Grandes Dames and Men in Suits

Two videos.

First, Encounters Through Generations offers a glimpse into the workings of the minds of some of the most senior women analysts on the London scene. Inspiring.

Second, what I can only refer to as Men in Suits (the actual title is “Psychoanalysis in the United States: 150 Years After the Birth of Freud”) is the record of a roundtable on the status of the profession. Sinister, I’m afraid.

The one scene invokes truth, passion, and imagination while the other is preoccupied with credibility and territoriality. The one addresses itself to analysts; the other wants to cull them (in both senses of the word), string them into a precious rosary, and eventually tap itself on the shoulder for a job well done.

It is tempting to think in terms of stark oppositions here: Brits versus Yankees, women versus men, vocation versus profession, culture versus utility. One could go on and on, obviously, and I’m not sure one should have to deny oneself the temptation and its pleasure, as long as one is also allowing oneself the pleasure of additional ways of thinking.