Mind Maps, Freud, Psychotherapy, Partition

Available for over a year

Playwright Howard Brenton and the poet Moniza Alvi discuss writing about Partition - one of the most seismic events in the history of the Subcontinent and the subject of Brenton' s new play at Hampstead Theatre 'Drawing The Line' - and the new book-length poem 'At The Time of Partition' that has earned Alvi a place on the shortlist of this year's T S Eliot prize. From frogs' reflexes to cognitive behavioural therapy, the Science Museum in London is staging Mind Maps, an exhibition on the history of psychology. Philip discusses it with psychologist Keith Laws and Clare Allan, who's written about the experience of being a psychiatric patient. The parent-child relationship is central to Freud's account of human psychology. A new volume of correspondence between Freud and his daughter Anna gives insight into how he managed the relationship in his own family. Lisa Appignanesi joins Philip to put the volume in context. As religion has declined, has psychotherapy come to take its place in how we think about what it is to be human? Giles Fraser has written about the relationship between the two, but are they really compatible? Giles joins Philip along with New Generation Thinker Christopher Harding. Producer: Luke Mulhall.