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Welcome to the Chicago Psychoanalytic Society!

As we approach our third program of the year on November 12th, the Society acknowledges the intense stress many are feeling during these final days before the presidential election between Donald Trump, a wealthy white businessman and former president, and Kamala Harris, a lifetime public servant, current vice president, and woman of color, who is promoting a new generation of leadership. Indeed, the election is one of the most significant in our nation's history due to the deep chasm of ideas and values between the two candidates and the factions of the country each represents. With this backdrop, the Society is pleased to offer Chicago analyst Ramya Iyer's award-winning paper, '"January 6th: An Exploration of Racial Introjection and Social Construction."

While conceding recent attempts to understand racial dynamics in psychoanalysis, Iyer identifies the need for a "more robust theoretical or conceptual framework" that addresses how to work with racialized material in clinical settings. She asks: "As psychoanalysts, how do we understand and enact racial constructs within ourselves and with our patients?"

She continues: "I believe an analysis of our own racialized introjects will enable a better understanding of how our own racial identities have been constructed and how they impact our work with our patients." Iyer offers us a correction with a paper that weaves individual and social analytic theory, her personal experience as a South Asian immigrant, and a dynamic analytic case example that involves White Supremacy and the January 6th attack on the US Capitol building. She takes us directly into deep cultural, political, and symbolic material and, in so doing, provides a timely and necessary addition to the annals of psychoanalytic thought.

To prepare for this presentation, we offer you a link to Iyer’s paper (SEE “OPEN PAPER HERE,” located above “Learning Objectives”), as well as the following references for study:

Holmes, D. (2021). "I do not have a racist bone in my body": Psychoanalytic perspectives on what is lost and not mourned in our culture's persistent racism. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 69(2), 237–258. https://doi.org/10.1177/00030651211009518

Caflisch, J. (2020). When reparation is felt to be impossible: Persecutory guilt and breakdowns in thinking and dialogue about race. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 30(5), 578–594. https://doi.org/10.1080/10481885.2020.1797402 

Please remember that anyone interested in psychoanalysis is invited to join the Society and receive free continuing education credits.

We look forward to seeing you at 7 pm on November 12th via Zoom or in person at 8 S. Michigan Avenue.

Stephanie
Stephanie Fariss
Society President

 

Mission

Organized June 8, 1931 and accepted as a Constituent Society by the American Psychoanalytic Association in 1932, the Society's mission is to advance the field of psychoanalysis through the promotion of education and research by its members and the the community-at-large; to maintain and promote professional and ethical standards of the profession; to promote professional activities of its members by assisting career development and generating marketing opportunities; and to enhance the vitality of the Society by encouraging a diversity of opinion, assessing the interests of its members, facilitating member involvement in Society activities and fostering a collegial community.

The Society is committed to maintaining an educational environment free from sexual harassment, sexual violence, and discrimination based on race, color, sex, age, religion, disability, national origin, sexual orientation, or any other basis prohibited by law. It also strives to initiate, welcome, and maintain ongoing conversations and discussions related to inclusivity among its members and the community-at-large.


Upcoming Program


co-sponsored by: The Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute

Presentation Title:
"January 6th: An Exploration of Racial Introjection and Social Construction"

Presenter: Ramya B. Iyer, AM, LCSW

Tuesday, November 12, 2024, at 7:00 – 9:00 PM Central time

In person at the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute,
8 S. Michigan Ave, 7th Floor, Chicago, IL

And By Zoom




Ramya B. Iyer, AM, LCSW, is a psychoanalyst in private practice in Chicago.  She is a faculty member of the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute, where she teaches a course on Race & Immigration in Psychoanalysis.  She writes on issues of race and difference in clinical practice, with an interest in thinking about how race is constructed in the intrapsychic and intersubjective dimensions of experience.


Description:
 

This talk explores how racial dynamics emerge through clinical and professional enactments and contribute to the social construction of race in psychotherapeutic and psychoanalytic settings. The author presents the concept of societal racial introjects.  While psychoanalysis emphasizes early childhood experience as the chief source of introjects, societal racial introjects stem from societal myths and stereotypes that become part of the individual.  Such introjects have an impact on the racial identities of both therapist and patient and subsequently impact the transference/countertransference dynamic.  The author illustrates these dynamics by examining a therapy she conducted.  She, the therapist, is a woman of color who lived her early life in south India before immigrating with her family to the United States.  The patient is a white man and a professed liberal.  He spent his early life in the American south in a family with white nationalist parents, against whom he rebelled.  The author looks at how societal racial introjects impinge on intrapsychic processes and shape racial expression in the self, for both patient and therapist.

The full paper which the presentation is based on is attached for your reference. The paper is in press with the Journal of Psychoanalysis, Self, and Context.

 

Learning Objectives

After attending this session, participants should be able to:

  1. describe the concept of societal racial introjects.
  2. recognize how these introjects are expressed in both transference and countertransference.




    Admission is free. Continuing Education Credits are offered exclusively to Society members in all membership categories and those intending to join.

    The presenter, Edie Hitchcock, MFA, MA, PhD, LCPC, and the organizer, James W. Anderson, have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to report.

    Participants are asked to be aware of the need for privacy and confidentiality throughout the program.

    ACCME Accreditation Statement: This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of American Psychoanalytic Association (APsA) and the Chicago Psychoanalytic Society. The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

    AMA Credit Designation Statement: The American Psychoanalytic Association designates this live activity for a maximum of 2 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

    Disclosure Statement: The APsA CE Committee has reviewed the materials for accredited continuing education and has determined that this activity is not related to the product line of ineligible companies and therefore, the activity meets the exception outlined in Standard 3: ACCME's identification, mitigation and disclosure of relevant financial relationship. This activity does not have any known commercial support.

    Accreditation Information for Professionals Other Than Physicians.  The Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute maintains responsibility for this program and its content, in relation to accreditation for CE credits for non-physicians.  CPI is licensed by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation to sponsor continuing education credits for (license numbers in parentheses): Social Workers (159.000122), Professional Counselors (197.000202), Marriage and Family Therapy Therapists (168.00204), and Clinical Psychologists (268.000091). 

    Eligible professionals will receive 2.0 continuing education credits for attending the entire program. To receive these credits an evaluation form must be completed online. Learners must claim the amount of time spent in the educational activity and that will be the amount of credit they will earn.




    (Zoom link will be automatically emailed to you when you register)






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