Hyman Fingert Lecture: Psychoanalysis of Culture, Culture of Psychoanalysis: Character in the Consulting Room
Presented by Dwarakanath Rao, M.D.
Part of the Centene Charitable Foundation Speaker Series
Mar. 4, 2022 at 7 P.M. / 2 Credits / Free / Location TBD
Recent social & racial upheaval has necessitated a re-examination of our assumptions about identity. Psychoanalysis constitutes a unique conceptual & technical bridge between societal & personal culture. Psychoanalytic technique leads to a third “consulting room culture,” something the analyst & the analysand must create, negotiate, & utilize for analytic progress to occur. I propose character is the main working surface through which culture is reflected & understood by analysts and analysand. Culture, therefore, does not exist in the clinical situation, except as character. Every clinical interaction is a cross-cultural encounter, regardless of how similar or dissimilar each person’s culture within the dyad may be. This co-constructed “psychoanalytic culture” is a cauldron in which elements of culture are continuously created & destroyed in a bi-directional, disequilibrating & dialectical process. Central to psychoanalysis & culture is the exploration & resolution of the tensions between the safety of the familiar & the anxiety of newness. Analysis of culture is plagued by defensive intellectualizing and stereotyping, both antithetical to understanding individuals. Labels for theory & technique may be defensive extensions of individual or group culture and often examples of over-simplification and avoidance of painful complexity. The impact of such labeling on analytic education is discussed. The culture of the analyst and the analysand meet at a crossroads that may constitute one meaning of the “analytic third.”
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Cancellations will be accepted up to one week prior to the first session. Make check payable and send to St. Louis Psychoanalytic Institute 7700 Clayton Rd, Ste 200, St. Louis, MO 63117
Objectives:
1) Assess the significance of family culture versus general culture on character development
2) Apply the concept of a third culture, “analytic culture” to understanding transference and countertransference
3) Discern the ubiquitous role of culture as defense
