Invitation to the Psychohistory Forum (Virtual) Meeting
on Saturday, September 30, 2023
Subject: “Psychoanalytical and Psychobiographical Explorations
of Shakespeare as Revealed in His Plays”
Presenter: Jeffrey Rubin, PhD (Object Relations Institute and Private Practice)
Date/Time: September 30, 2023 (Saturday)
10:30am-1:00pm EDT/NYC (room opens at 10:00am)
Virtual Participation via Zoom.
RSVP is required (see the RSVP form below)
Zoom link will be provided to you after you complete the form
Please read Dr. Rubin’s paper prior to the meeting – scroll down for the paper, to download or read online. Below are the abstract of the paper and a short bio of the presenter.
ABSTRACT:
Shakespeare captivates — and eludes — us. We are fascinated by his work and at pains to understand who he was. Given the absence of diaries, personal correspondence, or manifestos about his artistic process or opus, it is unsurprising that a dominant strain in recent criticism is skepticism about our ability to understand his personality or forge links between him and his work.
Jung, like Nietzsche, knew that one’s creative work is a “subjective confession.” Even though there is a dearth of overt biographical information about Shakespeare, there is something that the vast number of critics ignore — or neglect the implications of — the haunting personal testament encoded in the plays.
When we consider Shakespeare’s oeuvre as a whole and bring together disparate and seemingly unrelated elements that are normally kept apart — from absent and devouring mothers and evil usurpers, to stolen and mistaken identities and inauthentic selves — I believe a new and startling picture occurs of a vexed genius whose creations were both an incalculable gift and a breathtaking attempt to solve a personal and disturbing mystery: what happened to me?
The bard’s work is, in a quintessentially Jungian way, both an unparalleled elucidation of human life and a poignant story about his creative attempts to symbolize what afflicted him and unconsciously strive to heal himself. My hope is that after this wide-ranging sojourn over Shakespeare’s plays and a recontextualization of his life and work and a more intimate encounter with him, we will not only engage his work with renewed vitality but be personally transformed and enriched.
BRIEF BIO:
Jeffrey B. Rubin, Ph.D. practices psychoanalysis and psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy in New York City and North Salem, NY. He teaches at The Object Relations Institute of NY, The American Institute of Psychoanalysis, and the C. G. Jung Institute of NY. The author of six books (A Psychoanalysis for Our Time; The Good Life:Psychoanalytic Reflections on Love, Ethics, Creativity, and Spirituality;Psychotherapy and Buddhism: Toward and Integration; The Art of Flourishing: A Guide to Mindfulness, Self-care and Love in a Chaotic World; Meditative Psychotherapy: A Marriage of East and West, and Practicing Meditative Psychotherapy), he has taught at various psychoanalytic institutes and meditation and yoga centers and lectured around the country and abroad on psychoanalysis and psychoanalysis and Buddhism/meditation. Jeffrey is most interested in a pluralistic psychoanalysis that respects the genuine insights and practices from each analytic tradition and draws on the best that has been thought and said from all psychoanalytic schools as well as history, art, literature, anthropology and anything that illuminates the human condition. His pioneering approach to therapy was featured in the New York Times Magazine:
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/magazine/26zen-t.html.
He can be contacted at drjeffreyrubin.com or jeffreyrubinphd@gmail.com.
Download the paper by following this link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/owras18sr9n82fp/J.%20Rubin%20-%20Psychoanalytical%20and%20Psychobiographical%20Explorations%20of%20Shakespeare%20-%20for%20PF%2C%209-30-23.docx?dl=1