Committee of Women and Psychoanalysis
“No heart is more murderous than a woman’s when she is wronged in love”
Euripides
The story of Jason and the Argonauts’ voyage to steal the Golden Fleece from Colchida one of the oldest and most famous among Greek myths. Its development from the oldest layers of Greek mythology down to the modern age encapsulates the dramatic changes in faith, power and culture that Western civilization has seen over the past millenniums.
Medea’s character passed through a long way of interpretation from ancient literature until nowadays. Love and politics, duty and betrayal, jealousy and revenge, motherhood, the position of omen in marriage and society, the fate of children in divorced families, dependence and independence, pride and rage – all these human passions are interwoven in this story. Therefore, Medea’s character inspired a great number of poets, writers and researchers. And there is a large field for psychoanalytic inquiries.
Colchis, a powerful kingdom at the East of the Black Sea, which Greeks considered to be the edge of earth, was a place where they projected the archaic layer of the myth. Renounced by Hellenistic civilization, the myth of Medea represents a residence of archaic fantasies and wild passions repressed by Hellenistic culture. Nowadays Colchis is a part of Georgia, where the COWAP 2018 conference will take place.
Thus, Medea, as a mythical figure, represents a universal and multifaceted archetype-a symbol – and it is not surprising that, due to multifunctionality and significance, Medea’s image, an image of a powerful, omnipotend, pre-oedipal god-mother, is repressed into the uncounscious of every female.
In this sense the myth of Medea is a part of our intellectual, cultural and symbolic heritage.
The overall theme “Medea” covers many COWAP issues: topics related to issues mainly concerning women, but also relations between men and women, masculinity and femininity in modern times, the outside world and its problems, the socio-cultural point of view and the reflection of psychoanalytic concepts. COWAP encourages and supports local and international study groups to organize conferences and regional events, theoretical-clinical conferences on issues of social relevance (COWAP mandate), supports and enhances the interregional cooperation of IPA societies, Study groups and direct members in East Europe and other Eastern countries.