WBCPS Ethics 2021 – Seminar 2:
There are many post-Freudian ‘schools’ in psychoanalysis but few have been as preoccupied by ethical concerns as those inspired by the so-called French model. The epistemological earthquake of Lacan’s revisiting of Freud stimulated two post-Lacanian generations of innovative thinking, both clinical and theoretical. Aulagnier, Laplanche, Green, and Zaltzman (to mention only a famous few), initial admirers, ended disenchanted by Lacan. This experience of disillusion made them aware of a paradox: while its search for truth makes psychoanalysis a paradigm of liberation, it can also become – for some patients – a process of alienation. This fertile and controversial French psychoanalytic history, not all of which is available as yet in English, was a major inspiration half a century ago for the founders of the Société psychanalytique de Montréal, one of the Canadian Psychoanalytic Society’s branches. What does, or does not, remain relevant and vital in this distant story for non-French contemporary psychotherapeutic and psychoanalytic practice? In this seminar Allanah Furlong will study the paradox of psychoanalysis which can morph from a search for truth to a process of alienation for some patients. Participants are encouraged to contribute with vignettes from their own clinical practices.
Format: Theoretical discussion and clinical vignettes. Readings (to be provided upon registration). This seminar is open to registered clinicians, working as therapists, and students in a mental health field affiliated with an accredited training organization and involved in psychotherapy training.
Allannah Furlong, Ph.D., Psychologist, full time private practice, member of the Société psychanalytique de Montréal; former president of the Société psychanalytique de Montréal; co-organizer in 2000 of the Conference : Confidentiality and Society : Psychotherapy, Ethics and the Law; co-editor in 2003 of two collections on confidentiality; author of several articles on aspects of the psychoanalytic frame, former member of the North American Editorial Board of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis.
Learning Objectives:
At the end of this seminar participants will be able…
- To learn why the reserve of the psychoanalytically-oriented clinician is a crucial support for the patient’s
psychic growth. - To learn to avoid several false but popular dichotomies regarding the foundational principles at play in
psychoanalytically-oriented work. - To respect the actual words patients use as the equivalent of “empirical facts” in our field.
- To remember that the therapist’s offer precedes the patient’s request, creating the possibility of both facilitation
and sabotage of intended therapeutic action. - To be sensitive to the factors affecting choice of personal analyst in psychoanalytic training.
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Photo Credits: Artist: Richard M. Markus | Animate Life-State | June 2021 | Lightjet on archievial rag
Registration is closed.
Please email info@wbcps.org for late registrations.
Readings (to be provided upon registration) :
- Aulagnier, P. (2004). Odette’s memory. In L’apprentis-historien et le maître-sorcier. (English translation of Chapter 2). English translation by Google Translate, corrected by Allannah Furlong.
- Levin, C. (2014) Trauma as a way of life in a psychoanalytic institute. In: Ed. Deutsch, R.A. Traumatic Ruptures: Abandonment and Betrayal in the Analytic Relationship. New York: Routledge, pp. 176 – 196.
- Laplanche, J. (2011). Drives and instincts: Distinctions, oppositions, supports and intertwinings. In “Freud and the Sexual: Essays 2000-2006”, London: International Psychoanalytic Books, 2000, pages 5-25,
- Dufresne, R. (2019), La fondation de la SPM, une longue lutte. Bulletin de la SPM, Vol 41. (English translation by Google Translate, corrected by Allannah Furlong)
Optional Bibliography :
- Kite, J.V. (2016). The Fundamental Ethical Ambiguity of the Analyst as Person. J. Amer. Psychoanal. Assn.,
64(6):1153-1171. - Levin, C. (2010). The Liminal Smile: Ethics in Psychoanalysis and the Problem of Regulation. Canadian J. Psychoanal., 18(1):60-85.
- Miller, P. (2015). Piera Aulagnier, an Introduction: Some Elements of her Intellectual Biography. Int. J. Psycho-Anal., 96(5):1355-1369.
- Morris, H. (2016). The Analyst’s offer. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association 64:1173-1187.
- Wilson, M. (2014). The ethical position of the analyst-as-mother: Respect and responsibility for the “other.” International Journal of Psychoanalysis, Open. pep-web.org
