THE INSTITUTE FOR EXPRESSIVE ANALYSIS INVITES YOU TO ATTEND
The “Too Muchness” of Excitement and the Death of Desire-Theoretical and Clinical Perspectives
Presenters
Jessica Benjamin Ph.D.
Galit Atlas-Koch Ph.D.
Moderator
Steven Kuchuck, LCSW
This panel will treat the experience of disregulation or, as it has been called by LaPlanche, Stein and Benjamin “Excess,” that is inherent in the formation of sexuality. In particular, we will focus on the effects and trajectory of male sexuality, where classic themes of overstimulation, seduction and betrayal in the early relationship to mother are crucial. One effect is that overexcitement and anxiety become indistinguishable; excitement becomes dangerous and shut down of desire is the result. In treatment, the work with the mother-baby relationship is essential to deal with what appear to be problems of sexual inhibition and death of desire. The therapist is constantly monitored by the patient in relation to the threat of overstimulation by maternal desire as well as the threat of abandonment and betrayal, all of which contributes to destabilizing the attachment relationship. The most minute sign of the therapist’s subjectivity can arouse anxiety and fear of being overwhelmed, seduced and then dropped, reverberating with insecure attachment. Nonetheless, the therapist must find a way to facilitate play in the relationship, in order to move from concrete to symbolic modes and use the intersubjective potential of the treatment. The delicate balance of restraint and play will be explored in the clinical presentation.
The panel will start with a theoretical framework, be followed by a clinical paper detailing two cases, and then a discussion of both clinical and theoretical implications.
Jessica Benjamin PhD is a faculty member of the NYU Postdoctoral psychology program in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis and a co-founder of the Mitchell Center for Relational Studies in New York. The author of three books: Bonds of Love; Like Objects Love Subjects; and Shadow of the Other which have been translated into many languages. She has written about Intersubjectivity and Recognition as well as Gender and Sexuality. More recently she has directed a project on acknowledgment in the Middle East for Palestinian and Israeli mental health professionals and written about collective trauma and the need for acknowledgment.
Galit Atlas- Koch PhD is a psychoanalyst, licensed creative arts therapist and a clinical supervisor in private practice in Manhattan. She is on the faculty and a board member of the Institute for Expressive Analysis (IEA), serves as an editorial consultant for Psychoanalytic Perspectives and is an author of several psychoanalytic articles on Post-modernism and Gender and Sexuality.
Steven Kuchuck, LCSW is Dean of Training, IEA, Faculty IEA, NIP, ICP and co editor of the journal Psychoanalytic Perspectives.
Friday, March 25th, 2011
7:30-9:30pm
NPAP
National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis
40 West 13th Street
New York, NY
3 CEU credits will be provided
The presentation is free of charge
www.ieany.com
RSVP – pamrogers2000@aol.com