Over the last few decades psychoanalysts have been reassessing the usefulness of the diagnostic category of hysteria. Many consider that we are all treating hysterics in our consulting rooms. This series provides a forum within which we can return to the very origins of psychoanalysis where we will find, in embryonic form, many of Freud's major theoretical and technical discoveries. Furthermore, since there is a concordance across the theoretical perspectives that sexuality and desire are central to the aetiology of hysteria, studying contemporary and classic texts provides us with a rich vein of material for theoretical and clinical elaboration. Remarkably, many of our most well known contemporary writers (Bollas, Brenman, Britton, Green, Kohon, Mitchell etc) have written extensively on hysteria so we can have an opportunity to consider these writers in depth. Participants will be invited to draw on their own clinical work to help us consider the contemporary discourse on hysteria.

Day: Monday
Dates: September 19, 26 and October 3, 10, 17

Dr Ronald Britton was President of the British Psychoanalytical Society, Vice-President of The International Psychoanalytical Association and former chair of the Dept. for Children and Families, Tavistock Clinic. He is well known internationally as a psychoanalytic writer, teacher and clinician. His books include The Oedipal Complex Today, Belief and Imagination, Sex, Death and the Superego.

Rosemary Davies is a training Analyst at the British Psychoanalytic Society

Gregorio Kohon is a Training Analyst of the British Psycho-Analytical Society. He edited The British School of Psychoanalysis - The Independent Tradition (FAB, 1986), and The Dead Mother - The Work of Andre Green (Routledge, 1999). He also published No Lost Certainties to be Recovered (Karnac, 1999) and Love and its Vicissitudes (co-authored with Andre Green) (Routledge, 2005). His novel Red Parrot, Wooden Leg (2008) was Finalist in the 2001 Fernando Lara Prize, Editorial Planeta, Barcelona.