A new cycle of lectures and panel discussions launched

On Friday, November 27, in the Large Hall of the Belgrade City Library, the Psychoanalytical Society of Serbia launched a new cycle of lectures and panel discussions “Sigmund Freud and Leonardo da Vinci: a Meeting of Psychoanalysis and Art” with the lecture entitled Sigmund Freud: “A Memory from the Life of Leonardo da Vinci” – Art on the Psychoanalytic Couch.

 

Jasminka Šuljagić, a president and training analyst of the Society, opened a new cycle of lectures and panel discussions of the Psychoanalytical Society of Serbia in front of a packed audience in the City Library. In her keynote speech, she talked about the context in which Freud created his study on Leonardo, pointing out the long prehistory of Freud’s interest in the Renaissance genius. Also, she emphasized the importance of this work for the understanding of classic psychoanalytic topics, such as infantile sexuality, narcissism and fantasies in one’s mental functioning.

In the first part of his lecture, Aleksandar Kontić presented Freud’s essay on Leonardo, showing how, based on this single memory from the earliest childhood and a small set of Leonardo’s seemingly trivial and incidental notes, Freud offered contribution to the understanding of Leonardo’s personality and work. The second part of the lecture was dedicated to the possibilities of contemporary psychoanalysis to add some new perspectives on the foundations laid by Freud with his “Leonardo da Vinci, a Memory of His Childhood”.

The cycle continues in February 2016, at usual time, on the third Friday of the month at 7 p.m. with the panel discussion entitled The Semicircle of Mental Health: Modern Man between Fantasy and Reality.