Celebrating not Pathologizing Sexuality: An Exploration of Marian Tolpin’s View and Beyond

Tuesday, May 26, 2020, 6:30 – 8:30pm

Location: Zoom – https://icsw.zoom.us/j/6410482572

Presenters: Lucy Freund, PhD (moderator), Thetis Cromie, PhD, and David Garfield, MD

After the presentation we will have time for a discussion, during which you can send in questions or comments for the speakers to answer.

BYOB only.

In a brilliant but too-little-known paper, the late Marian Tolpin, one of the Society’s most-revered members, explored sexuality within a self-psychology context. Addressing the emotional fulfillment of sexuality and considering the self-structure needed to carry out sexual and love relationships, she developed an egalitarian, non-pathological approach, a dramatic step forward from the emphasis on sexual pathology that had dominated psychoanalysis. A panel of psychoanalysts​ who were influenced by Marian Tolpin look at her view and propose ways of applying it to the world of today and carrying it farther. Discussion with the audience is welcome.

Anyone who would like a copy of Tolpin’s paper, email chicagopsychoanalyticsociety@gmail.comchicagopsychoanalyticsociety@gmail.com and we will send a copy. The paper is: Marian Tolpin, (1997), The Development of Sexuality and the Self, Annual of Psychoanalysis, 25:173-187.

Our panelists are two analysts who supervised with Marian Tolpin during their candidate years. Both have had interesting paths to becoming an analyst.

Thetis R Cromie, PhD, DMn is a graduate of the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute, the Institute for Clinical Social Work, the School of Social Service administration AND the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. She is on the Faculty of the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute, Adjunct Faculty at Loyola University School of Social Work and is on the faculty of Si Chuan He Guang Clinical Psychology Institute of Chengdu China. Thetis has published a number of papers on clinical and theological topics with intriguing titles. Highly relevant to tonight is one entitled Supervision with Marian Tolpin: The total transference. I should add that this paper has found its way onto many Self Psychology syllabi.

David Garfield MD is a graduate of the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute, University of California Medical School and did his psychiatry residency at Harvard Medical School’s Massachusetts Mental Health Center. Prior to embarking on his medical career, David was awarded the Newton prize with highest honors in English Literature from Haverford College. He is professor emeritus in the department of clinical Sciences, Department of Psychiatry at the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science at the Chicago Medical School. He is on the faculty of the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute. He is the author of “Unbearable affect: A guide to the psychotherapy of psychosis,” and with Stienman, “Self Psychology and Psychosis.”

Admission is free. There are no reservations required. Continuing Education Credits are offered exclusively to Society members in all membership categories.