Introduction to Psychoanalytic Political Psychology – Dr. Vamik Volkan–Registration strongly recommended (see below)

As a presidential election year, politics has assumed center stage again for collective discourse. This Scientific Presentation considers the psychological dynamics underlying certain aspects of global politics from the framework of psychoanalytic political psychology. Relevant to this realm of applied psychoanalysis are group psychology, the role of psychological constructs in political movements whose members respond and resonate with each other in ways that lead to political movement, religious fundamentalism, terrorism and mass trauma. The consequences of such phenomena carry relevance to modern political ideologies, emerging leaders and their ability to garner support from their constituencies, political alliances and conflict, and modern challenges including the conscious and unconscious ideologies used to justify terrorism. Applications of these constructs will be made using a case study illustrating large group psychology
Learning Objectives:
• Participants will gain knowledge related to the application of psychoanalytic constructs to world political events and movements and how the ideas and constructs used in clinical work apply to large groups and the societal/geopolitical events that these groups ultimately determine.
• Participants will gain knowledge and understanding of the role of trauma on cultural and societal concepts including the role of leaders, chosen trauma, entitlement ideology, and the collapse of time that leads to modern enactments of historical grievances which, in turn, can be understood as driven by envy and perceived exclusion leading to the pursuit of “justice” and justified revenge.
• Participants will gain better understanding with individual patients whose responses to such events are tied to the links between their internal worlds and the external events driven by group phenomena.

Vamık Volkan, MD, DLFAPA, FACPsa., is an Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia; an Emeritus Training and Supervising Analyst at the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute, Washington, DC and the Senior Erik Erikson Scholar at the Institute of Education and Research of the Austen Riggs Center, Stockbridge, Massachusetts. In addition to being the author of numerous articles and books on political psychology and psychoanalytic thought, he is the founder of the International Society of Political Psychology (ISPP).

REGISTRATION FORM

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 NOBPC. 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 3 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE INFORMATION FOR ALL LEARNERS: None of the planners and presenters of this CME program have any relevant financial relationships to disclose.