Jamieson Webster: Breathing and The Unconscious

As a last meeting of the Reading group on Žižek’s Lacrimae Rerum on the “littoral” between psychoanalysis and cinema, the ERC project “FILM AND DEATH - Film-Philosophy as a Meditation on Death” invited Jamieson Webster for a lecture on “Breathing and the Unconscious”. The lecture took place exclusively online on November 20, 2023.
Abstract
Derrida famously said that philosophy always unites speech and breath making it pneumatological instead of grammatology - a whole world of privileging spirit over matter, trace, and writing. This question becomes more fascinating when looking at the history of psychoanalysis. Breuer, Fliess, Jung, Rank, Reich, and Ferenczi all touched on a question of breath, a moment that was identified by Freud as heretical, leading him to break violently from each of these figures. The choice was between breathing or Oedipus as the center of psychoanalytic work, between anxiety and symptom formation. What can breathing tell us about the unconscious and the talking cure?
Bio
Jamieson Webster is a psychoanalyst in New York City and a professor at The New School for Social Research. Her most recent book is 'Disorganization and Sex' (Divided, 2022).
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Funded by the European Union (ERC, FILM AND DEATH, 101088956). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

[@marisacorreasilva8022]

Lucas, obrigada pela iniciativa! Adorei poder ver a fala e lamento muito ter sido impedida de participar. Toda a parte da relação primeva com a vida na água me pareceu intensamente poética e significativa, e pode trazer muitos insights para o meu campo específico (Literatura). Please give my compliments to dr. Webster.

[@MrLucasferraconassif]

A parte da água, vale ir ao Ferenczi e ao Thalassa. Também ao Theodor Schwenk. Fala muito do que foi debatido na altura do encontro sobre Tarkovsky.