The work of research: remembering, repeating and working-through

This text argues for the ways in which the psychoanalytic ‘practice’ of ‘working-through’ can be aligned with the ‘practices’ of thinking about, writing on and curating works of art. By taking Freud’s seminal essay ‘Remembering, Repeating and Working-Through’, the chapter critically engages with the ways in which Georges Perec in his essay on his psychoanalysis, Tacita Dean’s curation of the exhibition ‘An Aside’ and T.J. Clark’s viewing and writing about Poussin’s paintings are all examples of how we ‘work-through’ the anxieties and pleasures of what is at stake in our practices.