Dr Kurt Lampe
BA(UCSD), M.A.(Calif.), PhD(UC Berkeley)
Expertise
I'm interested in how mental wellbeing is bound up with the health of various systems outside the individual, from social and spiritual forces to technology and politics.
Current positions
Senior Lecturer
Department of Classics & Ancient History
Contact
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Biography
My university education was very broad, but my PhD focused on classical Greek philosophy. Most of my subsequent research has attempted to illuminate topics of modern concern through investigations of ancient philosophy. This has become increasingly focused on mental wellbeing and its relation to spirituality. I am also a psychotherapist in training.
focused on anthropology and classical (Greek and Roman) literature, history, and especially philosophy.
Research interests
My BA was in classics and anthropology (1999, University of California at San Diego), my PhD in classics with an emphasis on philosophy (2007, Berkeley). Since 2017 I've been taking modules in psychotherapy, and since 2019 have been pursuing a clinical MA at the Bath Centre for Psychotherapy and Counselling. From 2023 to 2026 I am on placement in the local NHS mental health trust, currently with the Complex Psychological Interventions team. I also see clients in private practice.
I'm interested in big questions about what makes us who we are and how we can care for ourselves and each other. I take for granted that the best answers will involve thinking not only about our brains or minds, but also about our families, friends, communities, technologies, and relationships with nonhuman others (from plants and animals to gods). I often turn to ancient Greece and its reception in order to find new answers to these big questions. I'm also increasingly interested in Old Norse religion and languages.
Contact
Rm 1.2, 36 Tyndalls Park Road
(0117) 928 8168 clkwl@bristol.ac.uk
Research Supervision
I'd be particularly enthusiastic about supervising postgraduate work that combines contemporary psychoanalytic or Jungian approaches to thought and feeling with with ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, literature, or religion.
Teaching
My teaching ranges from Greek and Latin language and literature at all levels through ancient rhetoric, philosophy, epic and tragic poetry in translation, myth and religion. I also teach a range of modern topics, from the clinical and philosophical aspects of psychotherapy to cinema and comic books.
Service
From 2015-2019 I was the Deputy Head of Subject and Director of Undergraduate Teaching. From 2016-2019 I was a member of the University Senate.
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
Classical Polytheism and Modern Wellbeing
Principal Investigator
Description
This is a working group to bring together academics in several subjects, therapists from diverse backgrounds, and pagan practitioners. Our hope is that this dialogue will generate new resources for…Managing organisational unit
Department of Classics & Ancient HistoryDates
23/05/2018 to 01/09/2018
Continental Stoicisms: The Meanings and Values of Greco-Roman Stoicism in European Philosophy Today
Principal Investigator
Description
We discovered particularly noteworthy developments in the areas of metaphysics, philosophy of language, and the ethics of freedom and subjectivity.Managing organisational unit
Department of Classics & Ancient HistoryDates
01/01/2016 to 31/12/2016
Thesis supervisions
The struggle of the soul and the return to goodness
Supervisors
Hatred in Hesiod
Supervisors
Greek myth and America
Supervisors
Publications
Recent publications
01/01/2025Children of Hermes: Archetypal Psychology and Greek Myths
The Bloomsbury Handbook of Psychoanalysis and Classical Reception
Money Talks
Paragraph
Sex
The Oxford Handbook of Roman Philosophy
Orestes, Katabasis, and Aggrieved Masculine Entitlement
The Descent of the Soul and the Archaic
The Spiritual Dimension of Stoic Ascesis
Reaching for Perfection
Teaching
I teach Greek and Latin literature at all levels, both in the original and in translation; Greek and Roman philosophy; classical reception; literary theory; theories of myth; and history of psychology.