In Plato’s vision of the afterlife, souls must drink  from the rivers  of both Mnemosyne and Lethe, Memory and Forgetfulness, before they can be reborn. Many myths from different cultures echo this vital duality. Yet  today’s psychological theories,  forgetting is often pathologised, and clinical practice  may often be based in the assumption that to remember is in itself healing.

This seminar explores this bias, and the vital role of forgetting in psychic life.

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Ann Shearer is a Senior Member of IGAP and has lectured widely in the UK and abroad over many years. For four years, she taught in St Petersburg as a member of the IAAP educational team. She has a particular interest in the interactions of mythology and psychology and has published many articles on this and other themes. Her most recent book is Why Don’t Psychotherapists Laugh? Enjoyment and the Consulting Room (Routledge 2016).