Peter Loewenberg, UCLA emeritus professor of history, gave the keynote address to the Deutsche Psychoanalytische Vereinigung (DPV, the German Psychoanalytic Association) at its annual congress.
Loewenberg presented, in German, his research on "Aby Warburg, the Hopi Serpent Ritual, and Ludwig Binswanger." Warburg (1866-1929) was a distinguished European cultural historian who researched the vestiges of pagan antiquity in Renaissance and Reformation art, and who explored the secret rituals of the Hopi Indians in Arizona. In 1918, he descended into psychosis, which was treated by Ludwig Binswanger, a student of Freud and the founder of existential analysis.
In 2013, Loewenberg was elected an honorary member of the DPV, which engages with the public on issues of culture and social theory, philosophy, art, literature and the history of film. The organization represents the cultural-critical approach to psychoanalysis and promotes an understanding of the unconscious drivers of social phenomena and changes.
