Brasilia, A New Experience 1975. Clinical Seminars

I find myself in a peculiar position because in some sense I must know less about this matter than any member of the audience. But in so far as I have concerned myself with an attempt to understand the way in which human character develops, I feel that it gives me a chance to contribute more to that particular way of looking at things. I am reminded of the fact that apparently the idea of Brasilia was formulated at least as long ago as 1820. The curious thing is that it then seemed to disappear, but we who are able to come to it one hundred and fifty years later can all look around us and see this extraordinary edifice which developed out of an idea. It is very puzzling to know why or how it developed at that particular date. One could say that perhaps the time was ripe for it; there were people who had studied architecture, the foundations essential for any particular building, and indeed of this city. This point may seem obvious, but when an idea is transformed into action it is as if the action commits the people who think like that to an irreversible course. If it were possible to look at this city and guess at a sort of reconstruction of the original idea, it could hardly be put more clearly than in the language used by one of the English poets. I refer to the Areopagitica, and in particular to one passage in which Milton says, “I see in my mind a noble and puissant nation.” The remarkable thing is that that idea appears to be able to transform itself into actions. I have heard it said that another poet, Shakespeare, is the person who was really responsible for giving his people the idea of what they might become. How do these poets come to formulate ideas in a way which makes them fertile? If we could turn back the pages of time we might be able to see the primitive people who wanted to find some way of settling here. But it didn't have any marked effect because it seems that a very long time had

to elapse between the wish of those people, and the coming of