BIG IDEAS Book Club - Freud and The Self
At the beginning of the 20th Century there was a fundamental shift in how we began to understand the human experience. This shift, in-part, was underpinned by the work of Sigmund Freud and the idea of 'the self'. The implications of these ideas was vast and enduring with effects that will be felt for generations to come.
The August edition of the BIG IDEAS Book Club will consider the concept of self in the context of Freud's influence and that of the Freud family throughout the 20th Century.
The key text is Freud's classic and ever-popular, 'Civilisation and Its Discontents' (1930), which can be read here:
https://www.stephenhicks.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/FreudS-CIVILIZATION-AND-ITS-DISCONTENTS-text-final.pdf
The video material is the incredible and controversial four-part documentary series - The Century of the Self (2002). The series consists of four one-hour series and can be viewed online.
Part one: Happiness Machines - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnPmg0R1M04
Part two: The Engineering of Consent - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEsPOt8MG7E
Part three: There is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads: He Must Be Destroyed - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub2LB2MaGoM
Part four: 'Eight People Sipping Wine in Kettering' - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VouaAz5mQAs
I look forward to seeing you in August and I hope that allows some time to become familiar with the suggested material. Attendees are welcome to engage with any other material that may be useful in relation to this discussion.
About the meetup:
The BIG IDEAS book club is a free monthly meet up which provides a space for attendees to discuss content related to some of the important issues in our lives. Originally called the 'Phil-Psyc' book club the discussions will continue to focus on philosophy and psychology.
Each month a topic or person will be selected for discussion. For example, a topic could be something like 'freedom', 'leadership', 'consciousness', 'the self', etc. Similarly, the person would usually be a notable thinker from philosophy and psychology i.e. 'Sigmund Freud', 'Karl Marx', 'Noam Chomsky', etc.
For each topic a key text and video material will be suggested. The attendees are not required to have read/watched these in order to attend and are welcome to engage in your own reading/viewing material.
This monthly Meetup will be hosted by Dr Steve Mayers (who also facilitates 'Café Psychologique Sydney') and will take place on the first Wednesday of the month from 7-9pm at The Horse Surry Hills.
Come along and join in the conversation!
