Wednesday 30 June, 6.30-8.30pm

Shortly after my father died unexpectedly in 2018 I began watching videos on YouTube about the nuclear accident at Chernobyl and its aftermath, where wild nature is reclaiming the former urban areas nearby. Watching initiated a process of writing, which became a book named after the makeshift radiation cover for the power plant – Shelter Object – which became a book called The Reactor. With the hope of a lively discussion, this talk will involve some readings from my own work and elsewhere, and trace some connections between psychoanalysis, “the hysteric”, artworking, trauma and the law.

Nick Blackburn is a psychoanalyst in private practice. He studied for a PhD at Trinity College, Cambridge in Renaissance literature, where he taught English for several years. He then moved into theatre at English National Opera and The Wooster Group in New York, before training as a psychoanalyst with the Site, where he is now Acting Chair. As a therapist, he has worked with MIND and the Single Homeless Project and has a particular interest in working with anxiety and trauma as well as LGBT+ patients. His first book, The Reactor, is about psychoanalysis, creativity and annihilation. It will be published by Faber early next year.

 

This event forms part of our summer series, In Relation. Tickets can be booked on Eventbrite