Thierry Simonelli

Thierry Simonelli is a psychoanalyst and works in private practice in Luxembourg.
PhD in psychology and PhD in philosophy, he has also taught classes in Paris, Reims, Metz and Luxembourg.
Books : Les premières métapsychologies de Freud (Montréal : Éditions Liber, 2010) ; Günther Anders. De la désuétude de l'homme, (Paris : Éd. du Jasmin, 2004) ; Lacan, la théorie. Essai de critique intérieure (Paris : Ed. du Cerf).

J. Edgar – sharp dressed man

 Movies, Reviews  2 Responses »
Jan 272012
 

Posted by Thierry Simonelli

© Warner Brothers 2012

During an evening out at the club, J. Edgar Hoover suddenly urges his friend and lover Clyde Tolson to leave in a hurry. They just came from a movie that was of important symbolic value:  Hollywood had eventually shifted from the sympathetic gangster hero to the heroic police officer. Hoover feels so gratified by what he considers to be a public recognition of his work that during the ride home, he holds his lover’s hand. The gesture has a slight scent of provocation since his mother, Anne, sitting in front of the car, could not but notice. And she would pay him back for this daring move soon enough.


That evening though, nothing seemed to stop J. Edgar. At first, at least. After dropping his mother off, he and Clyde continue to their club, where they get to sit at a table with three beautiful, admiring actresses. Here we see the new hero of the Bureau of Investigation, inspiring comic strips and now movies,  bragging about some incredibly important secrets he cannot reveal. Young, radiating, gorgeous Hoover seems overspilling with power, wits and overall success. Until one of the actresses, trying to get beyond sitting and listening, first invites and then urges him to dance. At this point J. Edgar loses it.

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A Dangerous Method

 Freud, Movies, Reviews  6 Responses »
Jan 072012
 

Posted by Thierry Simonelli


True to historic facts, Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method holds some interesting surprises – naturally, considering the director and the actors’ work on the subtlest staging details. (See the Cronenberg interview).
Some of those details lie on the more comical side, such as Freud’s character.
So far I had imagined Freud in different ways, but the idea of a Viennese cigar-munching Godfather had not occurred to me. Cronenberg’s Freud comes across as a slow talking, sometimes cynical, sometimes despicable plotter of institutional schemes. A hard-nosed professional subversive who seems impressed only by the ever-growing anti-semitism that besieges him and his new science. And when Jung finally falls out of favour, the only sense that comes to Freud’s mind is his designated successor’s “Aryanism”.
With Spielrein and Jung’s respective characters, things immediately seem to run deeper. The first time we see Spielrein, she’s literally howling mad. But she seems to get better with an astonishing speed, each and every time Jung addresses her like a normal human being. One can only imagine what it must have been like in the asylums of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. But Bleuler and Jung’s Burghölzli looks very much like the Anti-Psychiatrist‘s dream. Patients, not inmates, are being cared for, offered interesting humane work and most of all are treated like fully responsible grown-ups. In this utopian castle, Spielrein not only turns out to be the gifted psychologist that Jung suspected right away, but she also learns how to accept and enjoy her sexual fantasies. Although, with some practical help of her therapist, who does not show the same ease towards his own fantasies.
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Cronenberg Interview

 Movies  No Responses »
Jan 072012
 

Posted by Thierry Simonelli

For a revealing interview with Cronenberg about his work on A Dangerous Method, follow this link (Filmcomment):

http://www.filmlinc.com/film-comment/entry/david-cronenberg-interviewed

10 Ways to Desire

 Research  No Responses »
Jan 062012
 

Posted by Thierry Simonelli

From the classical steam engine analogy of Freud’s early neurological musings to second selves in virtual networks, not forgetting the engineer’s solution-orientated approach …
What is your desire?

Psychoanalysis, differently

 Books, Ferenczi  1 Response »
Jan 052012
 

Posted by Thierry Simonelli

After The Worst Ennemies of Psychoanalysis and The Best Friends of Psychoanalysis Prado de Oliveira turns to the Hungarian psychoanalyst Sándor Ferenczi (1873-1933). Prado considers Ferenczi to be the most paradoxical disciple of Freud for being both close and critical, loyal and original (originality often being considered as a flaw in psychoanalytic institutions), methodical and ebullient. Not only in theory. Ferenczi is maybe best known for his experimental practice, described in his clinical diaries.


Prado’s book retraces the theoretical and personal evolution of Ferenczi, closely following his writings and his correspondence with Freud. Amongst others, Ferenczi was one of the true founders of analytic training and a constant inspiration for analysts like Melanie Klein, Michael Balint, Lacan and Winnicott: “Ferenczi was the psychoanalyst who taught us to question all our certainties.”

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