BPA | The Poetic Mind Seminar - ‘This is not for Tears: Thinking’ ‐ Poetry and Psychoanalysis in Orbit

The Poetic Mind Seminar

‘This is not for Tears: Thinking’‐Poetry and Psychoanalysis in Orbit

Dr Judith Edwards, Psychoanalyst
Chair Louise Hayman, Psychoanalyst 
Discussant David Morgan, Psychoanalyst

This is the second in a series of dialogues on the capacity for poetry and psychoanalysis to articulate the internal world.

Online, via Zoom only

Abstract
This paper has been five years in the making, since I have run a series of seminars about poetry and psychoanalysis at the Tavistock Clinic, for non-clinical students. The title comes from a poem by John Berryman, (1914-72) Dream Song 29 (1964 p.77), and it sums up how in this seminar we have tried both to feel what we feel in an authentic way when reading a poem, and think about the links it may have with the central core of the students' study, which is psychoanalysis.

Are the two disciplines in any way complementary? Can unconscious phantasy be tapped into via the medium of poetry? In this paper I hope to show that while there are profound differences between poetry and psychoanalysis there are also similarities, as the work with students has highlighted; I will also include three brief clinical vignettes.

Judith Edwards PhD was a consultant child and adolescent psychotherapist teaching and supervising on various courses at the Tavistock Clinic, where she was also course tutor for the MA in Psychoanalytic Studies (M16) for non-clinical students until July 2011. Apart from her clinical experience over the years, one of her principal interests is in the links between psychoanalysis, culture and the arts, and making psychoanalytic ideas accessible to a wider audience. She is a senior teaching fellow of the UK Higher Academy of Education.

As well as publishing papers in academic journals internationally, she has contributed to many books including most recently The Emotional Experience of Adoption (Hindle and Shulman, Routledge, 2008) and Acquainted with the Night: Psychoanalysis and the Poetic Imagination (Canham and Satyamurti, Karnac, 2003). She also conceived and edited Being Alive (Routledge, 2001) on the work of Anne Alvarez. She was joint editor of the Journal of Child Psychotherapy from 1996 to 2000, and has edited numerous books on psychoanalytic subjects, including Anne Alvarez’ latest book The Thinking Heart (2012).

In 2010 she was awarded the Jan Lee memorial prize for the best paper linking psychoanalysis and the arts during that year: ‘Teaching &
Learning about Psychoanalysis: Film as a teaching tool with reference to a particular film, Morvern Callar’-British Journal of Psychotherapy, 26.1:pp. 80-99. In 2012 she published a memoir: Pieces of Molly-An ordinary life,(Troubador), under her family name of Gurney, which was then republished by Karnac under her name Judith Edwards.

The Poetic Mind Seminar

A series centered on the intersection of poetry and psychoanalysis can explore how both disciplines utilise language to navigate the complexities of human experience.

Future topics

Metaphor and Meaning: Examining how metaphors function in both poetry and therapeutic dialogue to reveal unconscious content.

The Poetics of Therapy: Investigating the role of narrative and in psychoanalytic practice.

Language and Healing: Exploring how the expressive qualities of language in poetry can inform therapeutic techniques aimed at emotional processing and integration.

By delving into these areas, we could illuminate the rich, symbiotic relationship between poetic expression and psychoanalytic exploration, offering deeper insights into the human condition through the lens of language.

Image: The cupola above the stage in the Wigmore Hall, incorporating the painting 'The Soul of Music' by Gerald Moira.  Reproduced thanks to Historic England.
The opinions and views expressed are entirely those of the speaker in a personal capacity and do not necessarily reflect the policies or opinions of the BPA.
Refunds available up to 10 days before the event start date.