I.H. Cohn MD Lecture: Age of Consent: fetish, kink & the politics of sexual exploration (Alison Feit, Ph.D)
~2022-23 Lectures & Seminars~
FILM SERIES — Happiness: A Lens into the Therapist’s Struggle to Accept the Most Wounded Parts of Ourselves & our Patients (Aby Malley, LCSW)
Oct. 14 at 6:30 p.m. at the St. Louis Psychoanalytic Institute | $15 (Refreshments and Popcorn will be Served)
Happiness provides an intimate gaze into the lives of several (truly miserable) people, and their misguided attempts at “happiness.” The audience watches, often while cringing, as several characters- from the pitifully endearing to those whom we might label as “evil”- repeatedly chase the same, hopeless situations into their inevitably hopeless consequences. While difficult to watch, the film is ultimately compassionate, unbiased, and in some ways surprisingly optimistic. This lecture will focus on the experience of the viewer as it parallels that of the therapist sitting with a patient. This film is rich; it is compassionate yet cruel, hilarious yet gut wrenching, and refuses to provide its audience with the compacted, pithy morals we so often seek when watching a film. The therapist is faced with a similar dilemma, where the person in front of us contains multiple conflicting truths, and there is no succinct way to conceptualize or “define” any patient. The therapist realizes that in witnessing the complexity of another, they themselves are equally complex, and contain similar strengths and vulnerabilities. The therapist is compelled to release previously obtained notions of “right or wrong, good or bad,” when understanding others as well as themselves. This film asks us to do the same, and thus will be used to illustrate the painful, yet ultimately liberating process of attempting to sit compassionately and without rigid judgement of ourselves and our patients.
Male Sexual Abuse: a Case Conference (Alison Feit, Ph.D)
Join Us on Tuesdays, October 18 and 25, 7:30 p.m. / Intermediate / Location TBD / 3 credits / Price: $180
Research dating back to the late 1970s has shown that while 1 in 4 women in the US are sexually abused before the age of 18, 1 in 6 American men are similarly sexually abused by the end of their teenage years. However, most of the current thinking about sexual abuse in both public and professional venues has been focused on women and girls, and there is little awareness of the needs of males recovering from sexual trauma. This workshop will examine common psychological sequelae of sexual abuse in men (e.g. depression, anxiety, self-harm, substance abuse etc…) as well as the role of psychosocial, cultural and religious factors in reporting and recovery. Particular emphasis will be placed on effective treatment paradigms as well as transference and countertransference issues that are frequently encountered in work with male survivors.
Desire, Love & Attachment Styles: Romance and eroticism in the age of the internet (Alison Feit, PhD)
Join Us on Wednesdays, November 2 and 9 at 7:30 p.m. / Intermediate / Location TBD / 3 credits / Price: $75
This course will focus on the psychology and biology of desire, love and attachment. We will discuss the ways in which childhood attachment patterns which are developed very early in life are thought to inform adult attachment styles to romantic partners as adults . We will try to understand some of the major theories of human mate selection and their relationship to monogamy and infidelity. Particular attention will be paid to the neurobiologic underpinnings of mate selection and the ways in which it unconsciously influences desire. The course will conclude with the role of self-awareness and how it can shift one’s relationship attachment style towards more healthy attachment – the bedrock for securely attached bonded partnerships.
Join us March 23, 2023 at 7:30 P.M. CST / 1.5 Credits / $40 with credits Or $25 without credits / Beginner / Virtual Via Zoom
Increasingly, consideration and discussion of consent have become part of the sexual experience. This ranges from a now mainstream practice of discussing the sexual boundaries of a hookup to the nuanced, psychologically laden agreements made within BDSM relationships. Many other aspects of ‘kink’ culture are now incorporated into ‘vanilla’ culture and perhaps surprisingly have led to a more sophisticated way of creating ‘safer space’. The negotiation of mutuality of shared sexual experience, along with other such aspects of kink culture are rapidly changing the landscape of traditional sexual exploration. Additionally, consideration of a potential partner’s emotional concerns have become a newfound priority even in more traditional sexual relationships (e.g. “sub-drop”). Thus, the evolving political and social landscape has changed the meaning of consent. Rather than a legal definition of the agreed-upon acceptable nature of a potential sexual interaction, the navigation of consent and desire between people encourages that each individual engage in personal reflection as to what is innately desirable to them. This lecture will explore the impact of such internal conversation when it is coupled with the verbal negotiation with the other and the many ways in which it impacts the nature of intimacy, eroticism, safety and sexuality.
Building resilience for young Black boys through adaptive racial socialization (Huey Hawkins, Ph.D)
Join us Saturdays, Nov. 5, 12, and 19 from 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. /$120 / 4.5 Credit Hours / Location TBD / Beginner
Black men living in America have been designated as an “endangered species” for a variety of reasons, namely the targeting and violence done to young Black men by police. Such experiences leave the parents of young Black boys to worry on a constant basis about the safety of their sons. Few, however, have examined the effects of such violence on the young Black man’s sense of himself. Inspired by a recent qualitative research study, this course explores the psychological effects of cultural trauma. It aims to prepare the caregiver, teacher, and mentor of Black boys on how to (1) manage normative psychological experiences of racism; (2) cultivate a positive racial identity within Black indigenous persons of color (BIPOC) adolescents; and (3) navigate safety in harmful racist environments.
Early Contributors to British Object Relations Theory (Chester Smith, MEd., LPC) – CANCELLED!
Join us Thursdays, December 1, 8, and 15 at 7:30 p.m., / Price: $270 / Intermediate / 4.5 credits / Location TBD
This course will begin with a brief history of the creation of British Object Relations Theory. We will then explore the role of three of the major contributors to British Object Relations Theory, Donald Winnicott, Melanie Klein and W.R.D. Fairbairn. Readings will include important articles by each along with contemporary writings about these theorists’ work.
