Sept. 12 lecture will examine connection between Freud and the liberal arts

The Freudian and the Liberal Arts

  • Thursday, Sept. 12 at 4:30 p.m.
  • Rare Book Room, Goddard Library

You are cordially invited to a talk by Michael S. Roth, president of Wesleyan University, on “The Freudian and the Liberal Arts.”

Prior to assuming the presidency of Wesleyan in 2007, Michael S. Roth was president of California College of the Arts, associate director of the Getty Research Institute, director of European Studies at Claremont Graduate University, and founder of the Scripps College Humanities Institute.

As a scholar President Roth has written extensively on Freud and the history of psychoanalysis, especially as it developed in France. He was the curator of the major exhibit at the Library of Congress in 1997, “Freud: Conflict and Culture.” He is the author of  Psycho-Analysis as History: Negation and Freedom in Freud (Cornell University Press, 1987, 1995); Knowing and History: Appropriations of Hegel in Twentieth Century France (Cornell University Press, 1988); The Ironist’s Cage: Trauma, Memory and the Construction of History (Columbia University Press, 1995); and Irresistible Decay: Ruins Reclaimed, with Clare Lyons and Charles Merewether (Getty Research Institute, 1997). His most recent book Memory, Trauma, and History: Essays on Living With the Past was published in the fall of 2011 by Columbia University Press.He is currently preparing his next book, Why Liberal Education Matters.

After the talk, there will be the opportunity to look at some of Clark University’s archival material on Freud and his 1909 visit to Clark.