I am organising for Sunday 11 May 2008, at Regent's College Conference Centre, London, a seminar celebrating the 60th anniversary of the publication (on 15 May 1948 in The New Yorker) of Vladimir Nabokov's short story "Signs and Symbols", described by Brian Boyd, the Nabokov biographer and expert, as one of the greatest short stories ever written. In recent years there have been a number of interpretations of it, for example by Alexander Dolinin and Alexander Drescher. I have myself suggested on NABOKV-L a new way of approaching the story with implications for psychiatry and psychotherapy. I hope a number of speakers will contribute to this seminar. Please contact me at stadlen@aol.com if you wish to contribute a talk or paper, or attend.

The seminar is No. 127 in the Inner Circle Seminars, which I founded in 1996. For details see below.

INNER CIRCLE SEMINARS for 2008

Seminars on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

(But: Swales seminar 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.)

Conducted by Anthony Stadlen unless otherwise stated.

Venue: Regent’/s College, Inner Circle, Regent’s Park, London NW1.

Cost: students £88, others £110 for seminars IN ADVANCE (PLEASE NOTE THAT THERE WILL BE A VERY EARLY DEADLINE FOR BOOKING EACH OF THE AUTUMN SEMINARS); some bursaries; £5 for mothers-with-babies on 16 March; reductions for a calendar or academic year’s seminars; no refunds unless seminar cancelled.

Apply to: Anthony Stadlen, 'Oakleigh', 2A Alexandra Avenue, London N22 7XE

Telephone: +44 (0) 20 8888 6857 Email: stadlen@aol.com

10 February 2008: Room C

Inner Circle Seminar No. 124

FURTHER REFLECTIONS ON THE BUBER-ROGERS DIALOGUE

16 March 2008: Room C

NAOMI and ANTHONY STADLEN CONDUCT

Inner Circle Seminar No. 125

MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY: CENTENARY SEMINAR

THE CHILD'S RELATIONS WITH OTHERS

A CRITICAL RE-EVALUATION

13 April 2008: Room C

Inner Circle Seminar No. 126

WILHELM REICH: ORGASM AND PSYCHOTHERAPY

11 May 2008: Room C

Inner Circle Seminar No. 127

VLADIMIR NABOKOV

SIGNS AND SYMBOLS: 60 YEARS ON

18 May 2008: Room C

Inner Circle Seminar No. 128

MAX SCHELER (22 August 1874 – 19 May 1928)

THE NATURE OF SYMPATHY

22 June 2008: Room C

RICHARD SKUES CONDUCTS

Inner Circle Seminar No. 129

SIGMUND FREUD AND THE HISTORY OF ANNA O.:

REOPENING A CLOSED CASE

14 September 2008: Room C

ALICE HOLZHEY CONDUCTS

Inner Circle Seminar No. 130

(SERIES ON DASEINSANALYSIS)

THE TWOFOLD MEANING OF FEELINGS: ONTIC AND ONTOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF ANXIETY, GUILT AND SHAME.

Final date for subscription: 14 March 2008.

12 October 2008: Herringham Hall

JEFFREY SCHALER CONDUCTS

Inner Circle Seminar No. 131

ADDICTION IS A CHOICE

Final date for subscription: 12 April 2008.

26 October 2008: Room C

PETER J. SWALES CONDUCTS

Inner Circle Seminar No. 132

(12-hour seminar: 10 a.m. – 10 p.m.)

WHO WAS WILHELM FLIESS?

(24 October 1858 – 13 October 1928)

150TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION:

DEMYTHOLOGISING THE PSYCHOANALYTIC MYTH OF FLIESS AS FREUD'S "OTHER"

Final date for subscription: 26 April 2008.

9 November 2008: Room C

MARIE BALMARY CONDUCTS

Inner Circle Seminar No. 133

Title to be announced

Final date for subscription: 9 May 2008.

7 December 2008 (Room to be announced)

HANS-JÖRG RECK

(with the help of TAMAS FAZEKAS, HANS-DIETER FOERSTER, MARIANNE JACCARD, UTA JAENICKE and ANTHONY STADLEN

CONDUCTS

Inner Circle Seminar No. 134

(SERIES ON DASEINSANALYSIS)

Provisional title: DASEINSANALYTIC OPENINGS

Final date for subscription: 7 June 2008.

Anthony Stadlen founded the Inner Circle Seminars in 1996, as an interdisciplinary search for truth in psychotherapy and its foundations. The seminars are held once a month, on Sundays, and last all day. Most are conducted by Anthony Stadlen, but many have been conducted by distinguished authorities in a number of disciplines, from all over the world, including Alessandra Comini, Antony Flew, "Emma Gold", Tom Greeves, David Harsent, John Heaton, Susannah Heschel, Sheila Kitzinger, Claudia Koonz, Franz Maciejewski, Malcolm Macmillan, Rodney Mariner, Sarah Menin, Nigel Reeves, Gitta Sereny, Sonu Shamdasani, Martti and Ann-Helen Siirala, David Singmaster, Richard Skues, Naomi Stadlen, Peter Swales, Thomas Szasz, Terry Tanner, Michael Tregenza, Antti Vihinen.

The seminars themselves have an international reputation. They study thinkers whose work is of incalculable importance for the foundations of psychotherapy and related disciplines: Binswanger, Bleuler, Boss, Buber, Coleridge, Cooper, Esterson, Flew, Flournoy, Freud, Heaton, Heidegger, Heschel, Husserl, Jung, Kierkegaard, Laing, Levinas, Lomas, Merleau-Ponty, Myers, Nabokov, Patočka, Rogers, Schaler, Scheler, Schiller, Siirala, Straus, Szasz, von Hildebrand. The seminars are Continuing Professional Development for advanced professionals, but they are also a safe place for students of psychotherapy and other disciplines to explore perplexities. You may attend any or all. You will receive a certificate of attendance.

Anthony Stadlen has practised since 1970 as an existential-phenomenological analyst. He is registered as an existential psychotherapist by the UKCP (SEA, SPCRC) and as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist by the BPC (LCP) and the UKCP (AIP). He is an Honorary Visiting Fellow of the School of Psychotherapy and Counselling, Regent’s College, London. He is a former Research Fellow of the Freud Museum, London. His research has been sponsored by the Department of Philosophy at the University of Essex and supported by the Nuffield Foundation. He received the 2003 Thomas S. Szasz Award for Outstanding Services to the Cause of Civil Liberties (professional category) from the Center for Independent Thought, New York City.