Transgender identities have arrived, both upon the national cultural stage as well as within the more intimate context of the consulting room. Psychoanalysts, in response to this arrival, find themselves facing yet another controversy that calls into question apparently foundational notions about gender and embodiment.
When it comes to transgender identities, what kind of a controversy are we dealing with? On the one hand, there are those who view the gender binary of female/male as inherently repressive. Psychoanalysis, from this perspective, should be on the side of innumerable subversive gender performances, in which any norm related to gender or sexuality is resoundingly questioned in the service of some kind of transformative overcoming. On the other hand, there are those who argue that
transgender phenomena are inevitably symptomatic manifestations of psychopathology, usually of the more severe types such as borderline, psychotic or perverse. The transgender individual, from this perspective, would be conceptualized in terms of the power of unconscious, omnipotent fantasy to disavow the difference between the sexes—a disavowal that sometimes involves a demand for surgical interventions.
Our workshop aims to elaborate upon some of the coordinates of this controversy while at the same time to seek ways to move beyond it. Together we will search for more analytically nuanced responses to the theoretical and clinical difficulties that analysts face in their attempts to understand and help their transgender patients.
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: Sheri Perlman, OTR, CSW (Chair), Elizabeth Evert, LCSW,
Anna Fishzon, PhD, Brian Kloppenberg, LP (Moderator)
We have attached a poster and program with more information, both of which you are welcome to share with anyone who might be interested in attending. Please contact Sheri Perlman if you have further questions: Perlmans2003@yahoo.com
10:00AM-1:00PM: PANELS
Patricia Gherovici, PhD
Is a Trans-History of Psychoanalysis Possible?
Jack Pula, MD
Countertransference Considerations in Psychoanalytic Work with Transgender Analysands
Randi Kaufman, PsyD
Gender Benders, Gender Defenders: Understanding Gender Expansion and the Journey to Become a More Authentic Self
Avgi Saketopoulou, PsyD
Massive Gender Trauma, Psychosis and the Spectrality of Gender: Working Analytically with Severely Mentally Ill Transgender Patients
2:30-4:00PM: DISCUSSION IN SMALL GROUPS
Click Here for the Concerence Poster
Click Here for the Workshops Schedule