Do We Need Censorship?

Tuesday, September 22, 2020, 6:30 – 8:30pm CST

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

Presenter: Bonnie Litowitz, PhD

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

Censorship has been a central concept in psychoanalysis from the start. The concept is reviewed, beginning with its role in Freud’s two models of the mind and the theories derived from them; as well as in later, more recent theories. In Freudian and traditional theories (e.g., Lacan, M. Klein, Contemporary Freudian) the role of censorship in the individual psyche and the larger culture reflect each other. This is not the case with more recent  perspectives (e.g., interpersonal and relational theories, self psychological and intersubjective theories). The presentation ends with a consideration of how psychoanalytic insights can help us understand censorship as it takes place today in our contentious and polarized society.

Bonnie Litowitz, PhD,  is a graduate of the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute, and a retired faculty member of the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute. She is the former editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association (JAPA), and a member of the Chicago Psychoanalytic Society.