Introduction

A discussion between Jerome A. Winer, then Director of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis, and a Board Member of the Institute, Seymour Persky, initiated the unlikely string of events that led to this volume. Persky has a great interest in architecture and the design of buildings and was willing to sponsor a conference that explored the potential connection between psychoanalysis and architecture. James William Anderson, coordinator of conferences at the Institute, became involved, and a committee to plan the conference was formed.

We recall the puzzling questions the committee faced in its initial deliberations: Is there any connection between psychoanalysis and architecture? Does psychoanalysis have anything to offer to the study of architecture? We soon realized that there is, in fact, a profound connection. Architecture refers to the built environment, the environment within which everyone lives, the residences, civic buildings, places of business, and houses of worship that people inhabit. An essential element of architecture is the experience of it. And psychoanalysis is the study of inner experience, of the interactions individuals have with the world around them, of their most intimate, emotional, and personal reception and apperception of whatever impinges on them. Architects, moreover, like all artists, design buildings on the basis of their own personal experiences, lives, preoccupations, and conflicts, and psychoanalysis offers a way of exploring the process of artistic creation.

We decided that for the sake of the conference we would limit ourselves to a single architect, and on October 4, 2003, the Institute for Psychoanalysis presented the conference: “Frank Lloyd Wright: The Architect and the Person.” A much-appreciated grant from the Graham Foundation helped to support the event.

The conference, from every point of view, seemed to be a resounding success; it