Scansion in Psychoanalysis and Art, with Vanessa Sinclair, PsyD

Date: May 03rd 2025 @ 10AM – 12PM (PST)

Online: Registration here.

The relationship between psychoanalysis and the fine arts is long and rich and, in fact, has been present from the very beginning. As Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was developing the field of psychoanalysis, he applied his new and evolving concepts to the study of the individual, groups, and culture, as well as to artworks and artists such as Leonardo da Vinci[1] and Michelangelo.[2] Freud tended to critique art in the way one would analyze a dream: by taking apart the various components of the piece and making greater sense of the whole through the exploration of its parts. Freud felt that by applying the methods of psychoanalysis to art and literature, one may decipher the underlying meaning and intention of the creator; much as one analyzes the manifest content of a dream to unearth the latent content at play beneath the surface.

The advent of Jacques Lacan (1901-1981) brought the concept of scansion into psychoanalytic theory and practice. With this, Lacan highlighted the potential power and value that disruption may have. In this talk, we’ll look at the ways scansion is utilized in both psychoanalytic practice and the creative arts. Other psychoanalytic concepts and theorists will also be touched upon.

Bibliography:

[1] Freud, S. (1910). “Leonardo da Vinci and a memory of his childhood.” SE XI. London: Hogarth

Press. pp. 57-137.

[2] Freud, S. (1914). “The Moses of Michelangelo.” SE XIII. London: Hogarth Press. pp. 211-236.

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Vanessa Sinclair, PsyD is a psychoanalyst in private practice, who works remotely online with people all over the world. She hosts the internationally-renowned podcast Rendering Unconscious, which was awarded the 2023 Gradiva Award for Digital Media by the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis (NAAP). Dr. Sinclair is the author of Things Happen (2024), Scansion in Psychoanalysis and Art: The Cut in Creation (2021), The Pathways of the Heart (2021), and Switching Mirrors (2016), and the editor of Psychoanalytic Perspectives on the Films of Ingmar Bergman: From Freud to Lacan and Beyond (2023), as well as the Rendering Unconscious: Psychoanalytic Perspectives book series. Her most recent book is The Queerness of Psychoanalysis: From Freud and Lacan to Laplanche and Beyond (2025) co-edited with Elisabeth Punzi and Myriam Sauer.