Between Oedipus and the Sphinx: Freud and Egypt

Egypt played a prominent role in Freud’s personal life and writings. From his childhood encounter with the Phillipson Bible, through his psychobiography of Leonardo da Vinci (in which  the Egyptian goddess Mut becomes a key to the artist’s sexual and creative identity) to his final work Moses and Monotheism in which he makes the scandalous claim that Moses was not a Jew but an Egyptian. Accompanying the acclaimed exhibition at the Freud Museum, this conference explores the themes of  Egyptomania, sexuality, death and psychoanalysis.

Speakers
Miriam Leonard (UCL)
Introduction

Simon Goldhill (Cambridge)
Digging the Dirt: Freud’s archaeology and the lure of Egypt

Daniel Orrells (Kings College London)
Freud and Leonardo in Egypt

Phiroze Vasunia (UCL)
Egyptomania before Freud

Claus Jurman (Birmingham)
Egyptology in Vienna

Griselda Pollock (Leeds)
Freud’s Egyptian Moses, Mummies, Mothers and other Revenants: A Political-Cultural Reading

Joan Raphael Leff (Anna Freud Center)
Speculations on the pre-oedipal significance of Egypt for Freud.

Michael Eaton (Nottingham)
Discordant Diggers … When Freud did not meet Petrie.

A limited number of bursaries are available for NHS mental health service users and applicants on low incomes or UK benefits. The bursary tickets are £15. Please apply to Ivan Ward on ivan@freud.org.uk