Freud’s Oracle: Standing Ovation in Santa Fe, NM

Just returned from the Creativity & Madness Conference in Santa Fe, NM where I presented my new play, Freud’s Oracle, to an audience of psychiatrists, neuro-scientists, and psycho-therapists from all over the world, some 600 participants. The play re-creates a two- year analysis the American poet, H.D. had with Sigmund Freud, Vienna, 1933.

Freud’s Oracle, written and performed by award-winning actor-playwright Catherine Ann Jones, is a one-person play about the American poet H.D. (Hilda Doolittle 1886-1961) and her relationship with Sigmund Freud. H.D. suffered great personal losses and a nervous breakdown due to the Great War, becoming Freud’s patient in 1933 due to an increasing paranoia about the rise of Hitler and the fear and certainty that another war was coming. H.D. helped persuade Freud to leave Vienna and re-locate to London. The themes are the travesty of war and the triumph of the individual.

There were many enthusiastic comments. Here are two of my favorite ones from the Santa Fe Conference: A Japanese-American female therapist rushed backstage, tears in her eyes, and remarked, “Thank you for the Feminine Voice. Thank you for the Voice of the Feminine!”

A Jungian analyst, a woman from Seattle, wrote to me: “Both your presentations of Freud’s Oracle and also your Heal Your Self with Writing workshop were direct from the Self!  What a carrier you are. Jung and I are smiling.  Bravo, dear one.”

 Freud’s Oracle held me spell-bound.  Very compelling! Catherine Ann Jones captures the elusive essence of love at the core of the creative power and healing force of the “talking cure.”  We experience the timelessness of memory in which past, present, and future collide to open portals to the dreams and visions of the unconscious mind that can restore a sense of self and love of humanity even in the midst of war and a world run amok.   – Hendrika deVries, Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist

“I think what impressed me most was the atmosphere and tone you set up through H.D.’s reminiscences. She became a real embodied person for me as I read of her history and the terrible period of anticipation between the wars. Truly a strong and dramatic vignette in history with the right voice carrying it, it will be a powerhouse performance.Thank you for letting me experience H.D. on such a poetically personal level.”  –     Dennis Slattery, Ph.D., The Wounded Body

 “A beautiful job of catching H.D.’s voice through your gathering together of lines from her own writing – a fine sense of her rhythms, transitions, images.  I love imagining your performing this – you will do so beautifully!” –     Christine Downing, Ph.D., The Goddess: Mythological Images of the Feminine

“I think Freud’s Oracle is terrific! I am going to read it over again. Bravo!” – Arthur Kornhaber, M.D., American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, Spirit

“Thank you for your wonderful play, which brought so many memories back of reading H.D.’s poetry, and more. I was pleased to find that you interpret Freud as one open to the symbolism of all cultures and the oneness of the psyche. Your Professor is a wonderful character. I would love to see this come to life when you perform Freud’s Oracle.”   – Alfred Collins, Ph.D, Jungian psychologist, FatherSon

“In this deeply suspenseful drama, art turns analysis inside out as the poet, HD, puts Freud under her gaze. Seeing and being become a form of love. Freud’s Oracle is moving, mysterious, and wise.” – Betty Sue Flowers, Ph.D., Editor, Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth

Many of us have thought, “If only I could transport myself back in time to Freud and the fascinating people who surrounded him!” Jones’s new play comes as close to fulfilling this wish as anything I know. The present moment melts away as we step inside H.D.’s intimate experiences of herself, Freud, and their era.  Jones’s artful work not only pays tribute to the past but is a true gift to the present. – Dianne Skafte, Ph.D., Listening to the Oracle

 Freud’s Oracle Performances:

Aug 4, 2016 Santa Fe, Creativity & Madness Conference                                               http://www.creativityandmadness.com/

Oct 19-23 New Orleans, LA, womenofresilience.com

Dec 3 (Sat, 8pm) Santa Barbara, CA, Pacifica Graduate Institute, www.Pacifica.edu

 Freud’s Oracle is now available at amazon.com both in print & Kindle

If interest in Freud’s Oracle please contact catherinejones@wayofstory.com