co-sponsored by: The Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute
The Excessive Polycule: Polyamory as an Expression of the Death Drive
Presenter: Edie Hitchcock, MFA, MA, PhD, LCPC
Tuesday, October 22, 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
Edie Hitchcock, MFA, MA, PhD, LCPC, is a psychotherapist in private practice and an advanced candidate at the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute. She received her doctorate from the European Graduate School in Philosophy, Art, and Critical Thought with a dissertation on the ethics of psychoanalytic listening. She teaches at the Institute for Clinical Social Work and in the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute’s Exploring Psychoanalysis program. She presents at philosophical conferences, and she was awarded the Lee Jaffe Candidate Paper Prize in 2024 by the American Psychoanalytic Association.
Description: This talk is an exploration of the meaning and function of polyamory (the practice of having multiple sexual partners) in the experience of a non-binary, queer person in psychotherapy. Polyamory, as this person practiced it, can be viewed as a form of “life-in-excess-of-life,” hypothesized by Jacques Lacan as the result of the death drive. The death drive, according to this formulation, propels the subject manically to generate potentially new structures in answer to a disappointing or lacking other. In its attempt to burn down nefarious hierarchies, polyamory functions as a regressed retreat to lateral-only relations; i.e., the rivalry and revelry of sibship. In the unconscious attempt to restabilize that which is unstable, the person is further destabilized. The goal in this talk is not to judge acts that may have the capacity to create emancipatory relational structures but to open up the dialogue for finding practices in life that result in less confusion and disavowal and more resilience and generosity as we make our way through this unstable world.
Please see a message from Stephanie Fariss, Society President, with relevant information and references for this presentation, on our home page.
Learning Objectives
After attending this session, participants should be able to:
- describe how polyamory can serve as a form of “life in excess of life” that attempts to make up for disappointment in the other;
- appreciate how the cultural surround, such as different attitudes toward polyamory, affects patients.
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.
