Rejected Religion Podcast Rejected Religion Spotlight Dr. Vanessa Sinclair: Discussing the Upcoming Morbid Anatomy Course, "The Cut in Creation"
Vanessa Sinclair, PsyD is a psychoanalyst in private practice, who works remotely online with people all over the world. She hosts the internationally-renowned podcast Rendering Unconscious, which was awarded the Gradiva Award for Digital Media by the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis (NAAP).
Dr. Sinclair is the author of Things Happen (2024), Scansion in Psychoanalysis and Art: The Cut in Creation (2021), The Pathways of the Heart (2021), and Switching Mirrors (2016).
She is the editor of Psychoanalytic Perspectives on the Films of Ingmar Bergman: From Freud to Lacan and Beyond(2023), as well as the Rendering Unconscious: Psychoanalytic Perspectives book series.
Dr. Sinclair co-edited The Queerness of Psychoanalysis: From Freud and Lacan to Laplanche and Beyond (2025) with Elisabeth Punzi and Myriam Sauer, as well as Outsider Inpatient: Reflections on Art as Therapy (2021) with Elisabeth Punzi, On Psychoanalysis and Violence: Contemporary Lacanian Perspectives (2019) with Manya Steinkoler, and The Fenris Wolf vol 9 (2017) and The Fenris Wolf vol 11 (2022) with Carl Abrahamsson.
She is a founding member of Das Unbehagen: A Free Association for Psychoanalysis, sits on the International Advisory Board for the journal Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society, and is Editorial Advisor for Parapraxis Magazine.
Vanessa and I talk about her upcoming course with Morbid Anatomy, “The Cut in Creation: Exploring the Avant-Garde, Dada, Surrealism, Modern Art, Noise Music, and Performance Art through a Psychoanalytic Lens.” This course will be taking place on Sundays, from May 25- June 15, and all classes will be recorded for those who can’t make it to the live class for whatever reason.
As the Morbid Anatomy website states:
Drawing on the theories of a variety of psychoanalysts, including Freud, Lacan and Laplanche, the course will explore the long and rich relationship between psychoanalysis and the fine arts – from painting and music to poetry, collage, photography, film, and performance art, including the use of technology and body modification to explore aspects of identity, gender and sexuality. Through immersion in the work of these artists and psychoanalytic ideas, participants will walk away with a better understanding of the transformative process inherent of the act of creation itself, especially when used as a powerful disruption of narrative, and hopefully feel inspired themselves to create!
In this discussion, Vanessa gives a sneak peek into each of the four parts of the course. Some highlights are:
- talking about the inspiration for the course;
- outlining the events that led to the creation of psychoanalysis as well as the avant-garde movement;
- expanding on the historical backdrop – what was happening during these years that created this paradigm shift;
- looking at the years leading up to WW1, and what was taking place then, focusing on psychoanalysis and the avant-garde art scenes;
- focusing on surrealism and later developments in experimental film, followed by some discussion on the Beat Poets, and outlining how these three are interconnected;
- focusing on the birth of pop art, and art as it moved from the galleries to the streets, as well as performance art that included the body as an important vehicle/tool of expression.
PROGRAM NOTES:
Vanessa’s website (with all links):
Dr Vanessa Sinclair
Morbid Anatomy Course:
The Cut in Creation: Exploring the Avant-Garde, Dada, Surrealism, Modern Art, Noise Music, and Performance Art through a Psychoanalytic Lens, Led by Vanessa Sinclair, PsyD, Begins May 25 — Morbid Anatomy
Selected Works:
Podcast Rendering Unconscious:
Instagram:
Robert Frank,
Me and My Brother (1968)
Me and My Brother (1968) - IMDb
Music, Editing and Video Production: Stephanie Shea