Juliet Mitchell’s "Psychoanalysis and Feminism", 50 years on
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2 July 2025, 10am-6pm
William Macmahon Ball Theatre, Old Arts Building, University of Melbourne, Parkville Campus
Released in 1974, Juliet Mitchell’s Psychoanalysis and Feminism: A Radical Reassessment of Freudian Psychoanalysis posed a challenge to the dominant reading of psychoanalysis at the time. Feminists up until that point had consistently read Freud’s writings on masculinity, femininity, and sexuality as “prescriptions”—as legitimations of the patriarchal status-quo. Instead, Mitchell argued that Freudian psychoanalysis should be read “descriptively”, not as a justification of gender inequality but rather as the beginnings of its analysis.
More than fifty years on, this symposium aims to bring together scholars across a range of fields to consider the legacy of Mitchell’s project. Speakers will reflect on the text’s impact at the time of its release, explore its influences on contemporary critical theory, and offer new interpretations of its key ideas.
This symposium will be held in a hybrid format.
Speakers: Eugénie Austin (Lacan Circle of Australia), Conor Brett (Sociology, University of Melbourne), Sarah Brouillette (English Language and Literature, Carleton University), Uzma Chowdhury (Sociology and Education, Columbia University), Luara Karlson-Carp (English and Theatre Studies, University of Melbourne), Astrid Lorange (School of Art and Design, University of New South Wales), Nonie May (Screen and Cultural Studies, University of Melbourne), Toyah Webb (School of Art and Design, University of New South Wales), Thomas Weight (Media and Communications, University of Melbourne), and Anna K Wood (Sociology and Social Work, University of Michigan).
Schedule:
| 10:15am - 10:30am | Acknowledgement of Country and Introduction |
| 10:30am - 12pm | Panel 1: Family, Children, Violence Astrid Lorange and Sarah Brouillette, Family Fortress Anna K Wood, Becoming a Brother: United States Fraternities and Psychoanalytic Critiques of Family Ideology Uzma Chowdhury, Psychoanalysis and Feminism in Palestine: Fanon, Mitchell, and Colonized Childhood |
| 12pm - 1pm | Lunch |
| 1pm - 2:30pm | Panel 2: Revolutions and Their Vicissitudes Eugénie Austin, Juliet Mitchell's 'Psychoanalysis and Feminism', 50 years on: A Lacanian Response Luara Karlson-Carp, From Revolution to Recursion: Grounding Feminist Claims in Mitchell and Butler Thomas Weight: The Law's Last Hearing |
| 2:30 pm - 3pm | Afternoon Tea |
| 3pm - 4:30pm | Panel 3: Returns and Remains Toyah Webb, Freud's Appendix Conor Brett, Whose Structuralism is it Anyway? Juliet Mitchell Between Lacan and Althusser Nonie May, 'The Baby and the Bathwater': What Remains of Feminist Psychoanalytic Film Theory |
| 4:30pm - 5pm | Break |
| 5pm - 6pm | Panel Discussion and Q&A: Feminist Theory and Psychoanalysis in the Antipodes Professor Barbara Creed and Nonie May, with Toyah Webb |
Full abstracts available here.
Contact: Conor Brett, Thomas Weight & Toyah Webb.