Announcing LBI's Forum on Psychoanalysis and Society

This fall, the Leo Baeck Institute presents the Forum on Psychoanalysis and Society, a series of three conversations exploring the German-Jewish legacy of psychoanalysis and its echoes in both academia and popular psychology today. Our speakers will present their recent projects, all of which tell stories of German-speaking Jewish individuals who, in reacting and reflecting on their own changing social and political worlds, made an immeasurable impact on the study of psychoanalysis. As these authors engage in conversation with interlocutors, they will reflect on the ways these groundbreaking psychoanalytic strides in German-Jewish history fit in with drastic social changes throughout 20th century Europe.

On November 5, Roger Frie will kick off the series with a presentation of his book Erich Fromm, Fascism, and the Holocaust. Fromm is known for his bold stance against fascism and racism in his psychoanalytic practice and publications–Frie’s recent book uses previously unpublished correspondence to outline how Fromm’s personal family experience with the Holocaust shaped his views and work on trauma, social responsibility, and justice. Frie will engage in conversation with Michael Thompson, a professor of political theory and political philosophy.

November 12, Gabriel Brownstein will present his book, The Secret Mind of Bertha Pappenheim. Bertha Pappenheim, who became an outspoken feminist and social pioneer in Vienna, was treated for hysteria by Sigmund Freud’s mentor, Josef Breuer. Later, Freud appropriated many of Pappenheim’s ideas to form his theory of psychoanalysis. Brownstein will be joined by Abby Kluchin, who is a professor, co-founder and Associate Director at Large of the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research, and co-host of the Ordinary Unhappiness podcast, a podcast at the intersection of psychoanalysis, politics, and pop culture.

On November 19, filmmaker Amanda Rubin will discuss Charlotte Beradt’s groundbreaking book The Third Reich of Dreams, which collected the dreams of witnesses of the rise of Nazism and, ultimately, provided invaluable insight into the effects that authoritarianism has on the unconscious mind. Rubin is the force behind the republication of The Third Reich of Dreams, the lost rights of which she discovered while researching her forthcoming film about Beradt. She will be joined in conversation by Gal Beckerman, senior books editor of The Atlantic and author of the National Jewish Book Award-winning When They Come For Us We’ll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry.