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This year, the Intensive Study Group (ISG) Committee is continuing the study of the death drive with a particular emphasis on its erotic aspect in its year-long course, “The Erotics of the Death Drive.” Last year we revisited Freud's death drive as a collective response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the subsequent war against Iraq. The success of that project and further interest in this topic led us to extend our study to the dynamic relationship between Eros and Thanatos.
The Introductory Event, “Eros: The Enigmatic Face of the Death Drive,” scheduled aptly for September 11, 2004, develops this theme further with three outstanding speakers. Kaja Silverman from the Department of Rhetoric at UC Berkeley will lead our discussion with her paper, “Thoughts for the Times on Death and War.” She will be followed by Donna Bentolila, from the Southeast Florida Institute for Psychoanalysis, who will present a paper, “Creation or Destruction? Sabina Spielrein and the Question of the Death Drive.”
And, continuing to use film to deepen our engagement with our topic, we will have as our third speaker, Jeanne Wolff Bernstein, Personal and Supervising Analyst and faculty member of PINC, who will discuss the film Damage in her paper, “Damage: The Irresistible Force of Passion.”
The ISG Committee, which is jointly sponsored by NCSPP and PINC, has worked collectively and creatively to develop this important project. Enormous thanks are due to the hard-working group: Sue Saperstein, PINC Co-Chair; Susanne Chassay; Rachel Cooke; Nancy Drooker; Bronwen Lemmon; and Karen Peoples. We were also greatly helped by Rena Cowen with the use of films on our programs. Wendy von Wiederhold, past-Chair of the ISG, was our resource and guide in all phases of our work.