Freud & the city
I am a bit of a Freud fan. He gave us some tools to suffer less and embrace our human complexity and incoherency. Due to its very essence psychoanalysis will always be an important undercurrent in our western culture, and not mainstream. However, it has lost too much position to one-size-fits-all 'therapies' that claim to cure human suffering by the same logic that created it in the first place.
To me psychoanalysis is a great tool, both as a 'subject' and as an urbanist. The birth of psychoanalysis took place during the "Fin de Siècle" that was a heyday of literature, art, music, architecture and philosophy, but which as also marked by profound social changes and conflicts. Practically no sphere of public and private life was not affected by industrialisation and urbanisation, the increasing pace of life, and the rise of new political groups. These upheavals were a matter of concern to both Sigmund Freud, and his fellow writers, all of whom were facing an environment dominated by conservative, nationalist and Anti-Semitic forces.
Sounds familiar? Today urban change is happening at a speed never seen before. People feel left out, both the haves and the have-nots. And the discours around our urban environments is often nothing more than that of 'smart' cities, with a focus on efficiency and economic benefits. But - as Jane Jacobs already said - "being human is itself difficult, and therefore all kinds of settlements (except dream cities) have problems. Big cities have difficulties in abundance, because they have people in abundance." I believe we can learn a lot from Sigmund Freud's ideas to not create dream cities, but real, humankind cities. Let's get together with people from various backgrounds - like Sigmund and his friends - embrace complexity and make our cities better for all.
Yesterday I finally got to visit Freud's former office at Berggasse 19 in Vienna, which he left in 1938 to flee from Nazism.
