About this event

'What Happened To You?' Further Adventures in Poetry and Psychology - Glyn Maxwell

This talk begins by considering how one principle of psychoanalysis might be to ask not ‘what is wrong’ with a person but ‘what has happened’. Glyn will then address the changing status of aesthetic value in modern poetry (whether canonical or experimental): particularly, where do truth and beauty reside? If contemporary poetry feels characterised by a sense that ‘anything goes’ in search of truth and beauty, this paper suggests an alternative: to attend to how and what a poem unfolds, as the distinct and creaturely expression of its maker. By drawing a loose parallel between psychotherapeutic enquiry and poetry, Glyn shall explore whether this emphasis might also serve as a guide to the teaching and practice of poetry in an increasingly precarious world.

Glyn Maxwell’s most recent books of poetry are The Big Calls and How The Hell Are You, which was shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize in 2020. His new book Extinction Songs, on the world’s most endangered creatures, will be published in 2027. His popular critical guidebook On Poetry (2012) and its comic sequel Drinks With Dead Poets (2016) were the beginnings of a journey in creative psychology. He is also a playwright and librettist. He has taught at Amherst, Princeton, Columbia, NYU, Warwick, Essex and RADA, and is currently Head of Studies on The Poetry School’s Creative Writing MA at Somerset House. He has lectured in arts and psychology at the Freud Museum and the Maudsley. Last year he took the Foundation course at IOPA, and had a placement in the Assertive Outreach Team at Marina House. This year he has been studying at the Institute for Arts in Therapy and Education. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and muses on poetry, psychology, politics and philosophy on his Substack platform Silly Games To Save The World.

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This lecture will be recorded and available for 7 days after the lecture takes place

© Image: Matthew Kolakowski: Storm Inside

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