BPF Annual Lecture

Organised by:

British Psychotherapy Foundation

Description

This presentation comes at the end of a remarkable year. The Covid-19 pandemic and the spread of the Black Lives Matter Movement across the globe remind us how interconnected we all are. The climate emergency and the human inequities and suffering we see around us suggest that the old doctrine of Cartesian dualism with its assertion of the human subject as a self, separate from other selves and detached from the natural world, will no longer do. Nor will the old centres of power such as patriarchy, whiteness and capitalism.

Whilst feminism, post-colonial activism and Queer theorists challenge aspects of the dominant narratives, the increasing global awareness of the environmental damage done by these systems take matters further by requiring a fundamental re-examination of the myths and structures that saturate the cultural unconscious.

A re-vision and healing is becoming increasingly urgent and all professions, all disciplines – in particular those whose concern is the human subject and their suffering – need to examine how they might contribute. The psychoanalytic profession – by which I mean the broad church of people practicing according to psychoanalytic and Jungian analytic principles – could, I believe, make a valuable contribution to the endeavour. However, the psychoanalytic voice is weak and rarely heard in the very places where it might have something to offer.

The psychoanalytic project is historically both profoundly radical and deeply conservative, both challenging of the status quo and supportive of it. I suggest that we need to address the complacent aspects of our theories, our practice and the ways in which we are organised if we are to find a voice which has relevance in this new era. Thus the ‘formidable intelligence’ of psychoanalytic thinking might be better able to contribute to a wider re-formulation of the ways in which we could live together with each other and with the natural world.

Please note: This event will be conducted online (Via Zoom), the details of which will be emailed to you upon registration.

Ticket Pricing:
BPF Members – free
Non-Members – £25

Book tickets