PULSE Book Talk: Dr. Alexander Baron-Raiffe on Andreas Embiricos

Join Dr. Alexander Baron-Raiffe for the launch of The Collected Psychoanalytic Writings of Andreas Embiricos Join Dr. Alexander Baron-Raiffe for the launch of The Collected Psychoanalytic Writings of Andreas Embiricos This book makes available for the first time in English translation the psychoanalytic writings of Andreas Embiricos, a surrealist poet and practicing psychoanalyst who pioneered Freudian psychoanalysis in Greece and was the only member of André Breton’s Surrealist Group to practice as a psychoanalyst. It includes Embiricos’ two case studies, which demonstrate how his clinical work achieved a novel fusion of orthodox Freudianism and Surrealism, as well as the text of a lecture course in which he explains how strict adherence to the Freudian method constituted, for him, a revolutionary praxis at the individual level, aiming at the total liberation of Eros on a societal scale. The volume also includes an interview Embiricos gave in the 1960s about his psychoanalytic practice and four scholarly essays his work as a psychoanalyst. These essays examine, amongst other topics, his efforts to establish an IPA-affiliated psychoanalytic society in Greece and his views on homosexuality. Although he was a significant figure amongst Europe’s second generation of psychoanalysts and his reputation is well established in European letters, he remains understudied in the English-speaking world. Of particular interest to contemporary psychoanalysts may be Embiricos’ insistence on Surrealism as a revolutionary and liberatory practice in the face of authoritarianism, injustice, and war. Moreover, although Lacan and Embiricos were contemporaries and acquainted with one another, Surrealism's influence on psychoanalysis is best known through the former. This project aims to enhance the visibility of Embiricos as a unique figure in the history of psychoanalysis. Alexander Baron-Raiffe, PhD, LP, FIPA, is a psychoanalyst in private practice in Manhattan and a member of the Contemporary Freudian Society. He earned his doctorate in Princeton University’s Department of French and Italian, during which time he was also a Fellow of the Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies.