Creativity on the couch

Since Freud first used literary works to explore his theories, psychoanalysis has had a productive relationship with the arts, both influencing and learning from different artforms. Continuing the dialogue between disciplines is Connecting Conversations, a series of discussion events bringing together practitioners from the world of psychoanalysis and a range of creative fields. Entering its third year, it attracts high-profile participants: past speakers include Stephen Poliakoff, Salley Vickers, Quentin Blake, Tamara Rojo and Rachel Whiteread. Audiences range from an intimate 40 to over 300, and audio recordings of each event are made available on the Connecting Conversations website
Ruth Robinson is co-ordinator of The Rowan Arts Project, an Islington-based charity that produces the series, and a practising psychoanalyst. “The key is a good match of participants,” she says. “I discuss ideas for events with individual analysts to find people with an in-depth knowledge of a particular artist’s work.” The artists are also carefully chosen. “It’s important that their work demonstrates something of depth or indicates an awareness of the unconscious,” says Robinson. Each event consists of a 45-minute conversation, with a further 45 minutes for questions from the audience. The discussions are unrehearsed and can move in any direction, but common threads include parallels between psychoanalysts’ and artists’ working methods and insights into the creative process. Author Kate Grenville spoke of the way free association liberated her from a structured, “boring” writing style for example, while Andrew Motion referred to psychoanalysis and poetry as “cousins”, with a shared interest in symbolic language and in looking below the surface of situations to find inherent truths. While spontaneity is part of the series’ attraction, Robinson acknowledges that it also introduces an element of risk: “We want to create a genuine conversation, which means neither the psychoanalyst nor artist knows how well it will flow or what the audience will ask. I don’t believe in trying to direct them too much as this can be inhibiting, but it’s important to be supportive.”

Artists who take the chance are rewarded with an in-depth and often revealing exploration of their work. Author Gillian Slovo says, “I’ve done many platforms before but never with someone who not only had read everything I had ever written, but also approached the work with such intelligent seriousness. I came out thinking I had learned something – I suspect the audience did too.” Scott Graham, Artistic Director of Frantic Assembly, a physical theatre company, saw the experience as a validation of his work: “I learned about the world of the psychoanalyst while seeing my own creative world in new ways. Its legacy is the desire on my part to always create complex characters worthy of such debate and the confidence that I am capable of delivering on that ambition.” Analysts also find the encounters enriching. Andrea Sabbadini, who took part in an event with director Mike Leigh, says, “They can provide those in creative fields with an understanding of their motivation and of their public’s unconscious worlds; and us psychoanalysts with an original access to our own and our patients’ always enormously complex narratives.” Connecting Conversations works in partnership with a range of psychoanalytic, academic and arts organisations, such as the Freud Museum, Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust and Gate Theatre, which provide venues and help to promote the events. Future plans include promotion of the audio recordings and taking the series outside London.