New York, NY - The NYU Psychoanalytic Institute (NYUPI) and its affiliated society the Psychoanalytic Association of New York (PANY) with additional funding from the American Psychoanalytic Foundation are launching their new Creative Writers and Psychoanalysts Series with a panel entitled The Apocalyptic Imagination: Daydreaming in an Era of Nightmares. This first panel will take place on February 23, 2002 from 2:00 -5:00 PM. in Farkas Auditorium, NYU Medical Center, 550 First Avenue, New York City.
Best-selling writer, Robert Stone, author of Damascus Gate, and winner of the National Book award for Dog Soldiers--along with Denis Johnson (Jesus' Son, Seek), and Jim Shepard (Batting against Castro, Nosferatu)--will give fiction readings and participate in a panel discussion with psychoanalysts Shelley Orgel, M.D., of NYUPI, Jane Kite, Ph.D., of Boston, and Salman Akhtar, M.D., of Philadelphia.
Psychoanalysts understand the intense emotions of guilt, sorrow, and anxiety resulting from the trauma of September 11th and its aftermath as helping to motivate the tremendous outpourings of altruistic behavior after a disaster. The same emotions, however, can unconsciously be expressed as a fear of and guilt about the products of imagination and intelligence, resulting in a turning away from aesthetic pleasure and creativity.
"At a time when many are still feeling the numbing effects of trauma, it is important to remember that the creative imagination is something that enriches our lives, is a reservoir of meaning, and is a source of knowledge of ourselves and of the world around us. By engaging the work of these exemplary writers, we hope to restore our own creative energies and abilities, while gaining a deeper understanding of the complex relationship between trauma, creativity and mastery," says Sandra S. Leong, M.D., chair of the series Committee.
The three fiction writers on the panel have, in their writing, exemplified a mastery of a
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Contact: Jennifer Choi
jennifer.choi@med.nyu.edu
212-404-3555
New York University Medical Center and School of Medicine
28-Jan-2002