Aesthetic Conflict and Counterdreaming
The Guild of Psychotherapists Lecture
Speaker: Meg Harris Williams
Saturday 21 July 2018, 10.00 – 12.30 pm
Drawing on literary sources and on the psychoanalytic theory of Bion and Meltzer, Meg will discuss the concept of ‘aesthetic conflict’ (first formulated for psychoanalysis by Meltzer in 1988) which has sometimes been found both interesting and puzzling. She will relate this to the nature of ‘counterdreaming’ (Meltzer’s term for the psychoanalytic reverie that is the basis for interior observation) and to the parallel example, in the arts, of life drawing.
Meg Harris Williams has published many articles in psychoanalytic and literary journals on the relation between psychoanalysis, art and literature. Her books include The Apprehension of Beauty (with Donald Meltzer; 1988), The Vale of Soulmaking (2005), The Aesthetic Development (2010), Bion’s Dream (2010), and The Becoming Room: Filming Bion's Memoir of the Future (2016), and The Art of Personality in Literature and Psychoanalysis (2018).
Tickets for this fund-raising lecture cost £35 (£20 for Trainees, Students and retired members). A light lunch will be included after the talk. To purchase your tickets or book a place please contact the Guild Office.