A Talk on ‘From Freud’s Free Clinics to Radical Psychoanalytic Movements: A Search for Solidarity’ by Julianna Ágnes Pusztai

ABOUT THE TALK
In this presentation, Julianna A. Pusztai examines the psychoanalytic free clinics movement,tracing its origins to Sigmund Freud’s establishment of the first clinics in 1918. The talk will cover the historical development of the free clinic in Europe and introduce current research findings on the global scale from the FFREEPSY Collective. Case examples will be presented from Julianna’s research which centres on the practices of free clinics from the 1970s to present day, with a specific emphasis on the significance of solidarity in their functioning. These free clinics, often situated at the margins of conventional therapeutic spaces, provide a unique terrain for exploring how solidarity takes shape among various authoritative structures. Additionally, the research investigates the modes of psychoanalytic elasticity that come into play within these environments,recognising that the elastic frame is a fundamental aspect of clinical practice and solidarity cultivation. The underlying question that will be explored is whether sharing and offering psychoanalysis as accessible knowledge transforms into a symbol of communal support and unity. What psychic processes allow us to establish a sense of mutual recognition and shared practices through solidarity? This inquiry leads us into the heart of these clinical spaces, where resistance, solidarity, mutuality, and recognition coexist, even despite the popularity of the quicker, evidence-based therapeutic solutions. We will consider the present life of free clinics while also envisioning a potential future where radical psychoanalytic thinking and action could serve as a means to ease collective suffering.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Julianna Ágnes Pusztai is a psychosocial and psychoanalytic thinker based in the UK, originally from Hungary. She is a clinician, the co-founder of the Sándor Ferenczi Collective, and a member of the Red Clinic. She is a PhD researcher exploring radical psychoanalytic movements and activism from the 1970s to the present as part of FREEPSY at the University of Essex.

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