Most Black clinicians will have a White supervisor during their career. De centering White discomfort leaves opportunity to address the counter transference of same race clinical dyads, promote supervisee’s growth and most importantly, disrupt harmful treatment. Fanon illuminates the pre-migration context which can render hostile the psyche of African and Caribbean immigrants towards Black Americans spreading the epidermilization of inferiority and lactification. Joy De Gruy’s Post Traumatic Slavery Syndrome identifies self directed antipathy to Black culture, Black self-esteem, or Black beauty. While using classic clinical techniques, White supervisors can offer a trauma informed, social justice oriented supervision to Black clinicians.  

At the conclusion of this program, participants will be able to:

1. Assess their own supervision practice for anti-Black undercurrents.

2. Incorporate select Fanonian concepts of decolonization into their existing clinical supervision technique.

3. Discuss Post Traumatic Slavery Syndrome and its implications for counter transference within same race clinical dyads for Black clinician supervisees. 

4. Select appropriate questions to encourage discussion on intragroup conflict and self reflection in supervision with Black clinician supervisees.

April's research focus is on Black mental health and the complexity of relationships between African-Americans, Caribbean and African immigrants, culturally informed interventions as well as training and curriculum development. For over 20 years, she served in both large NYC social service agencies and small, grass roots not-for-profit organizations. April is a LCSW, SIFI certified Practicum Instructor and currently works in private psychotherapy practice. April attained her BS from Yale University; MSW from Columbia University; and a doctorate of Clinical Social Work from NYU where she currently teaches in the BSW and MSW program at the Silver School of Social Work.  

Bartholomew, T. T., Pérez-Rojas, A. E., Bledman, R., Joy, E. E., & Robbins, K. A. (2023). “How could I not bring it up?”: A multiple case study of therapists’ comfort when Black clients discuss anti-Black racism in sessions. Psychotherapy, 60(1), 63–75. https://doi.org/10.1037/pst0000404

Goode-Cross, D. T., & Grim, K. A. (2016). “An unspoken level of comfort”: Black therapists’ experiences working with Black clients. The Journal of Black Psychology, 42(1), 29–53. https://doi.org/10.1177/009579841 4552103

DeGruy, J. (2017). Post traumatic slave syndrome  America’s legacy of enduring injury and healing. Joy DeGruy Publications Inc.

Ebubedike, N., Callanan, M., & Oldershaw, A. (2024). “The Relentless Nature of Whiteness”: Black Psychologists’ experiences of racial microaggressions in cross-cultural supervision. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 31(3), e3011. https://doi-org.proxy.library.nyu.edu/10.1002/cpp.3011

Holmes, D. E., Hart, A., Powell, D. R., Stoute, B. J. (2023). The Holmes Commission’s journey toward racial equality in American psychoanalysis: Reflection and hope. The American Psychoanalyst, 57(1), pp. 1-7. https://apsa.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/74728_TAP-Winter- 2023_web.pdf

Robcis, C. (2020). Frantz Fanon, Institutional Psychotherapy, and the Decolonization of Psychiatry. Journal of the History of Ideas, 81(2), 303–325. https://doi-org.proxy.library.nyu.edu/10.1353/jhi.2020.0009

And please join us starting at 6:30pm for RIAPP’s Annual Holiday Party!

This Saturday conference is a hybrid event, and there is the option to attend in person or virtually. More information available through the registration process.

In person attendees —find us by entering via the side entrance on Diman Street

3 Continuing Education Credits available for Psychologists and Social Workers.

FALL 2024 CONFERENCE

This presentation explores identity formation and identity presentation in psychoanalytic practice with Latinx populations to shed light on the complexities of life in the barrio, a life often marked by poverty, migration, marginalization, and barriers of language, class, and race. I will explore identity and identification at the intersection of psyche and community, addressing modalities of individual suffering that are also allegories of social conditions, with populations that have been historically marginalized for their race, gender, class, or sexualities..

At the conclusion of this program, participants will be able to:

1. Identify and describe basic issues of class, ethnicity, race, and language as they intersect among marginalized populations in the Barrio. 

2. Accrue a better understanding of some of the basic misconceptions about the applicability of psychoanalysis.

3. Develop a deeper understanding of the role of identity and identification in psychoanalytic clinical practice with marginalized populations.

Patricia Gherovici, Ph.D. is  Sigourney Award recipient for her work with Latinx and gender variant communities. Her books include The Puerto Rican Syndrome (Gradiva Award and Boyer Prize),  Please Select Your Gender: From the Invention of Hysteria to the Democratizing of Transgenderism and Transgender Psychoanalysis: A Lacanian Perspective on Sexual Difference . She co-authored with Chris Christian Psychoanalysis in the Barrios: Race, Class, and the Unconscious  (Gradiva Award and American Board and Academy of Psychoanalysis Book Prize), and with Manya Steinkoler Lacan On Madness: Madness Yes You Can't  ;  Lacan, Psychoanalysis and Comedy and, Psychoanalysis, Gender and Sexualities: From Feminism to Trans* (Gradiva Award). 

1) Gherovici, P. (2023) “Why I Did Not Write a Book on Lacan and Tango” E-Flux Journal, https://www.e-flux.com/notes/530284/why-i-did-not-write-a-book-on-lacan-and-tango, March 2023.

2) Gherovici, P. (2022) "Hate Up to My Couch: Psychoanalysis, Community, Poverty and the Role of Hatred" Psychoanalysis and History, Volume 24 Issue 3, Page 269-290, ISSN 1460-8235 Available Online Dec 2022. Open access. (https://doi.org/10.3366/pah.20)

3) Gherovici, P.(2022) "Beyond fear and pity". Psychoanalytic Review, 109(3), 2022, 287–308.

4) Winograd, B. (2016). Psychoanalysis in El Barrio [Documentary film].Christian, C., Reichbart, R., Moskowitz, M., Morillo, R., Winograd, B., Ainslie, R., Almario, M., Christian, C., Delgado, J. M., Gaztambide, D. J., Gherovici, P., Javier, R. A., de Lourdes Mattei, M., Sánchez-Montañez, P., Mujica, E., Padrón, C., D. Nieves Pizarro, G. & Ramirez, D. (2016) Psychoanalysis in El Barrio.

5) Kernberg, O. F. (2016) Chapter 6. The Pressing Need to Increase Research in and on Psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic Education at the Crossroads: Reformation, change and the future of psychoanalytic training 94:89-106.

6)Aafjes-van Doorn, K., & Prout, T. A. (2022). Changing attitudes toward evidence-based psychodynamic psychotherapy. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 39(3), 217–225. https://doi.org/10.1037/pap0000397

This virtual event will take place on 10/9/24.

The event was previously listed for 10/2 but has been rescheduled for 10/9.

This event will be held virtually via Zoom. 1.5 CEs available through APA and NASW

This talk examines the unique contribution Dobrich offers psychoanalysis through her qualitative study of “survivor siblings,” siblings who share a developmental landscape with severely disabled and medically complex compatriots. What happens to a person’s sense of self both personally and professionally when they grow up alongside a severely disabled sibling? The main findings of her research from her book will be shared, as well as a broader discussion about the importance of attending to lateral life experiences, in our understanding more generally of human development and identity, with regard to survivorship.

At the conclusion of this program, participants will be able to:

1. Define the term survivor sibling and identify the impact of disabled siblings on the psychic development and interpersonal relations of their non-disabled siblings.

2. Apply a dissociative model of the mind to understand the impact of chronic medical disability on the family system.

3. Identify two ways survivor siblings attach to their disabled siblings psychically through examples.  

Johanna Dobrich is a licensed clinical social worker and graduate of ICP’s four-year psychoanalytic training program.  She is on the Faculty at the Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy, the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Study Center, and the National Institute for the Psychotherapies, where she teaches courses on trauma, dissociation, and contemporary psychoanalytic practice from a Relational perspective, as well as supervises candidates in training. She is the author of the book “Working with Survivor Siblings in Psychoanalysis” for which she received the 2023 Sandor Ferenczi Award from the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation, and has authored numerous articles on dissociation, loss and mourning. Johanna is in private practice in New York, NY.

Caplan, R. (2011) Someone Else Can Use This Time More Than Me: Working with College Students with Impaired Siblings, Journal of College Student Psychotherapy, 25:2, 120-131.

Dobrich, J. & Saidipour, P. (2023) Forthcoming: Did you drink milk with dinner growing up?: A Lateral Tale of Formulating our Socio-Cultural Identities in Psychoanalytic Supervision.

Dobrich, J.  (2022) The Creative Use of Birth Stories in Psychoanalytic Treatments, Psychoanalytic Social Work, 29:2, 109-122.

Dobrich, J. (2021). Working with Survivor Siblings in Psychoanalysis: Disability and Ability in Clinical Process.  New York: Routledge. 

Dobrich, J. & Quinn,P. (2021). “Psychoanalytic Theory as Used in Art Therapy for Addiction and Trauma” in Art Therapy in the Treatment of Addiction & Trauma. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. 

Dobrich, J. (2020). An Elegy for Motherless Daughters: Dissociation, Multiplicity, and Mourning, Psychoanalytic Perspectives, 17:3, 366-384.

The party will be at a private residence on the East Side of Providence, RI. Advance registration is required. The address will be emailed to registrants 24-48 hours before the event.

This event is free to members and the public! Please note that you must RSVP by registering here:

This lecture will be held virtually on Zoom. It will be an abbreviated version of the February conference, with the goal being to expand the audience and make the program more accessible. It is open to all, including those who attended the February event.

to add this event to your own google calendar click here (this is not a registration link)

Looking for registration - find the page here: https://www.riapp.org/registerforanevent/p/echegoyen-lecture

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In the language of economics, ‘the invisible hand,’ refers to the unseen forces of the free market economy.  The invisible hand of whiteness in Latin America centers white supremacy as the invisible force that subjugated an entire region. In recent years, in particular in the 1980s, U.S. foreign policy acted as an instrument of colonization that ultimately led to mass exoduses from Central and South America. A clinical case example will be discussed at length to illustrate the prison and immigration industrial complex as it relates to the migration crisis from the Northern Triangle (El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua) and highlight how the "invisible hand of whiteness" (via historical colonization, imperialism, foreign policy and colonization) impact the immigrants’ psyche and social functioning. 

Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this program, participants will be able to:

1. Apply decolonial concepts to their clinical practice.

2. Analyze their countertransference in the context of coloniality in the treatment dyad.

3. Integrate non-analytic concepts (foreign policy) to clinical material (clinical work with immigrants).

Bio

Rossanna Echegoyén, LCSW is a Latina/Bilingual psychoanalyst whose interest lies at the intersection of psychoanalysis and socio-political concerns. She provides immigration evaluations to asylee seekers at ICE detention centers. She maintains a private practice in New York City where her leadership and collaborative work was instrumental for institutional change in the psychoanalytic community.  At Manhattan Institute for Psychoanalysis, she served as the first Latina Co-Director of MIP and the One Year Program in Psychoanalysis and the Sociopolitical World. She is founder of CORE (Committee on Race and Ethnicity) at MIP, Co-Founder of The Psychoanalytic Coalition for Social Justice and Co-Editor of Div. 39-Sec. 9 The Psychoanalytic Activist.

References:

1. Bragin, Martha. (2019) Myth, Memory and Meaning: Understanding and Treating Adolescents in Forced Migration. J. Infant Child Adolescent Psychotherapy, (18)(4):319-329.

2. Hollander, Nancy. (2006). Negotiating Trauma and Loss in the Migration Experience. Studies in Gender and Sexuality, (7)(1):61-70.

3. Ryan, David. (1999). Colonialism and Hegemony in Latin America: An Introduction. The International Review, June 1999, Vol. 21, No. 2.

4. Volkan, Vamik D. (2014). Psychoanalysis, International Relations, and Diplomacy. New York: Karnac Books.

5. Volkan, Vamik D. (2017). Immigrants and Refugees: Trauma, Perennial Mourning, Prejudice, and Border Psychology.  New York: Routledge.

6. Okazaki, Sumie, E.J.R. David & Nancy Abelman. (2007). Colonialism and Psychology of Culture. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, Vol.2, Issue 1: 90-106. 

Mark Solms, Ph.D.
With discussant, Jose Saporta, M.D.

Recent neuroscientific findings in affective and cognitive neuroscience demand revisions to the psychoanalytic theory of the drives and of the unconscious respectively. This presentation will outline these revisions and discuss their clinical implications for the practice of psychoanalytic therapy.

Please note: The Zoom link will be emailed the day before the event. Register by Thursday 11/2 at 6pm.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this presentation, participants will be able to:
1. Identify and describe the emotional drives of the human brain
2. Classify the different memory systems of the human brain and identify their behavioral manifestations
3. Adjust their clinical practice to make it commensurate with recent neuroscientific findings.

Bio
Professor Mark Solms is a member of the British Psychoanalytical Society and the American and South African Psychoanalytic Associations. He is Director of Neuropsychology at the Neuroscience Institute of the University of Cape Town. He is an Honorary Fellow of the American College of Psychiatrists. He has received numerous honours and awards, including the Sigourney Prize.  He has published 350 scientific papers, and eight books, the latest being The Hidden Spring (Norton, 2021). He is the authorized editor and translator of the forthcoming Revised Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (24 volumes) and Complete Neuroscientific Works of Sigmund Freud (4 volumes).

References

Lee, T. & Solms, M. (2023). Managing the clinical encounter with patients diagnosed with personality disorder in a general psychiatry setting: key contributions from neuropsychoanalysis. British Journal of Psychiatry Advances, doi: 10.1192/bja.2023.43

Solms, M. (2022). Revision of Freud’s theory of the biological origin of the Oedipus complex. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 90: 555-581. doi.org/10.1080/00332828.2021.1984153

Solms, M. (2021). Revision of drive theory. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 69, 1033-1091. DOI: 10.1177/00030651211057041

Solms, M. (2018). The Neurobiological Underpinnings of Psychoanalytic Theory and Therapy. Frontiers of Behavioral Neuroscience, 12, 294. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00294

Smith, R. & Solms, M. (2018). Examination of the hypothesis that repression is premature automatization: a psychoanalytic case report and discussion. Neuropsychoanalysis, 20: 47-61. https://doi.org/10.1080/15294145.2018.1473045

Abstract:

In many parts of the world, conceptualizations of human development, such as those regarding the concept of dependency, have been shaped within the context of white, Euro-American colonization. Within psychoanalysis, there has been a tendency to separate the psyche and the social, contributing to a neglect of sociocultural context in theory and practice. This presentation examines the complicity of psychoanalysis in colonized narratives of development and personality, and the impact of this complicity on racial minorities. I also explore post-colonial perspectives that challenge theoretical assumptions of non-white people as dependent and inferior. Drawing on theory, research, and practice, I will present a culturally informed, decolonizing psychoanalytic approach, emphasizing the influence of the therapist’s and the patient’s sociocultural context on the therapeutic relationship. 

Learning Objectives:

1.     Identify how colonization and sociocultural trauma shape conceptualizations of human development and personality. 

2.     Identify how attention to sociocultural context is critical for moving toward decolonized approaches to psychoanalytic psychotherapy. 

3.     Develop an understanding of a culturally informed and decolonizing psychoanalytic approach to conceptualization and technique.

Bio:

Usha Tummala-Narra, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist and the Director of Community-Based Education at the Albert and Jessie Danielsen Institute and Research Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Boston University. Her research and scholarship focus on immigration, trauma, race, and culturally-informed psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Her publications include over 90 peer-reviewed articles and chapters in books. She is also in Independent Practice, and works primarily with survivors of trauma from diverse sociocultural backgrounds. Dr. Tummala-Narra is an Associate Editor of Psychoanalytic Dialogues and the Asian American Journal of Psychology. She is the author of Psychoanalytic Theory and Cultural Competence in Psychotherapy (2016) and the editor of Trauma and Racial Minority Immigrants: Turmoil, Uncertainty, and Resistance (2021), both published by the American Psychological Association Books.

References:

Bhatia, S. (2019). Searching for justice in an unequal world: Reframing Indigenous psychology as a cultural and political project. Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, 39(2), 107-114.

Dajani, K.G. (2020). Cultural determinants in Winnicott’s developmental theories. International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, 17, 6-21.

Tummala-Narra, P. (2020). The fear of immigrants. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 37(1), 50-61.       

Tummala-Narra, P.  (2016). Psychoanalytic theory and cultural competence in psychotherapy. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. 

Rogers-Sirin, L., & Gupta, T. (2012). Cultural identity and mental health: Differing trajectories among Asian and Latino youth. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 59(4), 555-566. 

Accreditation

This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the Accreditation Criteria and Policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education through the joint providership of Rhode Island Hospital and Rhode Island Association for Psychoanalytic Psychologies. Rhode Island Hospital is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

Physicians: Rhode Island Hospital designates this live activity for a maximum of 3 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Psychologists: This program, when attended in its entirety, is available for 3 continuing education credits. Division 39 is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education. Division 39 maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

Social Workers: This program has been approved for 3 Social Work Continuing Education hours in Cross Cultural Practice for relicensure by National Association for Social Work RI Chapter, in accordance with 258 CMR.

This event will be held virtually, via zoom. Please preregister by 5pm on Tuesday 1/31 to receive a link. Links will be sent out the day of the event.

Abstract

This presentation considers evidence from 14 years of psychoanalytic psychotherapy with my patient “Sam.” I began seeing Sam when he was 11 years old. He is now 25.

This presentation is evidence-based, in that we examine the evidence Sam has produced. This evidence is a series of “graphic novels” which Sam began drawing during our first session of psychotherapy. I propose we examine this evidence together and discuss what it tells us about autism. 

As background for our discussion are three papers dealing with Sam and the evidence supplied by his drawings. 

Objectives

At the conclusion of this seminar, participants will be able to:

1. Discuss some of the defences used by those with autism and assess how autistic defences may shift in response to psychoanalytic psychotherapy.

2. Describe aspects of psychosexual development in those with autism and explain the possible impacts of autism on how psychosexual development unfolds.

3. Compare the defensive and the adaptive aspects of artistic rituals and adumbrate the anxieties which provoke these rituals.

Bio

Robin Holloway is a Registered Psychologist providing psychoanalytic psychotherapy to children, adolescents. He is a graduate of CICAPP (The Canadian Institute for Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy) where he is now a supervisor and a teacher. Robin is in private practice at The Willow Centre in Toronto, Canada. Here, Robin has the privilege of working with a small group of like-minded clinicians where together we can discuss cases. Previously, Robin worked for 20 years in the Child and Family Services department of a public hospital where he participated in weekly assessments of children referred for possible autism spectrum disorder. Inspired by this experience and by hearing Anne Alvarez speak about autism to a group of graduate psychoanalytic psychotherapists (members of the Canadian Association of Psychoanalytic Child Therapists), Robin went on to develop a special interest in children with autism and Asperger’s. This in turn has led to several publications. Robin has been honoured to participate in the ASD Committee of the American Psychoanalytic Association.

References

Bernier, R., Dawson, G., and Nigg, J. (2020). What science tells us about autism spectrum disorder: making the right choices for your child. The Guilford Press.

Holloway, R. (2021). High-functioning autism: changes over fourteen years of psychoanalytic psychotherapy: part 1. Journal of Child Psychotherapy, 47(1), 67-89.

Holloway, R. (2021). High-functioning autism: changes over fourteen years of psychoanalytic psychotherapy: part two. Journal of Child Psychotherapy, 47(2), 168-187.

Holloway, R. (2022). High-functioning autism: changes over fourteen years of psychoanalytic psychotherapy: part three. Journal of Child Psychotherapy, 48(1), 6-29.

Leichsenring, F., Leweke, F., Klein, S., and Steinert, C. (2015). The empirical status of psychodynamic psychotherapy – an update: Bambi’s alive and kicking. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 84(3), 129-148.

Accreditation

This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the Accreditation Criteria and Policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education through the joint providership of Rhode Island Hospital and Rhode Island Association for Psychoanalytic Psychologies. Rhode Island Hospital is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

Physicians: Rhode Island Hospital designates this live activity for a maximum of 1.50 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Psychologists: This program, when attended in its entirety, is available for 1.5 continuing education credits. Division 39 is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education. Division 39 maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

Social Workers: This program has been approved for 1.5 Social Work Continuing Education hours in Cross Cultural Practice for relicensure by National Association for Social Work RI Chapter, in accordance with 258 CMR.

Abstract

In this paper, I’ll discuss my clinical work with people who, sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of murder, have now returned home to live life after serving life, and explore their efforts to reckon with what they have done (and, frequently, what was done to them) despite being confined in traumatogenic institutions that functioned to thwart such growth. Using case material, I’ll reflect on the ways in which a psychodynamic approach can help navigate the overwhelm of violent crimes and violent punishments, and the unresolved trauma that usually precedes both, and offer ideas about how we can and why we should develop our collective capacities to bear and to repair - in the hopes of transforming the trauma that incarceration reenacts.

Objectives 

1. Describe the proliferation of life sentences in the United States and its disproportionate impact on Black people, poor people, and people of color.

2. Identify some of the reasons, from a psychoanalytic perspective, why people who commit murder and are sentenced to life in prison are driven to understand and transform the harm they’ve caused. 

3. Explain why working with people who have endured and perpetrated violence can be challenging for clinicians. 

Bio

Elizabeth (Beth) Kita is a clinical social worker in public/private practice in San Francisco, California. In her private practice, she works primarily with people contending with complex posttraumatic stress; her work in a public clinic is with people who are returning to the community following lengthy periods of incarceration. She obtained her MSW from UC Berkeley and her PhD from Smith College. Beth teaches in the MSW program at UC Berkeley, and is the Co-Chair of the Coalition for Clinical Social Work at the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis. 

References

Cartwright, D. (2010). Containing states of mind: Exploring Bion’s container model in psychoanalytic psychotherapy. New York, NY: Routledge.

Cullors, P. (2018). Abolition and reparations: Histories of resistance, transformative justice, and accountability. Harvard Law Review, 132, 1684 – 1694.

de Maat, S., De Jonghe, F., Schoevers, R., & Dekker, J. (2009). The effectiveness of long-term psychoanalytic therapy: A systematic review of empirical studies. Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 17(1), 1-23.

Kita, E. (2019). “They hate me now but where was everyone when I needed them?”: Mass incarceration, projective identification, and social work praxis. Psychoanalytic Social Work, 26(1), 25-49.

Mauer, M., & Nellis, A. (2018). The meaning of life: The case for abolishing life sentences. The New Press.

McIvor, D. W. (2016). Mourning in America: Race and the politics of loss. New York: Cornell University Press.

Parker, R. N. (2019). Slavery in the white psyche. Psychoanalytic Social Work, 26(1), 84-103.

Purnell, D. (2021). Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protest, and the Pursuit of Freedom. Verso Books.

Sered, D. (2019). Until we reckon: Violence, mass incarceration, and a road to repair. The New Press.

Stevenson, B. (2019). Slavery gave America a fear of black people and a taste for violent 6. punishment. Both still define our criminal-justice system. The New York Times, 1619.

This lecture will be held remotely via zoom. Register by Tuesday 5/3 to receive a link for the meeting.

1.5 Continuing Education Credits

The course describes Intersectionality and Intersubjectivity, two theoretical frameworks used to guide socially just clinical practice. These models guide the therapist in initiating “third space conversations,” the interactional, therapeutic field where the clinician’s and the client’s intersectional social identities and subjective attitudes are present and influential (Aron, 2006). The importance of a socio-historical perspective when working clinically will be demonstrated with the use of composite clinical vignettes that demonstrate the therapist engaging with clients around systemic injustices. Attention will also be given to how inequalities may be implicitly enacted in therapeutic practice.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of this seminar, participants will be able to: 

1. Demonstrate how Intersectionality Theory can inform clinical practice. 

2. Use Intersubjective Systems Theory as a framework for third space conversation. 

3. Discuss how injustice and inequalities may be implicitly enacted in clinical practice.

Biography:

Joan Granucci Lesser, PhD, LICSW is a social work clinician, researcher, educator and author. She is Adjunct Associate Professor at Smith College School for Social Work and has a private psychotherapy practice.  Dr. Lesser is the co-author of two social work textbooks and numerous articles and book chapters, and has presented locally, nationally and internationally on a variety of clinical topics. She received the 2012 National Association of Social Worker MA Chapter award for “greatest contribution to social work practice” for founding Pioneer Valley Professionals, an interdisciplinary group practice in Holyoke, MA. 

References: 

Altman, N. (2020).  Intersectionality: From politics to identity.  In M. Belkin & C. White (Eds). Intersectionality and relational psychoanalysis:  New perspectives on race, gender and sexuality (Pp. 218-226) New York:  Routledge

Aron, l. (2006).  Analytic impasse and the third; Clinical implications of intersubjectivity theory. The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 87(3): 49-368.

Collins, P. H. (2019). Intersectionality as critical social theory. Durham: Duke University Press.

Layton, L. (2018). Relational theory in socio-historical context. In L. Aron, S. Grand, & J. Slochower (Eds). De-idealizing Relational theory: a critique from within. (Pp. 209-234).  New York:  Routledge.

Leichsenring, F. and Steinert. C. (2019). The efficacy of psychodynamic psychotherapy: An up-to-date review (pp 49-74) In D. Kelly and J.S. Ogrodniczul, J. S. (Eds) Contemporary psychodynamic psychotherapy:  evoling clinical practice (pp 49-74) Oxford, UK; Elsevier Press.

SPRING CONFERENCE: Saturday April 9th, 2022 9:00AM-12:30PM

This conference will be virtual, using Zoom. You will receive the Zoom link via email day before the conference. Please register for more information on how to attend.

3.0 Continuing Education Credits. Attendance will be verified through Zoom.

Issues of mortality and limitation affect both therapists and patients. This workshop will focus first on issues of aging in the therapist, including practical and ethical concerns related to cognitive decline, hearing loss, diminished energy, and similar challenges, noting also some clinical advantages of elderly clinicians (e.g., breadth of knowledge, wisdom, humility, sense of proportion, increased compassion). It will then address aging in patients, with special reference to the “Later Life” section of the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual, 2nd ed. (2017). Therapeutic benefits of acknowledging and mourning limitation will be emphasized. 

Learning Objectives

After this workshop, participants will be able to:

1. Identify three professional challenges that confront aging therapists.

2. Articulate three common professional misperceptions about working with elderly patients.

3. Use the “Later Life” section of the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (Guilford, 2017) to conceptualize central psychological issues in elderly patients.

Biography:

Nancy McWilliams teaches at Rutgers University’s Graduate School of Applied & Professional Psychology and practices in Lambertville, New Jersey. She is author of Psychoanalytic Diagnosis (1994, rev. ed. 2011), Psychoanalytic Case Formulation (1999), and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (2004) and is associate editor of the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual, 2nd ed. (2017). A former president of Division 39 (Psychoanalysis) of the American Psychological Association, she has been featured in three APA videos of master clinicians, the most recent being “Three Approaches to Psychotherapy.” Her books are available in 20 languages; she lectures widely both nationally and internationally.

References:

Baum-Baicker, C., & Sisti, D. W. (2012). Clinical wisdom in psychoanalysis and psychodynamic psychotherapy: A philosophical and qualitative analysis. Journal of Clinical Ethics, 23, 13-40.

Del Corno, F., & Plotkin, D. (Eds.) (2017). Later life. In V. Lingiardi, & N. McWilliams (Eds.) Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual, 2nd ed. (PDM-2) (pp. 751-888). New York: Guilford.

Kernberg, O. F. (2010). Some observations on the process of mourning. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 91(3), 601-619.

McWilliams, N. (2017). Psychoanalytic reflections on limitation: Aging, dying, generativity, and renewal. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 34(1), 50-57.  Also in C. Masur, (Ed.) (2018), Flirting with death: Psychoanalysts consider mortality (pp. 25-40). New York: Routledge.

Parens, H. (2018). Mortality – the inevitable challenge: The development of acceptance of one’s mortality. In C. Masur (Ed.), Flirting with death: Psychoanalysts consider mortality (pp. 72-96). New York: Routledge.

This lecture will be held remotely via zoom. Register by Tuesday 3/1 to receive a link for the meeting.

1.5 Continuing Education Credits

Countertransference has come to be viewed as an essential component of all psychotherapies and may be particularly intense during the treatment of suicidal patients. Problems that arise in the course of psychotherapy of suicidal patients may be understood in relation to the therapist’s countertransference reactions. Lack of awareness of countertransference reactions of malice and aversion may be suicide inviting. Countertransference reactions may also alert the therapist to dangers that the patient is unable to articulate. In this presentation we consider case examples of countertransference manifestations and their effects on the treatment of the suicidal patient.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of this program, participants will be able to:

1) Identify common problems arising during the course of psychotherapy with suicidal patients.

2) Describe the influence of countertransference reactions on psychotherapy with suicidal patients.

3) Assess the role of communication in treating suicidal patients.

Biography:

Mark Goldblatt is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is a Faculty Member of the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, and chair of the Discussion Group on ‘Treating the Suicidal Patient’ at the APsaA national meetings. He is an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School and teaches and supervises residents at McLean Hospital. He is a Founding Member of the Boston Suicide Study Group which focuses on the psychoanalytic understanding of self-destructive patients. He presents internationally and publishes widely on many aspects of suicidality and self-attack.

References:

Briggs, S.,  Netuveli, G., Gould, N., Gkaravella, A., Gluckman, N.,  Kangogyere, P., Farr, R., Goldblatt, M., Lindner, R.,  (2019). The effectiveness of psychoanalytic/psychodynamic psychotherapy for reducing suicide attempts and self-harm: Systematic review and meta-analysis. British Journal of Psychiatry 1-9. doi: 10.1192/bjp.2019.33.

Maltsberger JT, Buie DH. Countertransference hate in the treatment of suicidal patients. (1974). Arch Gen Psychiatry. 30(5):625-33.

Goldblatt MJ, Briggs S, Lindner R. Schechter, M and Ronningstam E. (2015). Psychodynamic Psychotherapy with Suicidal Adolescents. Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy 29:1, 20-37, DOI:10.1080/02668734.2015.1004188: 

Schechter, M., Ronningstam, E., Herbstman, B., Goldblatt, M.J. (2019). Psychotherapy with Suicidal Patients: The Integrative Psychodynamic approach of the Boston Suicide Study Group. Medicina DOI 10.3390/medicina55060303

Gabbard, G.O. (2003). Miscarriages of Psychoanalytic treatment with suicidal patients. International Journal of Psychoanalysis  34:239-261

This lecture will be virtual, using Zoom. Registration will open 30 days prior to the event.

1.5 Continuing Education Credits (Cross-Cultural)

Themes centering on the challenges and strengths associated with clinical work involving Intraracial/intercultural dyads are often omitted from the discourse concerning psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. Given this premise, I plan to illustrate via a case vignette how issues of ethnocultural transference and countertransference emerged as salient and functional features in psychotherapeutic work. Additionally, ideas from self-psychology, object relations theory, relational theory and intersectionality will ground the tone and tenor of my discussion.

Learning Objectives:

Upon completion of this program, participants should be able to:

1. Describe examples of ethnocultural transference and countertransference as per the case vignette presentation  

2. Explain how self-object transference with intraracial/intracultural dyads can enhance therapeutic alliance 

3. Explain how the curative aspects of ethnocultural transference via the case vignette contributed to the client’s psychological functioning  

Biography:

Samuel R. Aymer is an Associate Professor at Silberman School of Social Work, Hunter College where he teaches the following courses: Clinical Practice and Violence Against Women. He is also the chairperson of the School’s Clinical Method. His research centers on: the intersection of trauma, partner violence and the application of psychodynamic theories in clinal work with diverse client populations. Prior to entering academia, Dr. Aymer worked for several health, mental health, and victim assistance organizations throughout New York City. Dr. Aymer maintains a clinical private practice—specializing in group and individual treatment with adolescents and adults.

References 

Carter, R. (2007).  Racism and psychological and emotional injury: Recognizing and assessing race-based traumatic stress. Counseling Psychologist, 35, 1-95. 

Johnson, V.E., & Carter, T. T. (2020).  Black cultural strengths and psychosocial well-being:  An Empirical analysis with black American adults. The Journal of Black Psychology, 46, 55-87.   

Kohut, H. (1977). The restoration the self. New York: International University Press.

Mayo, J. A. (2004). Psychotherapy with African American population: Modification of traditional approaches. Annals of the American Psychotherapy Association, Spring, 10–13.

Pine, F. (1990). Drive, ego, object and self: A synthesis for clinical work. New York: Basic Books, Inc.

NOVEMBER CONFERENCE: Saturday November, 6th, 9:00AM-12:30PM=

This conference will be virtual, using Zoom. Registration will open 30 days prior to event.

3.0 Continuing Education Credits. Attendance will be verified through Zoom.

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The lecture will juxtapose the intrapsychic idea of reparation, based on understanding the unconscious anxieties of harming the love object, with the intersubjective ideas of  repairing rupture and restoring recognition. That is, it aims to use and also reformulate the Kleinian idea of reparation of the internal  object. Researchers have noted a process beginning in infancy  of rupture and repair, generating the experience of a lawful world of secure attachment. I call this the moral Third. In the absence of intersubjective repair the child may interpret her need for acknowledgment and soothing as destructive (destabilizing) to the needed other. This formulation allows us to see how enactments in the analytic relationship become governed by mutual fear of harming. Fear of harming and being injured drives the doer-done to complementarity involving both partners. Acknowledgment of fears and injury arising in enactment are therapeutically essential and strengthen th​e moral Third. We also consider the social implications of modifying the doer-done to complementary relation via the experience of two minds recognizing each other. 

Learning Objectives:

Upon completion of this program, participants should be able to:

1. Identify anxieties related to the belief that one's own needs are destructive

2. Describe how emotional safety is influenced by recognition of distress and the dynamic of rupture and repair including therapeutic acknowledgment

3. Recognize how therapists and patients can extricate themselves from enactments based in dissociation

Biography:

Jessica Benjamin is best known as the author of  The Bonds of Love (1988),  which is translated into many languages, and of “Beyond Doer and Done To: An Intersubjective View of Thirdness” (2004), the basis for her recent book Beyond Doer and done To: Recognition Theory, Intersubjectivity and the Third (2018)..  In addition she is the author of   Like Subjects, Love Objects (1995); and Shadow of the Other (1998).    Her article “Beyond Doer and Done To: An Intersubjective View of Thirdness” has been one of the most frequently cited articles on PEP web for many years. She has been one of the leaders in the relational movement in psychoanalysis since its inception.  She teaches and supervises at the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis as well as at the Stephen Mitchell Relational Studies Center of which she is a co-founder. She also initiated and participated in a series of workshops for mental health and community professionals in Israel/Palestine called The Acknowledgment Project.

References 

Tronick, E. 1989. Emotions and Emotional Communication in Infants. American Psychology 44: 112=119.

Benjamin, J.2004 Doer and Done To: An Intersubjective View of Thirdness. Psychoanalytic Quarterly 73: 5-46​

Benjamin, J. (2018). “Our Appointment in Thebes,” in Beyond Doer and Done To: Recognition Theory, Intersubjectivity and the Third. New York & London: Routledge

Bromberg, P. 2011. “Mentalize This” in The Shadow of the Tsunami. New York & Lond: Routledge

Winnicott, D. W. 1971 The Use of an Object and Relating through Identification. In Playing and Reality. New York Penguin.

This lecture will take place virtually, via zoom. You must preregister to attend this event

1.5 Continuing Education Credits

Mentalization-Based Treatment (MBT) is an evidence-based approach to psychotherapy which draws from attachment theory and the psychodynamic relational synthesis in order to bolster a patient's resiliency, reflective capacity, and curiosity about their own mind and the minds of others. Initially developed for the treatment of borderline personality disorder, MBT is being investigated in the treatment of diverse conditions including trauma, eating disorders, narcissism, and antisocial personality disorder. A core component of MBT is the therapist's ability to communicate an understanding of the patient's subjective experience in a way that allows the patient to feel understood and valued. This feeling of understanding and connection is thought to enhance the patient's ability to learn from therapy and apply these lessons to life outside the therapeutic encounter.

Learning objectives:

At the conclusion of this program, participants will be able to: 

1. Recognize the characteristics of good or poor mentalizing within a therapeutic encounter.

2. Apply the principles of MBT to enhance a patient's mentalizing capacity.

3. Explain the relevance of epistemic trust to a therapeutic relationship.

4. Distinguish MBT's from other psychodynamically-informed treatments in its approach to interventions in therapy.

Biography:

Paul Baker, MD is a psychiatrist at Butler Hospital working primarily with young adults in a Partial Hospital Program and outpatient setting. Dr. Baker is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Clinician Educator at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University, where he completed residency in general psychiatry. He also serves as a psychotherapy supervisor for the psychiatry residency and teaches Brown medical students as a Clinical Neurosciences Clerkship preceptor. 

References:

Bateman, A., & Fonagy, P. (1999). Effectiveness of Partial Hospitalization in the Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Trial. American Journal of Psychiatry, 156(10), 1563–1569. https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.156.10.1563

Bateman, A., & Fonagy, P. (2009). Randomized Controlled Trial of Outpatient Mentalization-Based Treatment Versus Structured Clinical Management for Borderline Personality Disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 166(12), 1355–1364. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2009.09040539

Egyed, K., Király, I., & Gergely, G. (2013). Communicating Shared Knowledge in Infancy. Psychological Science, 24(7), 1348–1353. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612471952

Fonagy, P., & Allison, E. (2014). The role of mentalizing and epistemic trust in the therapeutic relationship. Psychotherapy (Chicago, Ill.), 51(3), 372–80. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036505

Markin, R. D. (2013). Mentalization-based psychotherapy interventions with mothers-to-be. Psychotherapy (Chicago, Ill.), 50(3), 360–5. https://doi.org/10.1037/a003199

SEPTEMBER CONFERENCE: Saturday September 18th, 2021 9:00AM-12:30PM

**Pre-Registration is required. Registration closes on Thursday 9/16 at 5pm**

This conference will be virtual, using Zoom. Please register for more information on how to attend.

3.0 Continuing Education Credits (Cross-Cultural). Attendance will be verified through Zoom.

“Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted. It would create a feeling that is extremely uncomfortable, called cognitive dissonance. And because it is so important to protect the core belief, they will rationalize, ignore and even deny anything that doesn’t fit in with the core belief.”  

                                             Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks

The relevance of Fanon’s concept of cognitive dissonance considering the trial of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd makes clear that as a society we are experiencing the deeply embedded structural effects of racism and white supremacy. This is further evidenced by a rise in anti-Asian violence and the side effects of the insurrectionary damage that threatens to unravel democracy and undermine a fragile consensus to protect America’s experiment in racial and gender justice. We are living in times that have contributed to a sense of disconnectedness for many individuals; and the issues needing to be dealt with are challenging and complex (e.g.. Covid-19 racial health disparities; overt racist and white supremacist activity at local & national levels; national economic recession). Many BIPOC individuals (clients/patients and staff) have experienced not only violence and discrimination, but also live with symptoms of trauma and have an increased likelihood of developing health related problems because of this exposure. Physical violence or the threat of violence leads to trauma, which leads to poor health outcomes.

This workshop will focus on an analysis of racism from structural, (social) psychological, and applied perspectives.  Utilizing critical race theory and intersectionality, participants will come to understand the reasoning for this emphasis. An analysis of intersectional oppressions will be examined in relationship to sociopolitical and economic factors, and historical themes evident in today’s society.

Objectives: 

1. Describe one’s own attitudes and beliefs regarding stereotyping, bias, and power-imbalances on the client system. 

2.  List the impact of inequities, diversity, difference, and systems of oppression upon life experiences and the provision of services.

3. Apply the skills associated with cultural humility and knowledge of social inequities at all systems levels.

4. Identify and apply anti-racist clinical interventions

5. Demonstrate an understanding of the ways that systems of oppression impact the service delivery system and the provision of services to clients/patients.

References:

Isabel Wilkerson, Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents (Virtual Talk) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvYzyqUdUfY

Robin DiAngelo and Resmaa Menakem: In Conversation On Being with Krista Tippett https://www.breaker.audio/on-being-studios/e/67342362 

AUDRE LORDE, “THE USES OF ANGER: WOMEN RESPONDING TO RACISM (1981,2012)

https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/speeches-african-american-history/1981-audre-lorde-uses-anger-women-responding-racism/

Brené Brown with Ibram X. Kendi on How to Be an Antiracist https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/unlocking-us-with-bren%C3%A9-brown/id1494350511?i=1000476611079

American Psychiatric Association Turns Inward, Recognizes Nearly 2 Centuries of Racism In Profession https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2021/05/05/apa-racism-report

Adichie, C.N. (2009 July). The danger of a single story. TED Global 2009. Oxford, England. Retrieved from: https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story

Tippett, K. (Host). (2015). How trauma and resilience cross generations with Rachel Yehuda.  K. Tippett. (Executive Producer), On Being.  Retrieved from: https://onbeing.org/programs/rachel-yehuda-how-trauma-and-resilience-cross-generations/

Tourse, R., Hamilton-Mason, J., & Wewiorski, N., (2018). Institutional Legalization of Racism: Exploitation of the Core Groups. In R. Tourse., J. Hamilton-Mason, & N. Wewiorski, Systemic Racism in America - Its Perpetuation through Scaffolding, (pp. 39-60).

Jacob Bor, SD † Atheendar S Venkataramani, MD  † Prof David R Williams, PhD Alexander C Tsai, MD. The Lancet   Published:June 21, 2018. Police killings and their spillover effects on the mental health of black Americans: a population-based, quasi-experimental study. retrieved https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(18)31130-9/fulltext

This conference will be virtual, using Zoom. Please register for more information on how to attend.

1.5 Continuing Education Credits. Attendance will be verified through Zoom.

Dreams are as much a part of the natural world as the rain that falls and the sun that shines and varying approaches of dream interpretation have persisted from the beginning of time. Through his method of analogy or “amplification,” Jung had the ability to “match” analysands’ current life circumstances or dreams with resonant patterns found in myths, stories, and images, at a “macrocosmic” level, by connecting resonant collective motifs with personal experiences. Contemporary infant researcher/psychoanalysts, have looked at the “microcosmic” level of non-verbal pattern matching and discovered that communication styles are generalizable, persisting throughout the lifespan. Portals of understanding can be reached via the macrocosm or microcosm, to locate resonant pattern matching, central for life. Complex Adaptive Systems theories will ground this presentation and offer wholistic perspectives of clinical dream work.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Upon completion of this program, participants should be able to:

1) Define and give examples of the method of amplification

2) Articulate a basic definition of Complex Systems theory

3) Compare and contrast Jung’ s macro-cosmic pattern matching with the micro-cosmic pattern matching methods of infant researchers who apply their findings across the life-span

4) Apply Jung’s method of amplification and intersubjective models from infant research to work with dreams in psychotherapy.

5) Demonstrate pattern matching and resonance through myth, story, image and through intersubjective resonance in the clinical setting

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Beebe, B. and Lachmann, F. (2013). The Origins of Attachment: Infant Research and Adult Treatment (Relational Perspectives Book Series. New York: Routledge.

Carter, L. 2011. “A Jungian Contribution to a Dynamic System Understanding of Disorganized Attachment.” Journal of Analytical Psychology, 56 (3), 334-340

Carter, L. (2019). “Jung as Craftsman.” In Jung’s Red Book for Our Time: Searching for Soul Under Postmodern Conditions, Vol. 3. Eds. M. Stein and T. Arzt. Chiron Publications. Asheville, NC

Sander, L. (2014). Living Systems, Evolving Consciousness, and the Emerging Person: A Selection of Papers from the Life Work of Louis Sander (Psychoanalytic Inquiry Series). New York: Routledge

Schore, A.N. (2012). The Science of the Art of Psychotherapy (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology). New York: W.Norton and Company

Siegel, D.J. (2015). The Developing Mind, Second Edition. New York: The Guilford Press.

Tronick, Ed and Gold, C. M. (2019). The Power of Discord: Why the Ups and Downs of Relationships are the Secret to Building Intimacy, Resilience, and Trust. New York: Little, Brown, Spark.

Linda Carter MSN, CS, IAAP is a nurse and a Jungian analyst practicing in Carpinteria, CA, Providence, RI, nationally and internationally via internet ; teaches at Pacifica Graduate Institute; psychotherapist for 40 years. A graduate of Georgetown, Yale and the C. G. Jung Institute-Boston, Linda was the Journal of Analytical Psychology Book Review Editor, US Editor-in-Chief and now Arts and Culture Editor. Founder and chair of the Art and Psyche Working Group, she initiated and edits the outreach project Art in a Time of World Crisis: Interconnection and Companionship. Linda has published widely, taught internationally, especially in China.

SPRING CONFERENCE: April 10, 2021, 9:00AM-12:30PM

This conference will be virtual, using Zoom. Please register for more information on how to attend.

3.0 Continuing Education Credits. Attendance will be verified through Zoom.

It is remarkable to note the pervasive desexualization of psychoanalysis, the once sex-infused theory of human development. Through the exploration of erotics in clinical process, this paper will address the many manifestations of erotic longing in psychoanalysis. Our theories have become desexualized to an extent that fails to prepare clinicians with the necessary armamentarium to cope with the level of desire and erotic material likely to emerge. This paper aims to address the deficiency in our literature and theories of technique and to encourage more open discussion about erotic transferences in all of their manifestations. Two cases will be presented that illustrate these concepts.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Upon completion of this program, participants should be able to:

1. Identify and explore aspects of erotic transferences and countertransferences, especially as these relate to the multiple meanings underlying erotic transferences.

2. To explore the ways in which the analyst’s countertransference can aid in elaborating the meanings of erotic transferences through unconscious communications.

3. Acquire greater comfort in the identification and exploration of their own countertransference, especially as it includes erotic aspects.

Andrea Celenza, Ph.D. is Training and Supervising Analyst at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute and Assistant Clinical Professor at Harvard Medical School. Co-Director (with Martha Stark, MD) of a blended, online program in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. She has two online courses and is the recipient of several awards. She has authored two books, including Erotic Revelations: Clinical Applications and Perverse Scenarios. She is in private practice in Lexington, Massachusetts. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bolognini, S. (1994). Transference: Erotised, erotic, loving, affectionate. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 75, 73-86.

Celenza, A. (2014). Erotic Revelations: Clinical Applications and Perverse Scenarios. NY: Routledge.

Fonagy, P. (2008). A genuinely developmental theory of sexual enjoyment and its implications for psychoanalytic technique. Journal American Psychoanalytic Association, 56, 11-36.

Stein, R. (1998). The poignant, the excessive and the enigmatic in sexuality. International Journal Psychoanalysis, 79, 253-268.

Celenza, A. (1998). Precursors to therapist sexual misconduct. Psychoanalytic

Psychology, 15:3, 378-395.

March 3, 2021, Wednesday Evening Lecture Series

This Wednesday Evening Lecture will be virtual, using Zoom. Please register for more information on how to attend.

1.5 Continuing Education Credits. Attendance will be verified through Zoom.

The tripartite structure of the oedipal complex has been central to Freudian understandings of the psychoanalytic subject. In the early 1950’s, however, Jacques Lacan introduced a revised reading of the structural relation between father, mother and child by presenting death as a fourth term that determines the subject’s mythic relation to the self and others. By working through a rereading of the case of the Rat Man in his lecture “The Neurotic’s Individual Myth,” Lacan shows how obsessional neurosis reveals deeper layers of myth that may shape subjectivity even across generations. This workshop will focus on understanding the mythical psychic structures expressed in American race relations. It will investigate how myths about race position racialized individuals within oedipal relations of Eros and aggression that are fundamentally determined by deep psychic relations to the fourth term applied by Lacan to the oedipal dynamic, the factor of death that defines a fundamental relation to subjectivity and alterity. We will work through this reading of the mythic structure of race in America by first returning to Lacan’s lecture and then advancing toward an investigation of race in fiction by the African American author Ralph Ellison.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Upon completion of this program, participants should be able to:

1. Describe how Lacan rethinks the oedipal complex through neurosis and death.

2. Analyze how death becomes overlapped with myth to shape psychic fears and obsessions.

3. Describe how the static four-part oedipal structure acts as a frame into which racial others are actively inserted.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. George, Sheldon. Trauma and Race: A Lacanian Analysis of African-American Identity. Texas: Baylor UP, 2016.

2. Lacan, Jacques. The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psycho-Analysis. 1964. Trans. Alan Sheridan. New York: Norton, 1981.

3. Laurent, Eric. “Racism 2.0.” Lacan Quotidien 371: 1–6 (2014).

4. Žižek, Slavoj. “Love Thy Neighbor? No thanks.” The Plague of Fantasies. New York: Verso, 1997.

5. Muller, John. “Cognitive psychology and the ego: Lacanian theory and empirical research.” Psychoanalysis Contemporary Thought, 5(2): 257–291 (1982).

Sheldon George is Professor of English and Chair of the English department at Simmons University in Boston, Massachusetts.  His scholarship centers most directly on Lacanian psychoanalytic theory and applies cultural and literary theory to analyses of American and African-American literature and culture. His most recent publications include two coedited special issues of the journal Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society: one titled “Lacanian Psychoanalysis: Interventions into Culture and Politics” and the other called “African Americans and Inequality.” His book Trauma and Race:  A Lacanian Study of African American Racial Identity was published in 2016 by Baylor University Press. He is coeditor of Reading Contemporary Black British and African American Women Writers: Race, Ethics, Narrative Form and is currently completing a collection on Lacan and Race.