The DSPP Arts Committee and the Dallas Psychoanalytic Society present the film "Il Postino" (The Postman)   IL POSTINO: HOPE IN FILM, LIFE AND PSYCHOANALYSIS  Gemma Ainslie, PhD

Saturday
April 12, 2003
6:00 - 10:00 pm

Dallas Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology Arts Committee and the Dallas Psychoanalytic Society invite you to a presentation by Austin clinical psychologist, Gemma Ainslie, Ph.D., viewing the award-winning film, Il Postino (The Postman), as a portrayal of a psychoanalytic process. Dr. Ainslie's program will take place on Saturday, April 12, from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m., in the Smith Auditorium of the Meadows Museum.

Film and Discussion

The film, Il Postino, will be shown in full at 6:00 p.m., followed by Dr. Ainslie's presentation and open discussion with the audience. The film, which was nominated for the 1995 Academy Awards for best actor (Massimo Troisi), best adapted screenplay, best music, best director and best picture, is a fictional tale of love and poetry, inspired by an incident in the life of Pablo Neruda, the Chilean poet who was briefly exiled in 1952 for his communist ideas, and set on a small island in the Mediterranean Sea. Director Michael Radford created a film of beautiful imagery, language, music, and rhythms dealing with the unlikely friendship between a good-hearted, illiterate villager who takes the modest job of delivering letters to the celebrated poet living in a secluded area. Poetry, metaphor, become their connection: "Poetry doesn't belong to those who write it but to those who need it, " Mario tells Neruda after plagiarizing one of Neruda's poems in the service of wooing the beautiful Beatrice.

Dr. Ainslie's presentation, IL POSTINO: HOPE IN FILM, LIFE AND PSYCHOANALYSIS, will focus on fundamental, shared tenets of the psychoanalytic perspective the dynamic unconscious, the centrality of the frame and the relationship, talking as the medium, affect, insight, personal history, the symbolic function, etc.). Dr. Ainslie will ask the audience to consider the process of engaging and making use of the ebb and flow of our own and our patients' hope in the therapeutic endeavor.

Dr. Ainslie divides her presentation into three sections. In the Introduction, she will clarify the use of the film as a common set of images-in-motion that provides us with a transitional space in which to reflect on what we do in psychoanalytic treatment.

The Central Section of Dr. Ainslie's presentation begins with a brief summary "reading" of the film as manifest content, followed by a second similarly brief "reading of the film as metaphor for the story of an analysis. The third "reading" considers the film much more closely, viewing interactions between the postman, Mario, and his sole postal client, poet Pablo Neruda, as if they were analytic hours and viewing any other persons who might enter those "hours" as fantasized presences, that is, as either Mario's fantasies or Neruda's reveried images. Scenes in the film that do not portray interactions between Mario and Neruda are loosely considered "reality". In this way, Dr. Ainslie and the audience are called to learn about hope in the space made and used by two people in the imbalanced and idiosyncratic relationship of an analysis. The contents of the "analysand's" and the "analyst's" stories, prior to, during and following the "analysis", refer us to hopefulness and to mourning related to loss and disappointment.

The Conclusion of Dr. Ainslie's presentation appeals to us to explore new ways of portraying analytic process in order to enliven our communication with one another and non-analyst audiences. Open discussion between Dr. Ainslie and the audience will conclude her program.

Gemma Ainslie, Ph.D., who received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Michigan, is an Adjunct Faculty member of the Houston-Galveston Psychoanalytic Institute and of the Psychology Department of the University of Texas at Austin. As well as serving on the Board of Directors of the Division of Psychoanalysis (39) of the American Psychological Association, she was Founding President of the Austin Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology and has served as President of the Section of Women, Gender and Psychoanalysis of Division 39. Dr. Ainslie has presented at national and international conferences. Topics of recent interest to her include: the analyst's images in response to the patient's dream; memory, myth and memoir as factors in psychoanalytic change; metaphor and allegory in psychoanalytic process; hope in psychoanalysis; women's responses to reproductive crises. She has had a private practice in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy with adults, adolescents and children in Austin since 1981.

Location and Directions

The Meadows museum is located at 5900 Bishop Boulevard on the campus of Southern Methodist University (for SMU campus map, see www.smu.edu/maps/campus.asp  The Meadows museum is building #58 and the parking garage is #57 on the Map Index below the map). There is ample free parking under the museum. Reservations are not needed for the film and presentation, for which there is open seating. There is no charge for the film and program (reservations ARE required for the reception following the program, and there is a $20 per person charge for the reception as detailed below).

Reception

Immediately following Dr. Ainslie's program, there will be a cocktail-buffet RECEPTION for her at MOMO'S ITALIAN SPECIALTIES RESTAURANT, at 8300 Preston Center Plaza (Preston Center East). The reception will give audience members more opportunity for relaxed conversation with Dr. Ainslie and each other.

For the reception only, there will be a $20 charge per person for drinks, heavy Italian hors d'oeuvres, and dessert. RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED FOR THE RECEPTION (but not for the film, presentation and discussion at SMU) by April 5. For reservations for the cocktail-buffet reception, please call Judith Samson at 214-750-7692 or email to jgsamson@swbell.net , no later than April 5 (deadline required for catering). Please include a telephone number or email for return confirmation. Please bring a check to the reception in the amount of $20 per person, made to DSPP ARTS COMMITTEE.