This talk examines the impact of psychoanalysis as an epistemological field on the modern Turkish novelistic imagination and investigates the transcultural manifestation of psychoanalytical theory in the Turkish literary intellectual sphere. It seeks to go beyond the “psychology of literature” or “literary psychology” approaches towards a new interdisciplinary understanding of literature and psychiatry from the vantage point of the fields of medical humanities and transcultural psychiatry. It discusses the introduction of psychoanalytical discourse into the medical field in Turkey and explores the ways in which it evolves, corresponding to the global developments, as an ideational theme in the Turkish novel. It looks at how psychoanalytical theory became a significant contact zone to discuss broader issues beyond psych-fields through two works as case studies: Matmazel Noraliya’nın Koltuğu (1949, The Armchair of Mademoiselle Noralia) by Peyami Safa (1800-1961) and Saatleri Ayarlama Enstitüsü (1962, The Time Regulation Institute) by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar (1901-1961).
Wed 02 Feb 2022
