Psychoanalytic Explorations: The Digital Third: Expansions of Oedipal Triads in the Interpersonal Age of Digital Objects presented by Rachel Hammer, MD

Psychoanalytic Explorations is a series in which faculty members and students of the NOBPC, as well as interested members of the community, present and discuss issues of current concern to them. The focus will be on clinical practice, theoretical challenges, and non-clinical applications of psychoanalytic theory; all presentations are intended to deepen attendees’ ability to think psychoanalytically. Each session will begin with a presentation followed by questions and answers and open discussion, with the intention of facilitating relaxed, informal peer exchange.

Discussion begins at 11am Central Time at NOBPC or Zoom

This single case presentation will explore how emerging artificial intelligence (AI) chat technology should be considered as a self-object and regarded as a potential player in object relations for patients who rely heavily on the use of AI. Using clinical material, the presenter will demonstrate how a transferential oedipal dynamic can emerge in treatment, with AI functioning as the digital third. Specific countertransference experiences including feeling competitive with the AI third will be discussed.

The presenter will summarize literature reviewing the “interpersonal age of digital objects” as discussed by Kahoud (2023). Additional clinical material examining narcissistic transference will be discussed alongside queer psychoanalytic themes discussing liquidness of self. Bion’s work in “Container and Contained” will be discussed as we consider for this patient the symbolic function of holes and tunnels, which in all bodies contain and discharge many elements: mother’s milk, blood, ejaculate.

Together we will consider the case’s context of rigid sociocultural “hard” boundaries as source of childhood shame related to sexual orientation, continuing as internalized adult shame while harboring a stigmatized diagnosis as secret, and appreciate how the patient seeks compromise formations which favor liquidity. Finally, we will discuss the therapist’s work as the process of seeking to be a flexible Bionian container, a good-enough circle.

Learning Objectives:
• Identify the clinical utility of screening for the presence of nontraditional “digital” object relations in clinical material and consider the relevance of these “relationships” to formulations which involve difficulties with oedipalization and digital rivals.
• Describe how narcissistic transference involving fantasies of infection serve multiple defensive functions.
• Link imagery as poets might to consider what Bionic beta-elements, or unthought thoughts, are alive in presented clinical material.

Rachel Hammer, MD completed a Masters in Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction during medical school at Mayo Clinic, and completed combined training in 2020. She has joined the Southeast Louisiana Veterans Affairs division of Primary Care, and serves as Psychiatry Clerkship Director for the Tulane School of Medicine. Her professional interests include narrative medicine, psychosomatic symptoms and illness, psychodynamic psychotherapy, and integrative primary care. Her current scholarly work focuses on Post-ICU Care Syndrome, Death Cafes for ICU worker burnout, and COVID-related family and caregiver psychological stress. Dr. Hammer is completing Adult Psychoanalytic Training, currently in her third year, at NOBPC.

Attendance is free. Pre-register by emailing nobpcenter@gmail.com.

Zoom registration ends 24 hours before the event.

1.5 CME credits is $15 for NOBPC members and $25 for non-members.

TThis 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 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)TM. 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 for this educational activity have relevant financial relationship(s)* to disclose with ineligible companies whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.
*Financial relationships are relevant if the educational content an individual can control is related to the business lines or products of the ineligible company.
-Updated July 2021-
Psychologists, Social Workers, and Licensed Professional Counselors may also receive continuing education credit for this activity if their accredited associations or boards recognize CME credits.