Life, Art, and Therapy - To the Best of Our Knowledge

This week on NPR's To the Best of Our Knowledge, the topic is psychoanalysis - whatever happened to it? Sadly, the question they ask refers more to Freudian psychoanalysis, and not any of the relational, object-relations, or intersubjective systems models that have emerged from the charred remains of Freudian analysis over the last several decades (beginning especially with the object-relations school in England and Kohut's Self Psychology in the U.S.).

Still, there is some interesting stuff here.

Life, Art, and Therapy

07.27.2014

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Whatever happened to psychoanalysis? It used to be the most influential science of the mind, but today its founder, Sigmund Freud, just looks like a sex-obsessed old man. Analyst Adam Phillips says we got Freud all wrong; he remains a radical thinker if we know how to read him. This hour explores the connections between therapy and art.

Guest(s):

• Adam Phillips
• Erin Clune
• Alison Bechdel
• Alain de Botton
• Nic Pizzolatto
• James McBride

Producer(s): Steve Paulson
Related Link(s):

• Alain de Botton's website
• James McBride's website

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Chapters:

Rethinking Freud - Adam Phillips

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Extended Interview

Psychoanalyst Adam Phillips says we've gotten Freud all wrong. He wasn't a scientist; he was a great writer and countercultural figure. And his insights still have the power to dazzle us.

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Growing Up Freudian - Erin Clune

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What's it like to grow up with a mom who's a Freudian therapist? Commentator Erin Clune has a few personal observations.

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Cartooning & Psychotherapy - Alison Bechdel

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Extended Interview

Acclaimed cartoonist Alison Bechdel has written two brutally honest memoirs about her parents. She tells Steve Paulson about her complicated relationship with her mother and how it inspired her as an artist.

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Art as Therapy - Alain de Botton

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Maybe you're familiar with art therapy - making art to cope with pain. Philosopher Alain de Botton has a different idea. He thinks just looking at great art can be therapeutic.

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BookMark: Nic Pizzolatto

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"True Detective" creator and writer Nic Pizzolatto recommends "Absalom, Absalom" by William Faulkner.

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On Our Minds: James McBride

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James McBride won the National Book Award for "The Good Lord Bird," his novel about the abolitionist John Brown. He explains why he doesn't like most fictional portraits of slavery and how he tried to tell a different story.

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Related Books:


Becoming Freud
(Adam Phillips)


Are You My Mother?
(Alison Bechdel)

Art as Therapy
(Alain de Botton, John Armstrong)


The Good Lord Bird
(James McBride)