13.6. Vortrag - June Pilcher: Consciousness in Modern
Society: Life in the Human Zoo
June J. Pilcher: Consciousness in Modern Society: Life in the Human Zoo
Vortrag in englischer Sprache
13. Juni 2012, 19 Uhr
Sigmund Freud Museum
Berggasse 19, 1090 Wien
Eintritt frei, Anmeldung erbeten: office@freud-museum.at
The human brain is a fantastic biological machine. It provides us with many abilities
including our every emotion, our thoughts about the nature of the universe, and our ability
to do the rumba. It also gives us the desire to climb Mt. Everest 'because it is there,' the
ability to think about quantum physics, and human consciousness.
Sigmund Freud is perhaps the most famous of the many philosophers and psychologists
who have attempted to explain human consciousness. The effort continues today using a
greater understanding of the mammal brain and particularly of the human brain. The
purpose of the current presentation is to examine how the current theories about the
human brain relate to earlier theories about the brain and mind and how our feelings of
consciousness affect our ability to function in the world that we have created for ourselves –
the human zoo.
Dr. June J. Pilcher is currently the Fulbright-Freud Visiting Lecturer of Psychoanalysis for
2011-2012 at the Sigmund Freud Museum and at the University of Vienna. She earned her
Ph.D. in Biopsychology from the University of Chicago in 1989. She served as a research
psychologist for three years in the US Army at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research
in Washington, DC before beginning her academic career at Bradley University in Peoria, IL.
Dr. Pilcher joined the faculty at Clemson University in August 2001. She was promoted to
full professor in 2005 and was awarded an Alumni Distinguished Professorship in 2009. Dr.
Pilcher’s research on the effects of stress and fatigue has been funded for over 15 years by
several national agencies including the Federal Railroad Administration and the Center for
Advanced Study of Language at the University of Maryland. Her other interests include
teaching and training in a non-competitive, traditional martial art and rescuing ex-racing
greyhounds. She has received numerous awards for her research and her work with
students, including the Bradley Award for Mentoring in Creative Inquiry at Clemson
University and being named as a Fellow in the Association for Psychological Science in 2010.
Eine Veranstaltung der Sigmund Freud Privatstiftung in Kooperation mit der Austrian-American
Educational Commission