Fantasia of the Unconscious: D.H. Lawrence & the Autumn Equinox with Emmalea Russo, Poetry of Psychoanalysis series

THE POETRY OF PSYCHOANALYSIS: A SEASONAL SERIES with Emmalea Russo

SEPTEMBER 6

Fantasia of the Unconscious: D.H. Lawrence and the Autumn Equinox 

“For each time we lie down to sleep we have within us a body of death which dies with the day that is spent.”
― D.H. Lawrence, Fantasia of the Unconscious

The novelist and poet D.H. Lawrence wrote a wild text on creativity, the unconscious, and sexuality: Fantasia of the Unconscious. In this class, we'll explore passages from this intriguing work by Lawrence, as well as his own relationship to psychoanalysis. Lawrence, a Virgo, will take us into Virgo season and the autumn equinox.

On the eve of each season, the poet, novelist, and astrologer Emmalea Russo will present on a particular poet or artist who has dealt with psychoanalysis in their work in interesting and generative ways. There will be time for discussion and free association during class. Our first classes in the series, in March and June 2026, focused on the life and work of the poets H.D. and Cynthia Cruz and their relationships to psychoanalysis. 

We will meet online for 2 hours beginning at 10AM NYC (7AM Vancouver/ 3PM London/ 16:00 Stockholm/ 17:00 Beirut/ midnight Sydney) on Sunday, September 6th.

This event will be recorded and made available for all those who register.

This series aims to connect poets and psychoanalysis in wild and unexpected ways while catapulting us into the next season. Freud wrote that the poets discovered the unconscious well before he did. So, what can poets teach us about the unconscious, psychoanalysis, and the seasons we move through?

Emmalea Russo is a writer, astrologer, and teacher. She is the author of two novels: Vivienne (2024) and The Moon Papers (forthcoming summer 2026). Her books of poetry are G (2018), Wave Archive (2019), Confetti (2022), and Magenta (2023). Recent poems and essays have appeared in Artforum, BOMB, Spike Art Magazine, The Brooklyn Rail, Compact, Granta, Gulf Coast, Los Angeles Review of Books, and elsewhere. She has been a writer in residence at Lower Manhattan Cultural Council in New York and 18th Street Arts Center in Los Angeles and a visiting critic at Parsons School of Design and The Art Institute of Cincinnati. She has taught courses on poetry, philosophy, and art at various institutions including Saint Peter's University, Northeastern University, The Melbourne School of Continental Philosophy, and GCAS. Her books have been reviewed in The Chicago Review, The Yale Review, Publishers Weekly, and elsewhere. She writes a popular substack newsletter on culture and the cosmos, Cosmic Edges, and teaches classes on literature, art, psychoanalysis, and the occult. She lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania and at the Jersey shore.

Upcoming events in this series:

September 6th: Fantasia of the Unconscious: D.H. Lawrence and the Autumn Equinox 

December 6th: Extreme Activities: Louise Bourgeois and the Winter Solstice

Watch previous events at RU Center for Psychoanalysis:

June 7th: REPETITION, RETURN, REBIRTH: On the Psychoanalytic Poetry of Cynthia Cruz

March 7th: WE MUST NOT TALK ASTROLOGY! On poet H.D. & her Tribute to Freud

This event is hosted by Rendering Unconscious Center for Psychoanalysis