Presentation in Embassy of Mexico in London. Four women: four passions. (Sept. 2013)



Cristina Jarque
This book is the fifth volume of the Psychoanalytic Collection Lapsus de Toledo, a collection that has been the fruit of teamwork achieved by us as members of the Association of Lapsus de Toledo, which is a cultural association founded in the city of Toledo, Spain.  Its objective is to create a space for study and research on the psychoanalytic practice.  It is two psychoanalysts that mobilize our desire: Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) who discovered the unconscious and Jacques Lacan (1901-1981) who elaborated a new theory based on the Freudian discovery. 
On this occasion, I would like to especially thank Elvira Velasco, Laura Medina Mora, Miguel Vilchis, Gorana Manenti, Lola Burgos Astrid Zeceña and Belén Rico who is always with us, for the invaluable support they have provided.  It has been a privilege for us to make our dream come true and of being able to present our book in London.
Four Women: Four Passions, is made up of twenty five articles. The co-authors live and work in different countries.  At the beginning of the book we have the collaboration of seven colleagues that have written a commentary on the reading each of them has made on the book. 
I would like to profoundly thank, on the one hand, all the women that as co-authors, maintain an intense and deep bond connecting us all.  It is such a beautiful bond that there are no words to measure or to express it. 


On the other hand, I would like to thank the gentlemen who participated in these writings, a friendly and professional bond unites me to them too.  I would like to express my desire that through this book, which has been one more uniting point between us, this friendship and professional bond, is stronger and stronger.  It is my desire that it unites us even more, regardless of distances, differences or any obstacles that may come in our way. 
In this book called Four Women: Four Passions, we will find profound reflections around love, obsession, madness and enjoyment of these four women whose lives have been of great interest to many.   Studies as well as research, analyses and observations have been made by connoisseurs on these women for the reason that they all represent paradigms of femininity.  The latter as being something enigmatic and incomprehensible.
Frida Kahlo, Camille Claudel, Juana de Castilla and Teresa de Ávila, are the four women functioning as our cause for writing this book.  These women have been enigmatic, extraordinary, joyful, obsessed, at times even mad; but most importantly they have been passionate. 
These women have tried to make themselves heard in a thousand different ways: sometimes softly, at times even in silence and on many other occasions through strong, intense and even furious screams. 
Frida by means of her painting, Camille through her sculpture, Juana through her jealousy and Teresa in her writings; they all seduce us and incite us to create bridges between their stories and their passions.  Passions like the ones these women possess, our women, each and every one of the co-authors who have come together with the purpose of finding our own voice to say something about what the life of these women has caused us.
I would like to say that I feel very honoured to be the coordinator of this collection of books, we are working with lots of strength and the reward to our efforts is the vertiginous frequency and continuous publication of these volumes.  At the present moment we are working on a book that speaks of perversions.  We will be privileged to count on articles from several colleagues who are members of the European Fundation for Psychoanalysis.    All of these publications fill us with happiness and that is why we want to share with all of you the enthusiasm of our writing. 
What interests me in particular, is to transmit, at this presentation of our book, that it is precisely a book that is interesting for all ages, as it speaks of human passions.  And I must say everyone wants to know about human passions as it is a topic that concerns us all.
Our work in Toledo is ongoing, we are filled with projects, with enthusiasm and with an intense desire to continue creating and producing events that increment the expansion and transmission of the culture that is linked to our psychoanalytic labor. 
This book is a vivid example of those links that we are building, because as psychoanalysts, our desire is to create links with other disciplines.  It is for this reason that each one of the co-authors in this book, writes from that place that is unique to each one of them in their particularity.  This is why Four Women: Four Passions, is an extremely interesting and original book. 
This book's protagonists have inspired the pen of nineteen co-authors who take part in this writing.  Each one of these female characters will allow us to study and observe a specific passion: Frida Kahlo who sustains her suffering through her painting and through her love for Diego Rivera, Camille Claudel who unchains her madness caused by her desperate obsessional love felt for Auguste Rodin and that we see cannot manage to remain stable even through her sculpture, Juana de Castilla who experiences hell because of her jealousy of the infidelities of Felipe, the love of her life, and finally, Teresa de Ávila who allows us to study mystic passion.  
It is as a result, fascinating to be informed of the biography of these women who have been interesting and enigmatic icons of femininity.   Our interest is for us as women, to be able to transmit what we have found to perceive in femininity as enigmatic and in human passions.  
It is widely known, as well, that there is an intimate and indissoluble link that exists between creating, in art, and the passion of the creator as an artist.  What there exists is really something that goes beyond...  It is towards that 'beyond' that we are directing ourselves to.  It is for this reason that we want to transmit what is at play, which is something strong sometimes based in existential suffering that characterises us all as human beings.   That is what we call the pain of existence.  Thanks you very much.
Traducido al inglés por Astrid Zeceña
Relectura y corrección por Jessica Nahmias

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