THE PROGRAM COMMITTEE OF THE NATIONAL PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION FOR PSYCHOANALYSIS Presents “From Betty Joseph to Michael Eigen: The Dialectics of Change within Psychoanalysis” Aner Govrin, PhD, Israeli Philosopher and Psychoanalyst
TUESDAY: MAY 2, 2017, 7:00 – 9:00 pm, NPAP, 40 WEST 13 STREET, # 216, (Between 5th and 6th Avenues), Handicap accessible facility
Throughout its history, psychoanalysis has successfully embraced an amalgam of what he has defined and termed fascinated and troubled communities. A fascinated community is a group that embraces a psychoanalytic theory (such as Bion’s, Klein’s, Winnicott’s) as one embraces truth. A troubled community is one that is not satisfied with the state of psychoanalytic knowledge and seeks to generate a fundamental change that does not square with existing traditions (such as new psychoanalytic schools, scientifically troubled communities and the relational approach).
In this lecture Govrin will discuss change by troubled analysts within fascinated communities. Over time, all psychoanalytic communities undergo change. But what is it within each community that dictates the pace of change and the extent of loyalty to the school’s original conceptualizations? When is the change linked to the theory’s assumptions and worldview, and when is it simply limited to the therapeutic technique being used? Which are the therapeutic and theoretical constituent parts in any given school that can be said to be “firm” and immune to change, and which are the “soft” and bendable components that members of the community seek vary?
Govrin will outline four factors that are to an extent interrelated and that he believes play a significant role in shaping the dialectic between fascination and change – firm and soft components , images of knowledge, well-defined ideas and the character of the community. He will then attempt to characterize the dialectics of several of the key communities that are currently dominant. In each community, he will select psychoanalysts whose writings represent a change within a school of thought: Robert Stolorow and his work on self psychology; Betty Joseph in relation to Kleinian theory, Antonino Ferro and Michael Eigen in relation to Bion’s theory . The description of the changes introduced by these analysts will be illustrated with clinical material.
Aner Govrin, PhD: is a philosopher, clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst and the director of academic doctoral program “Psychoanalysis and Hermeneutics” for mental health workers at The Department of Hermeneutics and Culture at Bar Ilan University. Dr. Govrin is in private practice of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis in Tel Aviv. He is a member of the Tel Aviv Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis (TAICP). He is the co-author of Conversations with Michael Eigen (Karnac, 2007) together with Michael Eigen. His new book is Conservative and radical perspectives on Psychoanalytic Knowledge – The Fascinated and the disenchanted (Routledge, 2016).
Committee: Steven J. Yagerman (Chair), Ernie Burstein (MITO), Laura D’Angelo, Isolde Keilhofer, Victoria Malkin, Jerold Nashban, Aleksandra Wagner.
Registration is suggested. RSVP: Programs@npap.org <mailto:Holloman@npap.org> / 212