Thanks to all who joined us for our December program! To view a recording

of the program, please visit our YouTube channel.

Chicago Psychoanalytic Society

Co-Sponsored by the Institute for Clinical Social Work

Scientific Program: December 6th, 2017, at 7:00 p.m.

Location: University Club, 76 E. Monroe St., corner of Michigan Ave., Chicago

Admission is free. No reservations are required.

Topic: “The Wolf’s Dictionary:” Predatory Profit

and the Unconscious Assumption that “Only One Can Live”

Presenter: Jessica Benjamin, PhD

Discussant: Celia Brickman, PhD, LCPC

In her talk, Benjamin draws connections between the current political situation in the United States and other historical moments in which mass movements with authoritarian tendencies played a significant role. Her thesis is that psychoanalytic thinking can contribute to understanding this profoundly anti-democratic constellation in terms of the core fantasy of “only one can live.”  This fantasy, which takes form in political ideology as extreme individual self-interest, undermines social solidarity. It also supports the polarity between “Them and Us,” in which a discardable, devalued subjugated group is seen to be a threat to the self-proclaimed superior and dominant group. She considers an alternate trajectory of politics that might enable the containing of conflicts within a non-violent civil society as well as the acknowledging of the history of harming to engage in repair.

Jessica Benjamin, PhD, is a preeminent psychoanalytic thinker, as seen in her being one of only two living authors (along with Tom Ogden) to have a paper among the ten most read in the archive of psychoanalytic journals.  A clinical psychoanalyst, she also has been involved for decades as a thinker and activist regarding social problems.  Along with many papers, she has written four books, including The Bonds of Love: Psychoanalysis, Feminism, and the Problem of Domination and, just published, Beyond Doer and Done To: Recognition Theory, Intersubjectivity and the Third.  She is Clinical Professor at the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis and a faculty member and co-founder of the Stephen A. Mitchell Center for Relational Studies.

Celia Brickman, PhD, LCPC, is a psychoanalytic therapist and a faculty member at The Center for Religion and Psychotherapy of Chicago, where she has served as Director of Training.  She is the author of Race in Psychoanalysis: Aboriginal Populations in the Mind, just published in a second edition.

Educational objectives:  After the presentation, the participant will be able to:

1. Recognize and explain the fantasy of “only one can live,” which leads to extreme self-interest and blocks a person from responding to the needs of others; and,
2. Appreciate the value of acknowledging how dominant groups have harmed those who are lacking in power.

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

To join or renew your membership, please click here.

Continuing Education Accreditation through the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis

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 Institute for Psychoanalysis. The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians. The American Psychoanalytic Association designates this Live Activity for a maximum of 2.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Psychologists: The Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis is approved as a continuing education sponsor for Psychologists by the State of Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. The Institute designates this continuing education activity as earning 2.0 hours of Continuing Education for Psychologists. CE Sponsor License #268.000091.

Social Workers: The Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis is approved as a continuing education sponsor for social workers by the Department of Professional Regulations of the State of Illinois. The Institute designates this continuing education activity as earning 2.0 hours of Continuing Education for Social Workers.

Professional Counselors: The Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis is approved as a continuing education sponsor for Professional Counselors and Clinical Professional Counselors by the Department of Professional Regulations of the State of Illinois. The Institute designates this continuing educational activity as earning 2.0 hours Continuing Education credit.

Marriage and Family Therapists: The Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis is approved as a continuing education sponsor for Marriage and Family Therapists by the Department of Professional Regulations of the State of Illinois. The Institute designates this continuing educational activity as earning 2.0 hours Continuing Education credit.

DISCLOSURE INFORMATION FOR ALL LEARNERS: None of the planners and presenters of this CME program have any relevant financial relationships to disclose.