Philoctetes: The Journal of the Center for the Multidisciplinary Study of Imagination provides a setting for the best of the interface between creative arts, science, and psychoanalysis, culled from the community—composed of novelists and philosophers, psychoanalysts and filmmakers, poets and neurologists interested in a multifaceted study of the imagination—which the Center has established around itself over the past few years.
The cross-pollination between the worlds of art and science in particular seems to be sorely lacking in much of our literature, and the journal aims to redress that. With increasing professional specialization, we run the risk of compartmentalizing the most highly trained and gifted within each discipline and of missing what each could bring to bear on the others' work. Psychoanalysis and neuroscience have sought to bridge this divide, and, with a focus on the imagination, the Center has brought artists from many fields to this discussion, both resurrecting an intellectual salon of sorts and creating a channel between the scientific and humanistic cultures.
With an original scientific article alongside essays about topics related to the imagination and excerpts from the conferences and roundtable discussions the center has hosted, with poetry, visual art, and a research digest summarizing recent scientific findings related to the study of the imagination, the journal aims to increasingly develop into a powerful distillation of the best of interdisciplinary thinking. The intent is to catalyze on ongoing approach to mental life and imagination from different but never mutually exclusive paradigms, abandoning a dichotomous way of thinking for an integrative look at the true conflicts and compatibilities between the different systems of thought—neuroscientific, psychoanalytic, and philosophical—that attempt to understand how we think and create.
We are pleased to announce the publication of Vol. II, Issue 2. Journals may be purchased by mail for $15 each. Please send your name and mailing address with enclosed payment to the address below. Checks should be made out to The Philoctetes Center.
Unfortunately, due to budgetary constraints, publication of the Journal has been suspended until further notice. For this reason, we are not accepting new subscriptions. However, we are happy to send individual copies of past issues. For more information about how you can help sponsor the journal and other Philoctetes programs, please visit our Support page.
Mail to: Philoctetes Journal, 247 E. 82nd St., New York, NY 10028