Part 1 : Arriving at this Political Moment Saturday, October 24, 2020 9:30 AM to 12:30 PM (PST) Pre-registration is required Registration closes at 4:00 PM PST on October 23 3 CE/CME Credits Registration by October 18: $50; after October 18: $60 Students, candidates, interns and residents: $30 Peter Wolson, PhD, and Thomas Brod, MD
The first three-hour workshop will offer a schematic psychoanalytic overview of the major issues in what many regard as the most important presidential election of their lifetime. In their presentations, Drs. Wolson and Brod will explore such seminal issues as the conflict between Republicans and Democrats, authoritarianism vs. democracy, presidential leadership and Covid-19, racism vs. multi-ethnic/culturalism, empathy vs. narcissism, science vs. conspiracy theories, capitalism vs. socialism, idealization and othering, etc.
After the presentations, Dr. Wolson will lead the audience in a psychoanalytic discussion that will give participants an opportunity to express personal opinions about the issues that concern them most. The psychoanalytic emphasis will be on speculating about the unconscious psychodynamics underlying the manifest content of the political issues and personalities that are addressed.
The opinions expressed at these events are those of the individual expressing them and not the opinion of the New Center for Psychoanalysis.
Learning Objectives:
As a result of attending this program, participants should be able to:
Differentiate between the object representations of Democrats and Republicans
Explain the psychodynamics of authoritarianism
Describe the psychological functions of idealization and “Othering”
Compare large group identity to conflicting super-ego identifications within the voting public
Recognize the therapeutic value of mentalization of affect instead of its discharge
Peter Wolson, PhD, is a training and supervising analyst and faculty member of the Los Angeles Institute and Society for Psychoanalytic Studies. He has served as LAISPS’s president and director of training, is a co-founding member of the Confederation of Independent Psychoanalytic Societies, and was president of the Los Angeles Society of Clinical Psychologists. He is on the resident faculty of the Wright Institute Los Angeles and in private practice in Beverly Hills. His 2019 book, Psychoanalysis Enters the Political Fray: The Op-Ed Articles and Journal Blogs of Peter Wolson, argues that a psychoanalytic perspective is essential to deepen the public political dialogue. He has published professional papers on the vital role of adaptive grandiosity in artistic creativity and fatherhood, the existential dimension of psychoanalysis, the relational unconscious, analytic love and political power.
Thomas Brod, MD, is Senior Faculty at NCP. He is Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Geffen UCLA School of Medicine. Dr. Brod is an international presenter on Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy, coordinates the Manifest Mind series, and is the Co-Chair of NCP’s Film and Mind Series, where psychoanalytic perspectives are explored through contemporary films. His clinical practice, Self-Regulation Medical Group, in west Los Angeles applies psychoanalytic exploration of inner states.
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Part 2: Psychoanalytic Perspectives: A Town Hall Thursday, October 29, 2020 7:30 – 9:30 PM (PST) Pre-registration is required Registration closes at 4:00 PM PST on October 29 Registration is required. Program is Free. Discussion Moderators: Jennifer Langham, PhD, Paulene Popek, PhD, and Peter Wolson, PhD
The second event of the series is a psychoanalytic community town hall meeting giving participants the opportunity to explore in more depth the discussions begun in Part 1. Drs. Langham, Popek and Wolson moderate the conversation. The opinions expressed are those of the individual expressing them and not the opinion of the New Center for Psychoanalysis.
Part 3 Impacts on Patients and Therapists Saturday, November 21, 2020 9:30 AM to 12:30 PM (PST) Pre-registration is required Registration closes at 4:00 PM PST on November 20 3 CE/CME Credits Registration by November 15: $50; After November 15: $60 Students, candidates, interns and residents: $30
Abbot A. Bronstein, PhD
The third event, scheduled 18 days after Election Day, will feature Abbot A. Bronstein, PhD. He will share psychoanalytic insights and perspectives on the responses of patients that have been subject to hatred, divisiveness, and uncertainty over the past four years and intensified in the last seven months
Abbot A. Bronstein, PhD, is a training and supervising analyst at San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis and the International Psychoanalytic Association with a clinical practice, consultations, and supervision in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy in San Francisco and Oakland. He was honored at the American Psychoanalytic Association meetings in January 2016 as the “Distinguished Analyst” at a gathering for candidates and members. Dr. Bronstein is a North American Representative to the International Psychoanalytic Assn. and Chair, IPA North American Working Party on Comparative Clinical Methods. The working party of psychoanalysts studies the clinical methods of clinicians in their consulting room This international project with groups in Europe, Latin America and North America is comprised of eight analysts in North America studying the 30 plus clinical cases, running clinical groups and writing and publishing papers. Dr. Bronstein is Associate Editor of IJP and Editor, Analyst at Work Section, of IJP.