NEW YORK PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIETY & INSTITUTE:
WORKS IN PROGRESS
Marianne and Nicholas Young Auditorium
247 East 82nd St., between 2nd & 3rd, NY, NY 10028
212-879-6900
www.psychoanalysis.org
www.nypsi.org
Wednesday, May 4, 2016, 8 p.m., Narrative Technique in Freud’s Case Histories with Sheila Kohler
Free and Open to the Public, To register, click HERE, visit nypsi.org or call 212-879-6900
NO CME OR CE CREDITS WILL BE OFFERED.
Freud himself said his case histories read like short stories and lack the serious stamp of science. He was, of course, extremely well read, though his taste in literature, as in art, was conservative. He read Sophocles, Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, and Dickens, to name only a few, and he used their work to prove his theories. Wherever he learned his narrative technique, he learned it well. His voice comes to us in the case histories loud and clear without any unnecessary and obfuscating scientific jargon. He addresses us directly and often uses the pronoun “we” as though we were part of a group and in the “know.” Dr. Kohler will talk about various narrative techniques Freud uses in the case histories, how he creates suspense and mystery, how he uses precise details to produce verisimilitude. She will give some examples of his masterful use of repetition and, above all, reversal which enables him both to surprise the reader and at the same time satisfy and create a cohesive whole.
Sheila Kohler is the author of ten novels and three volumes of short fiction and many essays. Her most recent novel is Dreaming for Freud, (Penguin) based on the Dora case. She has won numerous prizes including the O. Henry twice and been included in Best American Short Stories most recently in 2013. Her work has been published in thirteen countries. She has taught at Columbia, Sarah Lawrence, Bennington and at Princeton since 2007. Her novel, Cracks was made into a film with directors Jordan and Ridley Scott with Eva Green playing Miss G. You can find her blog at Psychology Today under Dreaming for Freud. Her memoir Once We Were Sisters will come out in January 2017 with Penguin.
The author is making a few copies of Dreaming for Freud (Penguin, 2014) available for purchase the evening of the event at the price of $15. It is a well researched novel based on the case of Dora. Please contact her at sheilakohler@hotmail.com to reserve a copy.
Students, academics and clinical professionals in the analytic community are encouraged to attend.
NO CME OR CE CREDITS WILL BE OFFERED.
For information about NYPSI training programs please visit us at www.psychoanalysis.org or www.nypsi.org