Despite his limited dramatic output, Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) is considered by many to have been the greatest playwright since Shakespeare. Our presenter, Dr. George Mandelbaum, will focus on some of the reasons why Chekhov has this reputation and why his work is of special interest to psychoanalysts. The talk will focus on the climax of The Cherry Orchard, which Chekhov wrote while he was at death’s door. The bittersweet climax of the play mixes relational pleasure and pain, and loss and gain,at its ideational, emotional and symbolic center.
With images created by Dr. Alison Feit, we will explore through multiple perspectives, the final scene of The Cherry Orchard with its blending of Lopakhin’s joyful, deep throated speech at having gained the orchard, and Ranevskaya’s physical and emotional collapse at its loss. We will consider whether every gain one achieves also represents a loss; the realization of personal and generational fantasies, transformation and transcendence; the values embodied in psychoanalysis and how those can be used in the valuation of artistic creations, including Chekhov’s plays. How did Chekhov manage to create plays that at one and the same time were outwardly directed to address the monumental changes occurring in the late 19th Century and symbolizations of his inner life?
ABOUT OUR PRESENTER
George Mandelbaum, PhD, was the 2014-15 Visiting Scholar at the William Alanson White Institute. He received his PhD in English Literature from Columbia University. He has published several articles on drama in psychoanalytic journals, including the Spring 2018 issue of Psychoanalytic Quarterly, and that journal’s 2021 issue on Checkov’s plays, and he presented at the American Psychoanalytic Association in 2011. Dr. Mandelbaum taught the WAWI elective course, “HAMLET and Hamlet: An introduction,” in 2016. Over the last ten years, he has presented to the Artist Study Group on a variety of subjects involving playwrights, including the efforts of Strindberg and Tennessee Williams to deal with their psychosis through their late plays; on Eugene O-Neill’s composition of Long Day’s Journey into Night and on American playwright, novelist, journalist and actress, Susan Glaspell. In general, his presentations view plays as varied efforts by playwrights to artistically master their inner lives. Dr. Mandelbaum is currently a candidate in the Academic Associate Track of the Adult Psychoanalytic Training Program at the Psychoanalytic Association of New York.
Please join us for a discussion that explores the intersection of drama and psychoanalysis.