day so far with Jonathan, Johan and Alfred.

17:00 – 19:00 Dinner

19:00 – 21:15 Public lecture with Jonathan Lear
Title: “Good Mourning”
This talk will consider mourning in the context of culturally shared fantasies of world-catastrophe. In the context of Freud’s essays, “On Transience” and “Mourning and Melancholia” this talk will consider what a revolt against mourning is, and what it is about mourning that makes it healthy in human life.

For more information:
To get to know more about Aning and the events to come, visit facebook.com/Aning.ffp, aningffp.wordpress.com or moriskapaviljongen.se
For questions about this event or other things concerning Aning, send an email to aning.ffp@gmail.com