Today many societal debates on topics such as identity, community and mental health are influenced by psychiatry and its history. However, the influence is often underexposed. To get a grip on those debates, insight into the turbulent history of psychiatry and the characters that shaped it, are crucial. Therefore, Dr. Guislain Museum organizes a series of lectures in the spring of 2021 on some remarkable psychiatrists.

The second presentation will be held on 21 April 2021 at 8 PM (CET) on Sándor Ferenczi (1873-1933). The story of Sándor Ferenczi might appear to be that of a “beautiful loser”. He is the favorite disciple of Freud, but struggles between fascination and desire for emancipation in this tumultuous father-son-like relationship. Visionary therapist, precursor of the most contemporary reflections on child abuse, Ferenczi ended up slandered and disqualified by his peers, before being gradually rediscovered. Between Vienna and Budapest, in a disintegrating Austro-Hungarian empire, Ferenczi appears as an essential witness of a turbulent era: from the birth of psychoanalysis to the rise of Nazism.

Writer and critic, Benoît Peeters was born in 1956 in Paris. He studied philosophy at the Sorbonne and defended a Master’s degree supervised by Roland Barthes. He wrote different essays on various subjects, and the official biography of Jacques Derrida (2010). The book has been translated into English (Polity Press) and ten other languages. A long association with the artist François Schuiten has led to the series of graphic novels called Les cités obscures (The Obscure Cities). 

When? 21 April 2021, 8 PM – 9:15 PM (CET), with the possibility for Q&A

Where? Online, via Zoom (after registration, via www.museumdrguislain.be/en )

The presentation will be held in English!