Vortrag

Screen­ing & Pan­el dis­cus­sion: „Unset­tling Freud, Psy­cho­an­a­lysts, Anthropologists”

Hybrid film screen­ing and pan­el discussion

Wednes­day 11 March 2026, 4.00–6.00pm (GMT)

UNSETTLING FREUD, PSYCHOANALYSTS, ANTHROPOLOGISTS

Unset­tling Freud, is to be an inter­dis­ci­pli­nary sym­po­sium led by a pan­el bring­ing togeth­er psy­cho­analy­sis and anthro­pol­o­gists and chaired by the dis­tin­guished psy­cho­an­a­lyst Ian Park­er. In coop­er­a­tion with the RAI, it will be held online and in per­son on 11 March from 4:00 pm. to 6:00pm at the base­ment Stu­dio of the Grena­da Cen­tre for Visu­al Anthro­pol­o­gy, in the Human­i­ties Bridge­ford Street Build­ing at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Man­ches­ter. The first hour of the sym­po­sium will include the screen­ing of an episode from the video essay, and after refresh­ments, the sec­ond hour will sus­tain more of the pan­el dis­cus­sion along with in-per­son and online audi­ence contributions.

Unset­tling Freud will con­sid­er Richard Werbner’s project, tak­ing the form of an exper­i­men­tal video essay, Con­quis­ta­dor Freud, now avail­able from RAI FILM, and ‘Sit­u­at­ing Freud’s Grasp’, an accom­pa­ny­ing book, cur­rent­ly in a work­ing draft. The video essay is inspired by Freud’s own self-descrip­tion to his close friend Wil­helm Fliess. Werbner’s project departs from the famil­iar depic­tions of Freud as the psy­cho­an­a­lyst and sci­en­tist, invit­ing audi­ences to dis­cov­er Freud as an artist, col­lec­tor, and dream­er – a man cap­ti­vat­ed by the visu­al and sym­bol­ic pow­er of objects and spaces, a man who made his dwelling a place of the­atri­cal enchantment.

In Werbner’s explo­ration, we encounter Freud not as the tar­get of the “Freud Wars” or a fig­ure in the Freudi­an indus­try but as a design­er of inti­mate spaces and a col­lec­tor with a cura­to­r­i­al sen­si­bil­i­ty. Freud’s fas­ci­na­tion with imagery extend­ed to his own life, where he saw him­self not mere­ly in words but in pic­to­graph­ic ele­ments and sym­bol­ic spaces with­in his Vien­nese home. This includ­ed the auto­bi­og­ra­phy inscribed on his walls, a Gar­den of Eden craft­ed for his patients, and a veran­da retreat, each a mul­ti-lay­ered expres­sion of his inner life. The ambiance of his dwelling was imbued with an argu­ment of images.

The final episode of the video essay, the one to be screened on March 11th, traces Freud’s steps through Vien­na and ulti­mate­ly to the trag­ic end of his era in Aus­tria, dis­placed by the Nazi takeover. The nar­ra­tive con­tin­ues with Freud’s relo­ca­tion to Eng­land, where he spent his final days, reflect­ing his dis­lo­ca­tion as a refugee in a space both beau­ti­ful and alien. ‘Every­thing is in place,‘ said Freud iron­i­cal­ly, and with a sense of the uncan­ny, ’but me.’

Loca­tion:
Base­ment Stu­dio of the Grana­da Cen­tre for Visu­al Anthro­pol­o­gy, locat­ed in the Human­i­ties build­ing, Bridge­ford Street, Uni­ver­si­ty of Manchester

Reg­is­ter here by select­ing either in Per­son or online attendance:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/unsettling-freud-psychoanalysts-anthropologists-tickets-1983257549719?aff=oddtdtcreator

The six episodes of the video essay are avail­able for stream­ing here:

Event atten­dees will be sent a 50% dis­count code upon reg­is­tra­tion via Eventbrite.

Prof. Richard Werb­n­er is an anthro­pol­o­gist spe­cial­iz­ing in the Zim­bab­we and Botswana region, with research inter­ests in rit­u­al, per­son­al and his­tor­i­cal nar­ra­tive, pol­i­tics, law, and region­al analy­sis. He has taught at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Man­ches­ter since 1961.

Richard Werbner’s work is ground­ed in his exten­sive field­work in visu­al anthro­pol­o­gy, includ­ing stud­ies on region­al cults, divin­ers and charis­mat­ic faith-heal­ers in Africa Two of his numer­ous books, Divination’s Grasp and Holy Hus­tlers, Schism and Prophe­cy, under­score his com­mit­ment to the inter­sec­tion of anthro­pol­o­gy, spir­i­tu­al­i­ty, and visu­al sto­ry­telling. As a film­mak­er, Werb­n­er has com­plet­ed 10 films based on his research prac­tice, many of which are avail­able from RAI FILM.

Permalink