Freud's trip to Orvieto
Subtitle: the great doctor's unresolved confrontation with antisemitism, death, and homoeroticism ; his passion for paintings ; and the writer in his footsteps
By: Nicholas Fox Weber
Publisher: Bellevue Literary Press
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 351
ISBN-13: 9781942658269
Subjects: Travel; Criticism and interpretation
Description: After a visit to the cathedral at Orvieto in Italy, Sigmund Freud deemed Luca Signorelli's frescoes the greatest artwork he'd ever encountered; yet, a year later, he couldn't recall the artist's name. When the name came back to him, the images he had so admired vanished from his mind's eye. This is known as the "Signorelli parapraxis" in the annals of Freudian psychoanalysis and is a famous example from Freud's own life of his principle of repressed memory. What was at the bottom of this? There have been many theories on the subject, but Nicholas Fox Weber is the first to study the actual Signorelli frescoes for clues. What Weber finds in these extraordinary Renaissance paintings provides unexpected insight into this famously confounding incident in Freud's biography. As he sounds the depths of Freud's feelings surrounding his masculinity and Jewish identity, Weber is drawn back into his own past, including his memories of an adolescent obsession with a much older woman. 'Freud's Trip to Orvieto' is an intellectual mystery with a very personal, intimate dimension. Through rich illustrations, Weber evokes art's singular capacity to provoke, destabilize, and enchant us, as it did Freud, and awaken our deepest memories, fears, and desires.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Freud's memory loss; title: The reprint; title: Freud's pilgrimages; title: The text; title: The Karpes continue; title: Freud's trip; title: Names; title: Orvieto; title: What Richard and Marietta say about all this; title: Fra Angelico; title: Antichrist; title: The identity of the antichrist; title: Maud Cruttwell; title: "A godless Jew"; title: Am I a mensch or a wuss?; title: The conquistador; title: Maud's vision; title: Freud and the Etruscans; title: The devil; title: The entrance to Hell; title: Maleness; title: The case of Luca Signorelli; title: Hannibal; title: Jackie; title: Or bodies, our deaths; title: Grandpa's funeral; title: Fathers and sons; title: Enter Jean-Paul Sartre; title: Wanting to be Hannibal; title: Richard and Marietta's conclusion; title: What this meant; title: Signorelli's pinups; title: André Gide blocked, too; title: Zilboorg; title: Picturing Freud; title: The man who felt paintings in his heart and bones; title: Sarburgh; title: Raphael; title: Freud on Dostoevsky; title: The Titian; title: The Jew again; title: The letter to Fliess; title: The Psychopathology of everyday life; title: Jacques Lacan's take on it; title: Minna Bernays; title: Sobriety; title: The search continues; title: Wanting an answer, and yearning for the authority that will provide one; title: The young blade.