Fascist Experience and the Embodiment of Us and Them

Doris Brothers og Jon Sletvold i Bergen
Torsdag 25. mai 2023 KL. 18:00
Arrangement av Bergen Offentlige Bibliotek

Portrett bilde av Doris Brothers and Jon Sletvold

This presentation is largely based on a recent article published in Ricerca Psicoanalitica, entitled, “The Embodiment of ‘Us and Them’: Fascist Experience in a Traumatized World.” Deeply concerned about the rise of ultra-nationalism and the ascendance of authoritarian leaders in the western world, we came to feel that a great deal of what we called “fascist experience” had infiltrated our lives and those of our patients. We find support for our view that vulnerability to the us-them binary of fascist experience pervades our world in Wilhelm Reich’s masterful and prescient book, The Mass Psychology of Fascism (1933/1942). He suggests that “. . . there is not a single individual who does not bear the elements of fascist feeling and thinking in his structure.“

Se mer informasjon på https://bergenbibliotek.no/arrangement/fascist-experience-and-the-embodiment-of-us-and-them-1.

Doris Brothers, Ph.D. is a co-founder and faculty member of the Training and Research in Intersubjective Self Psychology Foundation (TRISP). She was co-editor with Roger Frie of Psychoanalysis, Self and Context from 2015-2019 and chief editor of eForum, the online newsletter of the International Association of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology (IAPSP). She serves on the advisory board and council of IAPSP. Her books include: Toward a Psychology of Uncertainty: Trauma-Centered Psychoanalysis (2008), Falling Backwards: An Exploration of Trust and Self-Experience (1995), and with Richard Ulman, The Shattered Self: A Psychoanalytic Study of Trauma (1988). She works in private practice in New York and Oslo.

Jon Sletvold, Psy.D. , is a licensed specialist in clinical psychology and psychotherapy. He is founding board director and faculty member at the Norwegian Character Analytic Institute. He is co-editor with Marianne Børstad of two books: Den terapeutiske dansen [The therapeutic dance] and Karakteranalytiske dialoger [Character analytic dialogues] and the editor of Tage Philipson – Kjærlighet og identifisering [Tage Philipson – Love and Identification]. He is the author of The Embodied Analyst: From Freud and Reich to Relationality,2014, winner of the Gradiva Award 2015 for best psychoanalytic book. With Per Harbitz he co-authored Fra musklepanser til kropper i dialog– Da Reich kom til Norge og det som skjedde etterpå … [From Muscular Armor to Bodies in Dialogue – When Reich came to Norway and what happened afterwards …], 2019.

Workshop: When Psychoanalytic Theory Meets the Body

24. september 2021 25. september 2021

When Psychoanalytic Theory Meets the Body: Re-envisioning, Transference, Repression/Dissociation and Resistance

A 2-Day Workshop by Jon Sletvold and Doris Brothers

Place: Norsk Karakteranalytisk Institutt; Gjerdrums vei 19, 0484 Oslo
Time: Friday 09:30 – 16:00 | Saturday from 09:30 – 15:00

In this workshop we bring the body-based perspective we are developing in our forthcoming book, Talking Bodies, to some of the most enduring aspects of psychoanalytic theory. The result is not only that the theory changes, but also that practice, training and supervision are re-envisioned. A central theme that runs through our work is that mind, from birth on, involves the creation of narratives based on embodied memories.

We will intersperse verbal dialogues with embodied exercises throughout and provided opportunities for embodied supervision.

Main topics

A Body-Based View of Transference

Ever since Freud’s earliest efforts to develop his theory of transference, memory has played a key role. Narratives, and the embodied non-verbal memories on which they are based, are central to a new understanding of transference. When viewed from the perspective of the ever-changing memories of both patient and therapist, transference is seen as a shifting flow of I, you, we and world. We propose that it is only in the context of trauma that transferences become rigidified.

A Body-Based View of Repression/Dissociation

Freud’s earliest attempt to deal with gaps in his patients’ verbal narratives gave rise to his concept of repression, which he regarded as the cornerstone of his entire theory.  In the 1890s he believed that patients’ memories of actual traumas that were too painful or embarrassing to be kept in conscious awareness were dissociated and replaced by symptoms. In 1897 he renounced his trauma theory and proposed that memories were repressed because they were associated with conflictual forbidden sexual impulses. In recent years dissociation has largely replaced repression. However, from a body-based perspective, dissociation exists only to the extent that pertains to traumatic memories that cannot be given verbal expression. When embodied memories are viewed as always present what has been called the dissociation-enactment model is profoundly changed.

A Body-Based View of Resistance

What makes therapeutic change so difficult? We propose that the freedom to change can be terrifying. When trauma is viewed from a body-based perspective it becomes clear that what has been called resistance often involves fear of losing one’s connections to all that is needed for one’s psychological well-being. When efforts are made to deepen the we-connectedness of patient and therapist, the fear of change is reduced for both therapeutic partners as a feeling of safety to experience all emotions develops. Illustrative clinical examples will be presented.

Doris Brothers, Ph.D. is a co-founder and faculty member of the Training and Research in Intersubjective Self Psychology Foundation (TRISP). She was co-editor with Roger Frie of Psychoanalysis, Self and Context from 2015-2019 and chief editor of eForum, the online newsletter of the International Association of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology (IAPSP). She serves on the advisory board and council of IAPSP. Her books include: Toward a Psychology of Uncertainty: Trauma-Centered Psychoanalysis (2008), Falling Backwards: An Exploration of Trust and Self-Experience (1995), and with Richard Ulman, The Shattered Self: A Psychoanalytic Study of Trauma (1988). She works in private practice in New York and Oslo.

Jon Sletvold, Psy.D. , is a licensed specialist in clinical psychology and psychotherapy. He is founding board director and faculty member at the Norwegian Character Analytic Institute. He is co-editor with Marianne Børstad of two books: Den terapeutiske dansen [The therapeutic dance] and Karakteranalytiske dialoger [Character analytic dialogues] and the editor of Tage Philipson – Kjærlighet og identifisering [Tage Philipson – Love and Identification]. He is the author of The Embodied Analyst: From Freud and Reich to Relationality,2014, winner of the Gradiva Award 2015 for best psychoanalytic book. With Per Harbitz he co-authored Fra musklepanser til kropper i dialog – Da Reich kom til Norge og det som skjedde etterpå … [From Muscular Armor to Bodies in Dialogue – When Reich came to Norway and what happened afterwards …], 2019.

Kr4000

    Registration form

    Norsk Karakteranalytisk Institutt

    41256600

    View Arrangør Website

    Norsk Karakteranalytisk Institutt

    Gjerdrums vei 19
    Oslo, 0484 Norge
    + Google-kart
    41256600
    View Sted Website

    Talking bodies: Practice and Supervision from a Body-Based Perspective

    Jon Sletvold and Doris Brothers

    In this two-day workshop theoretical presentations will be followed by demonstrations and exercises designed to help participants explore the topics covered. They will then be invited to discuss their experiences.

    Due to the corona, this workshops will take place online. You can attend from home in front of your own screen, take the opportunity to gather more participants at your home, or we will meet at the institute with a big screen.

    The fee has been reduced from NOK. 4,000, – to kr. 2,000, – for each participant. The workshops will be 2 x 2 hours both days, with an hour break in between.

    Those who already are registered will be able to withdraw or refund the excess if they wish to participate online.

    Date: August 28-29, 2020 (from 13:00 both days)
    Place: Online
    Price: 2 000 kroner

    Fortsett å lese «Talking bodies: Practice and Supervision from a Body-Based Perspective»

    Workshop: Developments in Embodied Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy

    Doris Brothers and Jon Sletvold

    In this two-day workshop theoretical presentations will be followed by demonstrations and exercises designed to help participants explore the topics covered and then to discuss their experiences.

    Date: August 30 and 31, 2019
    From 09:00 to 16:00 both days (lunch 12-13)
    Place: Norsk Karakteranalytisk Institutt
    Price: 3 500 kroner

    Fortsett å lese «Workshop: Developments in Embodied Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy»