Upcoming 2024 Workshops:
Charisma From A Psychoanalytic Perspective
Presenter: Richard Friedman, Pd, LCSW, NCpsyA
ON ZOOM!
Wednesday, April 24
7:00-9:00pm EDST
CE’s: 2
Cost: $40
Description:
Charisma in its original Weberian sense is the almost magical quality that some people have to stop other people from thinking critically or open people up to thoughts and feelings they otherwise would never have experienced. That the word, charisma, has degenerated in common usage to become a pretentious synonym for “attractive” deprives us of Weber’s useful meaning of someone who is listened to.
Dr. Friedman’s talk will focus on the following aspects of charisma:
- a very brief history of the concept of charisma and of Max Weber’s ideas (and the limitations of Weber’s ideas for psychoanalysts),
- charisma as a factor in teaching psychoanalytic ideas (this includes a discussion of Hyman Spotnitz as a charismatic leader and what that has meant for the development of what might be called “institutional modern psychoanalysis”)
- the implications of charisma for psychoanalytic practice
Dr. Friedman will put forward his idea that in every successful analysis the analysand has to experience their analyst as charismatic. However, because very few psychoanalysts are naturally charismatic (Spotnitz, like Freud, was one of the few exceptions), this presents some special issues which psychoanalysts overcome by leaning into their status as being “ordained” by the charismatic guru — or what might be referred to as “hereditary charisma.”
Objectives:
- summarize the historical development of the concept of charisma
- summarize the benefits as well as the limitations of charisma in teaching psychoanalytic ideas
- identify two key implications of charisma for psychoanalytic practice
About the Instructor:
After control analyses with Hyman Spotnitz and Marie Coleman Nelson and graduation in 1978 in the Center for Modern Psychoanalytic Studies’s second class, Dr. Friedman taught for many years at four psychoanalytic institutes. Dr. Friedman has published articles in several journals including two papers in “Modern Psychoanalysis,” many book reviews, and chapters in three books. After spending over half a century learning to be an analyst, Dr. Friedman enjoys giving back to the profession through supervision of candidates. He continues in the private practice of psychoanalysis in New York City, although most of his work is now done remotely.
Summer Reading Workshop: A People’s History of Psychoanalysis: From Freud to Liberation Psychology by Daniel José Gaztambide (Author)
Facilitator: Wally Fletcher, D.Min., NCpsyA
ON ZOOM!
Eight Saturdays: May 18, June 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, July 13, & 20th
9:00-10:15am EDST
CE’s: 10
Cost: $100
Description:
For some time, Sigmund Freud’s legacy has been interpreted from the “classical” perspective of a largely well to do white, male, and conservative psychoanalysis that over-emphasized intra-psychic dynamics at the expense of the socio-cultural dynamics Freud insisted undergird and largely co-determine them.
This led to the neglect or suppression of voices and traditions within psychoanalysis that read Freud differently and from a more “liberationist” social consciousness. It also contributed to commonly held views within many marginalized communities that psychoanalysis was irrelevant or even counter to their social and emotional needs and aspirations. In this scholarly work clinical psychologist, Daniel José Gaztambide offers an alternative narrative of the psychoanalytic movement inspired by Freud even though Freud failed in many ways to stay true to it. Quoting from the book description:
“In A People’s History of Psychoanalysis: From Freud to Liberation Psychology, Daniel José Gaztambide reviews the oft-forgotten history of social justice in psychoanalysis. Starting with the work of Sigmund Freud and the first generation of left-leaning psychoanalysts, Gaztambide traces a series of interrelated psychoanalytic ideas and social justice movements that culminated in the work of Frantz Fanon, Paulo Freire, and Ignacio Martín-Baró. Through this intellectual genealogy, Gaztambide presents a psychoanalytically informed theory of race, class, and internalized oppression that resulted from the intertwined efforts of psychoanalysts and racial justice advocates over the course of generations and gave rise to liberation psychology.”
Our author, Daniel José Gaztambide, Psy.D. is the chair of the Professional Practice committee of Division 29. He is the assistant director of clinical training in the department of clinical psychology at the New School for Social Research, and director of the Frantz Fanon Center for Intersectional Psychology. He is also author of a new book that will be available for purchase this spring, Decolonizing Psychoanalytic Technique: Putting Freud on Fanon’s Couch.
Learning Objectives:
- Attendees will be able to define liberation psychology and its intersections with contemporary psychoanalysis
- Attendees will be able to trace the integration of psyche-social-cultural, relational and critical theory in contemporary Psychoanalysis and its foundations in the complex legacy of Sigmund Freud.
- Attendees will be able to consider and articulate at least three implications/applications of this book for clinical practice
- Attendees will be better able to identify and articulate the importance of on-going historical studies for the training and advancement of psychoanalytic theory and technique [especially the lesser acknowledged social justice, progressive and activist movements within psychoanalysis]
About the Instructor:
Wally Fletcher, D Min, NCPsyA , has extensive training and experience as a therapist, organizational consultant, educator and non-profit executive. He is a Certified Psychoanalyst and Clinical Supervisor in the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis and a board commissioner and ACPE Psychotherapist of The Association for Clinical Pastoral Education. He teaches graduate (MS) courses in Business and Organizational Leadership at Neumann University, and courses in the history and evolution of psychoanalysis at the Philadelphia School of Psychoanalysis. He serves on the Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health’s Faith and Spiritual Affairs Advisory Board. He is also on the mental health faculty of CREDO, an intensive wellness program for clergy administered by the Pension Boards of the Episcopal and Presbyterian Churches US.