How Did We Get Here and Why? Exploring the Overlaps Between Psychoanalysis and Anthropology

This event is a collaboration between the Institute of Psychoanalysis and CPU London

How Did We Get Here and Why?
Hugh Brody and Mike Brearley in conversation, exploring the overlaps between psychoanalysis and anthropology.

Chaired by Naomi Segal 

Friday 17th November 2023
6:00pm - 7:30pm (GMT)

The evening will be followed with a glass of wine and refreshments

Hybrid - Online and In Person at the Institute of Psychoanalysis
Recording will be available for one week after the lecture takes place.

In their two new memoirs*, Mike Brearley and Hugh Brody have written about the unexpected but intensely absorbing directions their lives have taken. In their conversation about these books, they will share memories that link the personal with the professional. They will also explore some of the fascinating bridges across seemingly wide intellectual divides: both anthropologist and psychoanalyst are participant observers, intensely engaged with the other but also capable of detachment. Both are on the edge looking into the culture or the patient. Both aim to combat tendencies to assume that the practitioner, by virtue of their training, automatically achieves a dispassionate neutrality. These and other zones of overlap between their different but parallel ways of working and understanding the world will guide their conversation.

*Mike Brearley, Turning Over The Pebbles, A Life of Cricket and in the Mind. Constable. 2023

Hugh Brody, Landscapes of Silence, From Childhood to the Arctic. Faber & Faber, 2022.

Hugh Brody: Anthropologist, writer and filmmaker, Hugh Brody worked for many years with Canadian Inuit and First Nation communities, mapping hunter-gatherer territories, and researching land claims and indigenous rights. He has also worked on indigenous cultural and land-use projects in western India, Australia and southern Africa. Hugh’s books and documentary films include The People’s Land, Maps And Dreams, The Meaning of Life, The Other Side of Eden and Inside Australia with Anthony Gormley. In 1984 he directed the British film Nineteen Nineteen. 

Michael Brearley: Retired English first-class cricketer who captained Cambridge University, Middlesex and England, having been ranked as England’s greatest-ever cricket captain. Since his retirement from professional cricket, he has pursued a career as a psychoanalyst and writer, serving as President of the British Psychoanalytical Society from 2008-10. Michael's books include The Art of Captaincy (1985) and On Form (2017).

Naomi Segal: Professor Emerita at the Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies, School of Advanced Study, University of London. Her research interests are in comparative literature, culture and theory, with a particular interest in psychoanalysis, the body, the senses, gender and sexuality. Her current and most recent books are on replacement.

Book Reviews

'Landscapes of Silence’:

• A bold work of anthropology, autobiography and philosophy born from years spent with Arctic communities. ― National Geographic Traveller
• A book of outstanding depth and acumen . . . an outstanding contribution to anthropology. ― Leaf Litter
• A powerful and evocative work. Landscapes of Silence is a remarkable, often uncomfortable exploration of difficult terrains in which the author's pain and the damage done to indigenous peoples is livid and raw. ― Literary Review

’Turning Over the Pebbles: 

• A superb book - much more than a traditional memoir . . . this is a sharp, witty and unashamedly learned meditation on art and music, literature and the Classics, philosophy, psychoanalysis, childhood and old age, families and feelings, illness and the imminence of death . . . And of course cricket. It is unlike any book you will read this year . . . This book is an inspiration, showing us how to live our best lives ― Sunday Times
• This sharp memoir glides across [Brearley's] interests, featuring musings on ageing, music and strategy in sport. It's the ideal accompaniment to the Ashes. ― The Times
• Exceptionally carefully thought-through and most intriguingly written . . . This is a truly lovely book ― Oldie

Registration for this event will close an hour before the live event begins.

REFUND POLICY: Tickets are fully refundable until 14 days before the event, after which time no refunds will be issued.

Concession tickets are available, for students, BPAS candidates and trainees. Please email outreach@iopa.org.uk if you are unsure if you qualify for a concession ticket. 

Views and opinions expressed by speakers are their own and do not represent the views or opinions of the Institute, event organisers or other speakers. We expect delegates to respect the confidentiality of clinical material discussed in our events. The content must not be recorded, conveyed or disseminated in any format and participants must not share access to the event with non-registered participants.