Catherine Clement – författare

An incisive and impassioned examination of women’s treatment in opera.Catherine ClÉment analyzes the plots of over thirty prominent operas-Otello and Siegfried to Madame Butterfly and The Magic Flute-through the lenses of feminism and literary theory to unveil the negative messages about women in stories familiar to every opera listener.

Does for spirituality what Sophie’s World did for philosophy. Theo is fourteen, very clever, reads a lot, loves computer games and the Greek myths. But then, suddenly, he falls ill. His rich aunt Martha decides that they must roam the world to find a cure for his malaise.What follows is a tour of the world’s religions and religious sites, with the sceptical, quizzical Theo being shown the varieties and depths of faith that exist in other places, other cultures.All this is handled with real style, pace, wit and clarity. The book is a thoroughly enjoyable introduction to why and how people believe in their God – even Dave Allen would have liked it.

A comparison of Western and Indian philosophies using syncope, to describe the escape from self and the rapture of uncertainty in human endeavour.

Germany, 1975. Two women near the end of their lives come together at the bedside of an old man, after having spent the last fifty years vying for first place in his heart. While one of the 20th century's greatest minds slumbers in the grip of nightmares, the two enemies sit in a nearby room and declare a truce. One is the man's wife, a woman who has always played her role as the devoted mother and the obedient, bourgeois Hausfrau to the Great Man and the tyrannical husband. The other is his former student and lover, nearly twenty years his junior. She is the Jewish intellectual consumed by her clear-sightedness.He is the brilliant and famous philosopher, now tormented by his Nazi past. In this wide-ranging score, each performer has an individual theme, yet each shares some of the notes of the others. But, above all, this fugue for three voices reveals the mark of the greatest tragedy of the century: for the characters are Martin Heidegger, his wife Elfriede, and Hannah Arendt. Catherine Clement skilfully paints a chiaroscuro portrait of forbidden love, recreating a famous love affair while turning the subtle intricacies of philosophy into memorable, enduring fiction.

The Weary Sons of Freud lambasts mainstream psychoanalysis for its failure to grapple with pressing political and social matters pertinent to its patients' condition. Gifted with insight and compelled by fury, Catherine Clément contrasts the original, inspirational psychoanalytical work of Freud and Lacan to the obsessive imitations of their uninspired followers-the weary sons of Freud.The analyst's once attentive ear has become deaf to the broader questions of therapeutic practice. Clement asks whether the perspective of socialism, brought to this study by a woman who is herself an analysand, can fill the gap. She reflects on her own history, as well as on that of psychoanalysis and the French left, to show what an activist and feminist restoration of the talking cure might look like.