Richard Waugaman, MD will deliver the 2012 Frieda Fromm-Reichmann Lecture at 7 p.m. March 2, 2012 at the Chevy Chase Women's Club, 7931 Connecticut Avenue, Chevy Chase, Maryland. Tickets are $30 for members, $50 for non-members, and free to students and active military.
Waugaman's topic will be "A Refugee from Chestnut Lodge Receives Asylum at the Folger Shakespeare Library: New Discoveries about the Authorship of Shakespeare’s Works”
Waugaman is clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University School of Medicine; Training & Supervising Analyst, Emeritus at Washington Psychoanalytic Institute; and a Reader at the Folger Shakespeare Library. Forty of his more than 100 publications are on Shakespeare and the psychology of pseudonymity. The English literature journal Notes & Queries listed Waugaman's 2009 paper as the most-read online article for the month of October; and his 2009 and 2010 articles on the topic of Edward de Vere's marked psalms as a previously unknown literary source for Shakespeare's works were ranked #9 and #10 most-read online for December, 2011. These statistics include all of the articles read online from the past 150 years of Notes & Queries. The full texts of most of his publications are available at Waugaman's website, The Oxfreudian.
Waugaman said the Frieda Fromm-Reichmann Lecture honors the memory of the renegade psychoanalyst who shaped the identity of Chestnut Lodge as a psychoanalytic hospital dedicated to the treatment of severely ill psychiatric patients who had failed to respond to conventional treatment. Fromm-Reichmann's lack of theoretical orthodoxy influenced the facility to pioneer innovative treatments rather than practicing narrow models of conventional psychoanalytic technique. He said the lecture committee felt that having a speaker who worked at Chestnut Lodge -- as Waugaman did for 13 years until shortly before it closed in 2001 -- would be fitting, as would his interest in the unorthodox topic of Freud's opinion that Edward de Vere wrote the works of Shakespeare. Waugaman said:
Waugaman said that his lecture will attempt to summarize the Oxfordian position and his own research on DeVere, as well as its respective reception in various quarters.
See also:
"Who is this baby?" at http://oberonshakespearestudygroup.blogspot.com/2010/05/who-is-this-baby.html
Waugaman's topic will be "A Refugee from Chestnut Lodge Receives Asylum at the Folger Shakespeare Library: New Discoveries about the Authorship of Shakespeare’s Works”
Waugaman is clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University School of Medicine; Training & Supervising Analyst, Emeritus at Washington Psychoanalytic Institute; and a Reader at the Folger Shakespeare Library. Forty of his more than 100 publications are on Shakespeare and the psychology of pseudonymity. The English literature journal Notes & Queries listed Waugaman's 2009 paper as the most-read online article for the month of October; and his 2009 and 2010 articles on the topic of Edward de Vere's marked psalms as a previously unknown literary source for Shakespeare's works were ranked #9 and #10 most-read online for December, 2011. These statistics include all of the articles read online from the past 150 years of Notes & Queries. The full texts of most of his publications are available at Waugaman's website, The Oxfreudian.
Waugaman said the Frieda Fromm-Reichmann Lecture honors the memory of the renegade psychoanalyst who shaped the identity of Chestnut Lodge as a psychoanalytic hospital dedicated to the treatment of severely ill psychiatric patients who had failed to respond to conventional treatment. Fromm-Reichmann's lack of theoretical orthodoxy influenced the facility to pioneer innovative treatments rather than practicing narrow models of conventional psychoanalytic technique. He said the lecture committee felt that having a speaker who worked at Chestnut Lodge -- as Waugaman did for 13 years until shortly before it closed in 2001 -- would be fitting, as would his interest in the unorthodox topic of Freud's opinion that Edward de Vere wrote the works of Shakespeare. Waugaman said:
I am humbled by this honor. It is more a recognition for all my fellow Oxfordians than it is for me. In particular, it would not have come about had it not been for the pioneering work that Roger Stritmatter is doing with de Vere's Bible. It brought the new evidence for de Vere to my attention ten years ago, when Roger was written up in the New York Times. And the psychoanalyst who is most deserving of this honor is A. Bronson Feldman, who sadly did not live long enough to see his work begin receiving the recognition it deserves from his fellow psychoanalysts.
The lecture honors a psychoanalyst who has been an inspiration for many of us. When I was 16, I read I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, assuming for years afterwards that it was a novel. When I learned it was a memoir, I became entranced with Chestnut Lodge, the hospital where it took place. It was Fromm-Reichmann who treated the author, Joanne Greenberg (she published the novel under a pseudonym!). When I met Joanne Greenberg years later, I told her how much her book has influenced my career, and that I always thought of Chestnut Lodge as a half-real, half-ficitious place. Which it seemed to be during the 13 years I worked there.Ann-Louise S. Silver, MD, chair of the Frieda Fromm-Reichmann Lecture series said, "This year's speaker is making an enormous impact on the world of Shakespeare scholars and students. Dr. Waugaman will be discussing the virulence of the opposition he has experienced, and will present his evidence that Freud was right in feeling that Edward DeVere was the author of the Shakespeare plays and sonnets. This promises to be an exciting and memorable evening."
Waugaman said that his lecture will attempt to summarize the Oxfordian position and his own research on DeVere, as well as its respective reception in various quarters.
Already, the announcement of my lecture has stirred some of the polarized reactions the topic always generates. One friend wrote that she couldn't come because of a schedule conflict. But she added, "I confess I'm not prone to attend something on this topic." When I met this talented scholar years ago, she worked for the Shakespeare Association of America, and told me it has a policy of not discussing the authorship question. Taboo, I gather.
But other friends who are English professors have reacted much more warmly, despite their differences with my Oxfordian position. One in Ohio wrote, "Congratulations on this! I wish I could attend." Another wrote from Florida, "Thanks for the notice...best of luck!" An English professor wrote from New Zealand, "Thanks, Rick -- I will pass this along!" Yet another wrote, "Thank you so much for this invitation. I should love to have come, but sadly will be back in England at that time. I do hope it goes well and you have a good discussion." A local professor asked me to break a leg, but of course he meant that in the friendliest theatrical meaning of the phrase.
I quote from all these messages because it has been my good fortune to have formed friendly relationships with many scholars of early modern English literature. This helps sustain me in my heretical work, as does the kind support of everyone at the Oberon Shakespeare Study Group.The Frieda Fromm-Reichmann Lecture provides continuing education credits in psychology, social work and medical education. The lecture will be filmed, and a link will be provided at http://www.oxfreudian.com.
See also:
"Who is this baby?" at http://oberonshakespearestudygroup.blogspot.com/2010/05/who-is-this-baby.html