Topic: A Plea for Linking or How are Yoga, K-Pop and Psychoanalysis Connected?

Presenter: Indrany Datta-Barua, MD

Indrany Datta-Barua, MD, is a psychiatrist at Chicago Psychiatry Associates and Faculty at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.  She is a candidate in the Psychoanalytic Education Program at the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute.  Although early in her career, she has published seven papers in medical and psychoanalytic journals; she is the first author or sole author of six of the papers. In 2024 she received a grant from the American Psychoanalytic Foundation to study “The Dancer’s Voice: Performance, Psychoanalysis, and South Asian Experience.”

Description: “A Plea for Linking or How are Yoga, K-Pop and Psychoanalysis Connected?”  As a framework for her talk, Indrany Datta-Barua, MD, makes use of Wilfred Bion’s concept of linking, which refers to the healthy process of an individual being able to link together various thoughts and to have links with other people.  She notes that if we as psychotherapists are to assist in the process of our patients integrating and linking up their dissociated parts, then we need to be able to connect individual history with social history.  In pointing out the historical tendency of psychoanalysis to overlook cultural factors, she gives an example of psychoanalysts talking about yoga in the United States without recognition of its richness and the way it developed while embedded in Indian culture.  Then Dr. Datta-Barua looks at a close friend of hers from childhood, Lee Eun-Hye, who became a K-Pop star but tragically died by suicide.  (K-pop is a genre of music that originated in Korea and has attained international popularity.)  She explains the insidious role that American culture, especially its stereotyping of Asians, as well as aspects of Korean culture, played in Lee Eun-Hye’s alienation and depression.  Dr. Datta-Barua concludes with a plea for psychoanalysis to complement its emphasis on the intrapsychic with an equal appreciation of the role of culture.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of the presentation, attendees will be able to:

1. describe the role of culture in this case and how every person is embedded in culture;
2. appreciate the value of linking up the dissociated parts of a patient, including not only the patient’s thoughts but the patient’s connection with others.

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

The presenter, Indrany Datta-Barua, MD, 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 for Physicians: 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 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).