FASCIST IMAGINARIES
SYMPOSIUM IN THE BERLIN PSYCHOANALYTIC INSTITUTE,
JUNE 3rd-5th 2022
Address: Berliner Psychoanalytisches Institut, Karl-Abraham-Institut,
Körnerstr. 11, 10785 Berlin
Register for this conference by May 25th
“Since it would be impossible for fascism to win the masses through rational arguments,” wrote Adorno, “its propaganda must necessarily be deflected from discursive thinking; it must be oriented psychologically, and has to mobilize irrational, unconscious, regressive processes.” In line with this reasoning, this conference is concerned with fascist images, the fascist imagination, how this ideology appeals to and aims to stir up affects and fantasies, conscious and unconscious, about self and others, pasts and futures, bodies, boundaries, threats and desires, hardness and fluidity. It includes contributions that consider fascism and fascist movements and tendencies from different geographical perspectives and locations, and that engage with different aspects of this theme, not just in the past, but in our present.
FRIDAY 3rd
09.00-09.30 Opening address with presentation round
Chair: Amelie Klambeck
09.30-10.20 CLAUDIA THUßBAS – Mothers made of steel, steeled babies: National socialist fantasies about motherhood
10.30-11.20 LENE AUESTAD – Stereotypes and magical thinking in fascist rhetoric
11.30-12.20 ANGELIKA EBRECHT-LAERMANN –The destructiveness of art and beauty. Superego perversions in dreams about fascist imaginaries
12.20-14.00 Lunch
Chair: Jonathan Sklar
14.00-14.50 JOHN SWEDENMARK – A call for “humanity”: Modernist art as resistance to and interpretation of Fascism
15.00-15.50 BARNABY B. BARRATT – Notes on Authoritarian Imaginaries: The Relevance of Libidinality to the Vicissitudes of Belonging, Othering and Hating
16.00-17.20 AMNON BAR-OR/ GABY BONWITT – Absence and Erasure as an Expression of a Fascist-Monumental Non-Construction in Israel
SATURDAY 4th
Chair: Claudia Thußbas
10.00-10.50 JONATHAN SKLAR – Apocalyptic life and the missing debate
11.00-11.50 KAREN SZTAJNBERG, RODRIGO BRANDĂO – Fascism as Embodied Praxis
12.00-12.50 Open discussion/reflection
12.50-14.30 Lunch
Chair: Eva Öhrner
14.30-15.20 CHRISTOS PANAGIOTOU – Imagining nationalism through Arnold Böcklin’s painting, The isle of the dead
15.30-16.20 ROTRAUT DE CLERCK – Dawning: Fascist Ideologies and the emergence of M. Klein’s thinking in Berlin 1924/25.
16.30-17.20 CLAUDIA FRANK – “Fascism is more of a natural state than democracy” (N. Mailer). On disquieting clinical and social dynamics of non-thinking as manifestations of the death drive
17.30-18.20 DAPHNA BAHAT – Social dreaming matrix (experiential activity)
(Joint dinner, covered by the organizers, in the evening)
SUNDAY 5th
Chair: Angelika Ebrecht-Laermann
10.00-10.50 RENÉE DANZIGER – Fascism, Populism, and The Big Lie
11.00-11.50 ALEX SIERCK – Inner-Enfranchisement and the Right to Vote: On Desire, the Psychoid, and the Practice of Democracy
12.00-13.00 Closing discussion, feedback about the conference
The time frame for each paper is 30 min for the presentation itself + 20 min for discussion, 50 min in total, and with a 10 min break in between each paper. This is an interdisciplinary conference. Perspectives from different psychoanalytic schools will be most welcome. We promote discussion among the presenters and participants; the symposium series creates a space where representatives of different perspectives come together, engage with one another’s contributions and participate in a community of thought. Therefore, attendance of the whole symposium is obligatory. We would like to thank the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute.
Register to participate in this conference by May 25th
ABOUT THE PRESENTERS:
LENE AUESTAD, Dr. of Philosophy from the University of Oslo, founder of Psychoanalysis and Politics, Associate member of the Norwegian Psychoanalytic Society
AMNON BAR-OR, GABI BONWITT, Amnon Bar-Or is a Prof. Arch. Architect, Senior Lecturer, Tel Aviv University Azrieli School of Architecture, Israel. Gaby Bonwitt is a Training analyst, Israeli Psychoanalytic Society, prev. Board member, Director of Group Relations conferences
BARNABY B. BARRATT, PhD, DHS, Training and Supervising Analyst, South African Psychoanalytic Association; Supervising Analyst, Indian Psychoanalytic Society; Senior Researcher WITS Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Witwatersrand (Johannesburg); Director of Doctoral Studies, Parkmore Institute
ROTRAUT DE CLERCK, Psychoanalyst in private practice. Training analyst at the Frankfurt Psychoanalytic Institute (FPI) and the Mainz Psychoanalytic Institute (mpi). Post graduate training in Kleinian Psychoanalysis at the Tavistock Clinic and the Institute of Psychoanalysis in London 1985/86. Associated with the Institute of Psycho-analysis as long term guest Chair of the EPF group: “Psychoanalysis in Literature – Literature in Psychoanalysis”; Consultant IPA in Culture Committee.
RENÉE DANZIGER, Psychoanalyst, British Psychoanalytic Society, D.Phil in Politics, Honorary Senior Lecturer, Psychoanalysis Unit, University College London
ANGELIKA EBRECHT-LAERMANN, Prof. Dr. phil., Training analyst, Berlin Psychoanalytical Institute, DPV
CLAUDIA FRANK, Priv.-Doz. Dr. med.; Training analyst, DPV, Stuttgart
CHRISTOS PANAGIOTOU, Department of Fine Arts, Cyprus University of Technology
ALEX SIERCK, Attorney-at-Law, Analyst-in-Training, Jungian Psychoanalytic Association, New York
JONATHAN SKLAR, Training analyst, British Psychoanalytic Society
JOHN SWEDENMARK, Translator and freelance Schriftsteller, living in Stockholm. He has published the books Kritikmaskinen and Baklängesöversättning. Member of the editorial board of the psychoanalytic/cultural journal Divan since 1992
KAREN SZTAJNBERG, RODRIGO BRANDĂO, Karen Sztajnberg is a working artist and doctoral candidate at the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, researching spectatorship, reception, and Latin American Cinema. Rodrigo Brandão is Senior Director, Communications and Strategy at The Intercept
CLAUDIA THUßBAS, Dr. phil., Training analyst, Berlin Psychoanalytical Institute, DPV
Psychoanalysis and Politics is registered as a non-profit organization
in Norway with the org.no. 998 503 221.
Conferences have been held in 10 European countries since 2010.