Jay Geller is professor of religious studies at Vanderbilt University. As the Fulbright/Sigmund Freud Society Visiting Scholar in Psychoanalysis at the Sigmund Freud Museum in Vienna, he taught a four-month course on Freud and Jewish Identity. The course drew an amazing cross-section of history, philosophy, Jewish studies and Protestant theology scholars, ranging from age 18 to 80. Spertus is pleased to have Dr. Geller in residence for two days of programs.
Eric Santner is the Philip and Ida Romberg Professor in Modern Germanic Studies at the University of Chicago. An award-winning author, his work encompasses the intersection of literature, philosophy, psychoanalysis, and religious thought.
Image: Sigmund Freud in a summer house, around 1932
© Sigmund Freud Copyrights
Courtesy of the Sigmund Freud Museum Vienna
Lectures, Discussions, Panels
Spertus presents a special three-part commemorative series to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sigmund Freud.
Lecture
Freud's Meshuggeneh Footnote
A Clipping from Little Hans' Nursery
- Sunday, January 14, 2007 at 2 pm
- $12 | $10 members | $8 students
- For reservations call 312.322.1743 or email rsvp@spertus.edu
Sigmund Freud inserted a curious footnote into his 1909 case study of a five-year-old boy with a phobia of horses. He proposed an unconscious source of anti-Semitism: that hatred of Jews is a consequence of castration anxiety aroused by circumcision. There is no mention of anti-Semitism, circumcision, or his patient's religion prior to this footnote. Complicating matters further, the patient, Herbert Graff (aka Little Hans), although Jewish, was apparently not circumcised.
In what is certain to be a fascinating presentation, Freud scholar Jay Geller explores this intriguing footnote in relationship to Freud's work and to Jewish life in twentieth-century Vienna.
This is the inaugural Horwitz Family Lecture in Jewish History, generously endowed by the Horwitz Charitable Fund.
Lunch & Learn
Not "Is Psychoanalysis a Jewish Science?" but is it a Jewish Joke?
- Monday, January 15, 2007
- 12 noon - 1:30 pm
- $18 | $15 members
- Kosher lunch included.
- Reserve by January 10 to guarantee a lunch. Call 312.322.1743 or email rsvp@spertus.edu
Sigmund Freud was a collector and regaler of Jewish jokes. These jokes would crop up in the most unlikely places. He employed one—the Schnorrer and the damaged kettle—to illustrate the logic underlying his most famous dream, The Dream of Irma's Injection. Jay Geller's Lunch & Learn presentation will propose several explanations for the emergence of this dream, and how it relates to Freud's struggle with Jewish identity.
Soloman Goldman lecture
Impossible Neighbors
Reflections on Freud and Judaism
- Sunday, January 21, 2007 at 2 pm
- $12 | $10 members | $8 students
- For reservations call 312.322.1743 or email rsvp@spertus.edu
In his writings, Freud expressed the view that cultural development was hindered by religious belief and practice. Yet he never ceased to identify with his Jewish heritage. Eric Santner discusses how Freud cannot be fully defined as a cultural Jew, one who doesn't believe but continues to cultivate links to tradition. He explores the connection between Freud’s discovery of the unconscious and the ethical demand to love your neighbor, a central concept of Judaism.
This Soloman Goldman lecture has been endowed by
Rose and the late Sidney Shure.
return to top