BPA | The Poetic Mind Seminar - “Is there a place for Paradise in the modern world? Reflections on Dante’s Paradiso”

The Poetic Mind Seminar

Saturday 1st November 11am - 1pm

“Is there a place for Paradise in the modern world? Reflections on Dante’s Paradiso”

“Reflections on The Poetical Mind of Dante Alighieri”

David Black
Giovanna Di Ceglie
Catherine McKisack - Chair

Hybrid - In-person and online
89 Prince of Wales Road, NW5 3NT & Online via Zoom

David Black is a psychoanalyst Fellow of the British Psychoanalytic Society and a published Poet. His translation of Dante’s Paradiso is due for publication in August 2025. His translation and commentary on Purgatorio came out in 2021, and won the American National Translation Award in Poetry the following year. He is author of six collections of poetry and is included in British Poetry since 1945, Emergency Kit (Faber), Wild Reckoning(Calouste Gulbenkian), Twentieth Century Scottish Poetry(Faber) and many other anthologies. As a psychoanalyst he has published many professional papers, and edited a
volume on psychoanalysis and religion, and a collection of essays relating to values and science.

Giovanna R. Di Ceglie is a training analyst of the British Psycho-Analytical Society. She qualified in Medicine and specialized in Psychiatry at the University of Perugia (Italy). She has worked in the NHS in Adult Psychiatry and then in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Tavistock Centre. She has written several papers on symbolic thinking and more recently on orientation/disorientation in early development and clinical work, introducing the notion that reciprocal orientation and recognition between mother and infant is a condition sine qua non the processes of containment described by Bion could not take place. She lectures in UK and abroad. She has contributed to an understanding of some aspects of the Divine Comedy in the light of psychoanalytic thinking with a chapter on Orientation, Disorientation and Identity Development, an illustration from Dante’s Divine Comedy ‘ inthe book edited by Sharon Numa ‘On Being One’s Self-Clinical Explorations in Identity from John Steiner ‘s Workshop’. She has also written a paper on The Themes of Loyalty and Infidelity in mourning processes in the Divine Comedy and in clinical work (published in the Bulletin of the BPAS).

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.