Can We Bear to Turn Our Psychoanalytic Attention Toward Those Who Are Other? Scientific Program by Anton Hart, PhD, FABP

At the present moment, it would behoove psychoanalytic practitioners to remember that psychoanalysis is a strange, minority discipline in relation to the rest of the world. Yet the psychoanalytic psychotherapists, as a group, regularly fail to employ their power to penetrate the surface, their customary stance of curiosity and their capacity for insight vis-a-vis their own relative disengagement regarding issues of racial, ethnic, sexual, and socioeconomic otherness. This presentation will examine both the resistances to, and the necessity for, psychoanalytic engagement—and prioritization—of issues of otherness, difference and diversity. Some of the core anxieties associated with genuine, curious, exploratory dialogue about diversity are described.

A case is made for the cultivation of a stance of curiosity in relation to difference and for an emphasis on the noticing of and learning from those moments where diversity-related communication involving psychoanalytic practitioners—in the psychoanalytic classroom, supervisory, and clinical setting—seems to break down. Attention to such breakdowns is portrayed as key to facilitating dialogue that can lead to a more diverse—and diversely applied—psychoanalysis.

The talk will include practical recommendations for incorporating inquiry into difference and otherness for both psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic training organizations alike.

Learning Objectives:
• Develop an understanding of the anxieties associated with engaging issues of diversity, difference and otherness.
• Recognize the central role of curiosity as an antidote to cultural ignorance and insensitivity and be able to cultivate such curiosity in themselves and in their patients.
• Recognize pitfalls and breakdowns that can occur in diversity-related explorations and find ways to use these in the service of the restoration of open, constructive dialogue.

Admission is Free. Fee for 2 CME credits: $30 for NOBPC members; $50 non-members

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Anton H. Hart, PhD, FABP, is a Training and Supervising Analyst and on the Faculty of the William Alanson White Institute in New York City. A member of the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA) and the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA), he serves in APsaA’s Department of Psychoanalytic Education as the Chair of the Diversities Section. A Fellow of the American Board of Psychoanalysis, he supervises at Teachers College, Columbia University and at the Derner Institute of Adelphi University. He is a member of the Editorial Boards of the journals Psychoanalytic Psychology and Contemporary Psychoanalysis. He teaches in the Department of Psychology at Mt. Sinai/St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital, at the Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy, and at the National Institute for the Psychotherapies. He has published papers on issues of mutuality, disruption and safety. He served as Associate Co-producer for the film, “Black Psychoanalysis Speak,” in which he was also featured. He is a Co-Founder of the White Institute’s Study Group on Race and Psychoanalysis. He is writing a book, to be published by Routledge, entitled, Beyond Oaths or Codes: Toward Relational Psychoanalytic Ethics. He is in full-time private practice in New York City.

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 2 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s);. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE INFOR-MATION FOR ALL LEARNERS: None of the planners and presenters of this CME program have any relevant financial relationships to disclose.
PSYCHOLOGISTS AND SOCIAL WORKERS MAY RECEIVE CREDIT FOR THIS ACTIVITY WITH A CME CERTIFICATE.