What is it that is so captivating about travel?  In Freud’s travel letters chronicling his experiences over many decades in different countries, there are the seeds of the advance of non-clinical experiences of psychoanalysis.  Travel takes us to another place with unfamiliar surroundings so that we might see anew that which we may otherwise take for granted.  Awe and beauty are often experiences we have while abroad.  And these are described by Freud over and over again in these captivating letters.

In this podcast episode, Dr. Patricia O’Donnell discusses Freud’s travel letters and his musings on the pleasures of travel, art, and architecture, as experiences that inspire awe and transcendence.  She links these experiences to the unconscious fantasizing that stems from curiosity, rooted in infantile sexuality and that gives rise to the desire to know and triggers of experiences of passion. 

Dr. Patricia O’Donnell is a psychiatrist, a full member and training analyst of the Argentine Psychoanalytic Association and a member of the International Psychoanalytic Association.  She is also an Associate Professor at the Department of Mental Health at the Hospital de Clinicas Jose de San Martin.  She has presented papers at national and international conferences and delivered workshops and lectures on psychoanalytic art research.  She has written numerous articles and co-authored books on topics ranging from psychoanalysis and creativity, art and literature.

A subtitled version of this podcast is available on our YouTube channel:

You can download a copy of the paper here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-dthE_sMLxYjtDl4uWWTuEdYD4THtjSN/edit?usp=share_link&ouid=100400904585889441765&rtpof=true&sd=true

This episode has also been published in Spanish.