Conference Agenda

Presented is a psychobiographical study of the British painter Gwen John (1876- 1939), who worked in France for most of her career. A narrative-dialogical and attachment framework was adopted to explore the way that Gwen John constructed her life story. An adjusted version of the “Life-Story Interview” (McAdams & Bowman, 2001) was used that distinguishes between redemption versus contamination narratives. The narrative analysis of autobiographical materials revealed turning points and a central life theme as dictated by the method. The painter appeared to construct her life story around the theme: “In search of secure inner and outer spaces”. (i) The origin of the theme and its supporting voices can be found in her traumatic attachment pattern related to her mother’s early death. (ii) The theme showed unique developments throughout her life, as evident in autobiographical documents and self-portraits. (iii) Turning points appear to emerge out of a dialogical process, all of which mark successive shifts in her life narrative and her ongoing search for secure inner and outer spaces. The importance of making meaning of life stories within a narrative-dialogical and attachment framework is discussed. Trauma histories can be shaped in later life and safety sought in ways that reflect continuous inner and outer dialogues.

Pina Bausch (1940-2009), a pioneer in 20th century’s dance and founder of “dancetheatre”, was born and raised in Germany through and post World War II. In an autobiographical speech when awarded Kyoto Prize (2007), she emphasizes that her childhood experiences - marked by war, lived and carried through senses – are represented on stage. Dance training was a positive self-empowering experience for her. She later forms major innovations establishing Tanztheater Wuppertal. In this autobiographical study, focus turns on the procedure of on-stage narratives that seem as a path of unfolding, understanding, giving meaning, sharing and reframing painful, traumatic human experiences, thus creating artistic and collective experiences of catharsis and resilience, leading to a position of control and making choices. Pina would start rehearsals posing open questions to explore the dancers’ perspectives, worked in a “collage” method putting together childhood memories with adult themes, emphasized the importance of group polyphony and human connection. We discuss how such a creative pace may be seen as a model of healing and resilience. Clinical implications are discussed.

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), founder of the “talking cure,” is approached not only as a theoretical innovator but as a dialogical subject whose life narrative bears the imprint of transgenerational trauma. The study focuses on Freud’s 1936 letter to Romain Rolland, in which he revisits a derealization experience during his 1904 visit to the Acropolis—an event described as the fulfillment of a lifelong and “forbidden” dream. Drawing on Dialogical Self Theory, the letter is analyzed as a polyphonic text in which multiple self-positions interact. Three dominant voices are identified: a vulnerable self, marked by guilt, non-belonging, and derealization; a heroic self, associated with achievement, desire, and conquest; and a punitive self that restricts pleasure and success. These voices are further traced across Freud’s childhood memory of his father’s humiliation, linked to his Jewish identity, and his final dream of arriving at Pevensey during exile, as recorded by Ernest Jones. Across these narrative fragments, the figure of the vulnerable hero emerges—not as a resolution of paternal rivalry, but as a dialogical integration of rejection and heroism shaped by collective and generational trauma. In dialogue with other symposium case studies (Darwin, Gwen John, Pina Bausch), Freud’s experience is reframed as part of a wider pattern in which resilience is forged through reflective, narrative, and embodied voices. The presentation concludes by proposing vulnerability as a central dialogical position of the self and by inviting reflection on dreams—both nocturnal and waking—as privileged spaces for dialogue, transformation, and meaning-making.

Darwin is probably one of the most intriguing personalities and prolific scientist of the late 19th century, having shaped decisively our understanding of human nature and descend. Using a narrative and dialogical prism, we sought to explore how Darwin constructed his self from childhood (marked by the early death of his mother) to adulthood (marked by his famous travels, but also from illness and suffering. We analyzed his early memories, as described in his autobiography, and a letter to his wife. We identified two antithetical themes and the corresponding voices that sustained them: the theme of his ordinary and timid nature (the voices speaking of "an ordinary boy", a “future shame” for his family), but also the curiosity and zeal theme (the voices speaking of "a naturalist from cradle"). Despite the antithesis, in the process of writing his autobiography, Darwin managed to produce a coherent, evolving story of who he was with the help of a self-reflective voice that was encompassed even in his early memories. Three specific self-reflective processes were identified: “connecting voices”, “exploring mind diversity”, “owning his position”. The study’s results are in line with Herman’s understanding of a reflective voice’s functions as unifying, executing, and liberating. We discuss how psychobiography can serve as a theory-building case study and can contribute to support, specify or widen a theoretical approach.