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In Our Time

Psychoanalysis and Literature

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.69.2K Ratings

🗓️ 9 November 2000

⏱️ 43 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss role of Freudian analysis in understanding the great works of literature. Freud said, “The poets and philosophers before me discovered the unconscious. What I discovered was the scientific method by which the unconscious can be studied”. Psychoanalysis has always been more than a ‘talking cure’ and it has strong ties to literature, but one hundred years after the publication of the first great work of psychoanalysis, The Interpretation of Dreams, critics are putting the scientific basis of Freud’s work in grave doubt and he is in danger of being pitched in with poets. The great American critic Harold Bloom has said “Freud, the writer will survive the death of psychoanalysis”, and the analyst and writer Adam Phillips seems to go further in his new book Promises Promises where he writes, “I think of Freud as a romantic writer, and I read psychoanalysis as poetry, so I don’t have to worry whether it is true or even useful”.So what is the relationship of psychoanalysis to literature, and if it is to be reclassified as literature itself can it still be practised as a talking cure?With Adam Phillips, author of Promises Promises: Essays on Psychoanalysis and Literature; Malcolm Bowie, Marshal Foch Professor of French Literature, Oxford University; Lisa Appignanesi novelist and co-author of Freud’s Women.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.

0:04.7

My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.

0:08.5

As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.

0:18.0

What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,

0:24.6

poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.

0:29.7

If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.

0:36.0

Thanks for downloading the In Our Time Podcast.

0:39.0

For more details about In Our Time and for our terms of use, please go to BBC.co. UK forward slash radio for. I hope you enjoy

0:46.5

the program. Hello Freud said the poets and philosophers before me discovered the

0:51.8

unconscious what I discovered was the scientific

0:54.6

method by which the unconscious can be studied. Psychanalysis has always been more than a talking

1:00.0

cure and it is strong ties to literature. But a hundred years after the publication of

1:04.4

the first great work of psychoanalysis, the interpretation of dreams, critics are putting

1:08.6

the scientific basis of Freud's work in grave doubt and he is in danger of being pitched in with the poets.

1:14.4

The influential American critic Harold Bloom has said,

1:17.1

Freud, the writer, will survive the death of psychoanalysis.

1:20.3

And the analyst and writer Adam Phillips seems to go further in his new book,

1:23.4

Promises Promises where he writes,

1:25.2

I think of Freud as a romantic writer and I read psychanalysis as poetry so I don't have to worry

1:30.3

whether it's true or even useful.

1:33.0

So what is the relationship of psychoanalysis to literature,

1:35.5

and if it's to be reclassified as literature,

...

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