"The Art, Ethics and Science of Cloning - the Myth of Pygmalion"

The Friends of the A.A. Brill Library of The New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute present "The Art, Ethics and Science of Cloning - the Myth of Pygmalion", a reading and discussion with a distinguished panel based on the recent publication of "Created in Our Own Images .com". The myth of Pygmalion remains one of our most enduring creation myths. In W.S. Gilbert’s now forgotten, but still-influential play Pygmalion and Galatea (1871), Pygmalion creates copies of his wife/model Cynisca, one of whom, Galatea comes to life. Whether it is Gilbert influenced by Ovid or George Bernard Shaw influenced by both, the myth anticipates some of Freud’s earliest theories as well as 21st century cloning. Fred Sander's republication of Gilbert's lost text in "Created in Our Own Images.com" is an opportunity to reflect on our species’ proclivity to replicate itself artistically, psychologically, culturally and biologically (stem-cell research).