Farhad Dalal
Feb 2, 2019
Book Launch
CBT- The Cognitive Behavioural Tsunami
Managerialism, Politics & the Corruptions of Science
CBT- The Cognitive Behavioural Tsunami
Managerialism, Politics & the Corruptions of Science
Abstract
In this talk I will outline some of the main ideas in the book.
Is CBT all it claims to be? The book is a critique of CBT’s understanding of human suffering, as well as the apparent scientific basis underlying it. The book argues that CBT psychology has fetishized measurement to such a degree that it has come to believe that only the countable counts. It suggests that the so-called science of CBT is not just “bad science” but “corrupt science”.
The book not only critiques the science, psychology and philosophy of CBT, but also challenges the managerialist mentality and its hyper-rational understanding of “efficiency”, both of which are commonplace in organizational life today. Suggesting that these are perverse forms of thought which have been institutionalized by NICE and IAPT to generate a narrative to make it appear that all is well in the world of CBT. In contrast, the book claims that CBT is an exercise in symptom reduction which vastly exaggerates the degree to which symptoms are reduced, the durability of the improvement, as well as the numbers of people it helps.
Arguing that CBT is neither the cure nor the scientific treatment it claims to be, the book also serves as a broader cultural critique of the times we live in; a critique which draws on philosophy and politics, on economics and psychology, on sociology and history, and ultimately, on the idea of science itself. It will be of immense interest to all psychotherapists in practice as well as to policymakers in a range of different settings.
In this talk I will outline some of the main ideas in the book.
Is CBT all it claims to be? The book is a critique of CBT’s understanding of human suffering, as well as the apparent scientific basis underlying it. The book argues that CBT psychology has fetishized measurement to such a degree that it has come to believe that only the countable counts. It suggests that the so-called science of CBT is not just “bad science” but “corrupt science”.
The book not only critiques the science, psychology and philosophy of CBT, but also challenges the managerialist mentality and its hyper-rational understanding of “efficiency”, both of which are commonplace in organizational life today. Suggesting that these are perverse forms of thought which have been institutionalized by NICE and IAPT to generate a narrative to make it appear that all is well in the world of CBT. In contrast, the book claims that CBT is an exercise in symptom reduction which vastly exaggerates the degree to which symptoms are reduced, the durability of the improvement, as well as the numbers of people it helps.
Arguing that CBT is neither the cure nor the scientific treatment it claims to be, the book also serves as a broader cultural critique of the times we live in; a critique which draws on philosophy and politics, on economics and psychology, on sociology and history, and ultimately, on the idea of science itself. It will be of immense interest to all psychotherapists in practice as well as to policymakers in a range of different settings.
Farhad Dalal has been in independent practice as a group analyst and psychotherapist for over thirty years. He also works with organizations.
His previous books have questioned received wisdom in a range of territories including psychotherapy (Taking the Group Seriously), racism (Race, Colour and the Processes of Racialization) and equal opportunities (Thought Paralysis - The Virtues of Discrimination).
On Amazon at http://amzn.eu/d/eERacNy
His previous books have questioned received wisdom in a range of territories including psychotherapy (Taking the Group Seriously), racism (Race, Colour and the Processes of Racialization) and equal opportunities (Thought Paralysis - The Virtues of Discrimination).
On Amazon at http://amzn.eu/d/eERacNy
Nov 9, 2019
Peter Wilson
Me loves me:
What is this thing called Narcissism?
And resistance in Adolescence?
What is this thing called Narcissism?
And resistance in Adolescence?
Peter Wilson is a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist. He trained in child psychoanalysis at the Hampstead Child Therapy Course and Clinic (now the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families) from 1967 - 1971.
Since then he has held senior positions in the NHS, at the Institute of Psychiatry, Peper Harow Therapeutic Community and the Brent Consultation Centre and the Brandon Centre for adolescents.
He was the co founder and Director of Young Minds, the national child mental health charity and later the Clinical Adviser to the Place2Be charity that provides a comprehensive counselling service in schools across the country. He has been actively involved in policy developments in the field of child and adolescent mental health services and has published numerous papers and chapters on a range of subjects relating to child and adolescent development and psychotherapy. He currently lectures and teaches in various institutions, including the Anna Freud National Centre, The Tavistock Centre, The Institute for Arts in Therapy and Educatio and,the British Psychotherapy Foundation.
Since then he has held senior positions in the NHS, at the Institute of Psychiatry, Peper Harow Therapeutic Community and the Brent Consultation Centre and the Brandon Centre for adolescents.
He was the co founder and Director of Young Minds, the national child mental health charity and later the Clinical Adviser to the Place2Be charity that provides a comprehensive counselling service in schools across the country. He has been actively involved in policy developments in the field of child and adolescent mental health services and has published numerous papers and chapters on a range of subjects relating to child and adolescent development and psychotherapy. He currently lectures and teaches in various institutions, including the Anna Freud National Centre, The Tavistock Centre, The Institute for Arts in Therapy and Educatio and,the British Psychotherapy Foundation.
Abstract.
‘ Narcissism’ is a word that rings resplendently in contemporary popular culture. It seems everyone can be called narcissistic these days one way or the other,some with greater prominence than others. It is no surprise that we are left wondering at the end of it all,.what the word actually means. This paper is an attempt to make sense of narcissism from a psychoanalytic point of view, starting with Freud’s seminal work on the subject and following through to the views of Kohut and Kernberg, in the seventies in Chicago.
The clinical significance of the the concept will be discussed particularly in relation to adolescence - adolescents being immersed as they are in a time of life which is particularly preoccupied with questions of body and psychic identity and integrity. A number of case examples will be given to highlight the technical problems of dealing with what might be called ‘ narcissistic resistance’ in the psychotherapy of adolescents.
‘ Narcissism’ is a word that rings resplendently in contemporary popular culture. It seems everyone can be called narcissistic these days one way or the other,some with greater prominence than others. It is no surprise that we are left wondering at the end of it all,.what the word actually means. This paper is an attempt to make sense of narcissism from a psychoanalytic point of view, starting with Freud’s seminal work on the subject and following through to the views of Kohut and Kernberg, in the seventies in Chicago.
The clinical significance of the the concept will be discussed particularly in relation to adolescence - adolescents being immersed as they are in a time of life which is particularly preoccupied with questions of body and psychic identity and integrity. A number of case examples will be given to highlight the technical problems of dealing with what might be called ‘ narcissistic resistance’ in the psychotherapy of adolescents.
Limbus Lectures
Abstract.
Writing my book, The Rough Beast: Psychoanalysis in Everyday Life, was like a profound meditation on my craft. What did I have to say to an everyday, curious, suspicious reader about psychoanalysis? What were the most important things to describe - away from the jargon and over-intellectualising we can sometimes do? What is psychoanalysis (or less intensive analytically-based psychotherapy)? How does it work? Is there anything in it to offer other professionals, too?
Writing my book, The Rough Beast: Psychoanalysis in Everyday Life, was like a profound meditation on my craft. What did I have to say to an everyday, curious, suspicious reader about psychoanalysis? What were the most important things to describe - away from the jargon and over-intellectualising we can sometimes do? What is psychoanalysis (or less intensive analytically-based psychotherapy)? How does it work? Is there anything in it to offer other professionals, too?
Denise Cullington was lucky enough to train at the Tavistock Clinic and the Institute of Psychoanalysis, London. Her core profession was Clinical Psychology. Prior to that she lived and painted in the US and Puerto Rico.
Her first book, Breaking Up Blues (Routledge, 2008)
"by far and away the very best I have ever read on the emotional and psychological cost of divorce. It …has the uncanny ability to cut right through to the heart of the issues. (Heiss, Amazon).
Her second book, The Rough Beast (Routledge, 2018
"so beautifully written some readers may find this book almost impossible to put down… this remarkable book calls out to be read and re-read. There will be more to find and to enjoy with each reading. It is so readily accessible, and yet much of it so profound" Patrick Casement.
Her first book, Breaking Up Blues (Routledge, 2008)
"by far and away the very best I have ever read on the emotional and psychological cost of divorce. It …has the uncanny ability to cut right through to the heart of the issues. (Heiss, Amazon).
Her second book, The Rough Beast (Routledge, 2018
"so beautifully written some readers may find this book almost impossible to put down… this remarkable book calls out to be read and re-read. There will be more to find and to enjoy with each reading. It is so readily accessible, and yet much of it so profound" Patrick Casement.
Denise Cullington
Feb 1st, 2020
Ten Things I Love About Psychoanalysis
(This lecture is taking place in Studio 1, not the usual Studio 3; they are next to each other)
(This lecture is taking place in Studio 1, not the usual Studio 3; they are next to each other)
Abstract
In my talk, based on attachment research, I will show how trauma or toxic stress in childhood, is not just an event that took place sometime in the past; it is also the imprint left by that experience on the mind, brain and body which affects not only how we feel but also how we perceive the world and how we think. In so doing she will cover the subject of Adverse Childhood Experiences and Trauma Informed Care which offer us a new public health approach in relation to physical and mental health including current worrying levels of violence.
In my talk, based on attachment research, I will show how trauma or toxic stress in childhood, is not just an event that took place sometime in the past; it is also the imprint left by that experience on the mind, brain and body which affects not only how we feel but also how we perceive the world and how we think. In so doing she will cover the subject of Adverse Childhood Experiences and Trauma Informed Care which offer us a new public health approach in relation to physical and mental health including current worrying levels of violence.
Dr Felicity de Zulueta is Emeritus Consultant Psychiatrist in Psychotherapy at the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust and Honorary Senior Lecturer in Traumatic Studies at Kings College London as well as being a Group Analyst. She developed and headed both the Department of Psychotherapy at Charing Cross Hospital in 1984 and the Traumatic Stress Service in the Maudsley Hospital in 1996 which specialises in the treatment of people suffering from Complex Post Traumatic Stress disorder.
She wrote "From Pain to Violence, the traumatic roots of destructiveness" (2nd updated edition published by John Wiley and Sons, 2006) and papers on trauma and bilingualism. She is a founder member of WAVE and the International Attachment Network. Since 2012, she works as a free-lance consultant psychotherapist with a training in psychoanalytic psychotherapy, systemic family therapy, group analysis, EMDR and Lifespan Integration.
Felicity de Zulueta
Born to love, Driven to Destroy:
The Human Paradox
The Human Paradox
Oct 3, 2020
Mike Tait
Nov 14, 2020
Meeting and Matching the Moment of Hope:
Transforming Destructiveness & Working with Dreams
An Interactive Workshop
Transforming Destructiveness & Working with Dreams
An Interactive Workshop
Abstract
"Meeting and matching the moment of hope…... creating an environment that can stand the strain". D.W.Winnicott
Here, Winnicott is referring to the opportunity to understand delinquent behaviour as a communication looking for a thoughtful response. Very often the response is punitive, which S.H Foulkes suggests is more likely to help manage the delinquent inside the judicial official or the average citizen, rather than to address the needs of the offender.
Winnicott, de Mare and Foulkes, are all interested in viewing psychological difficulties as arising between people rather than from within individuals. These difficulties may be understood and addressed in developmental terms, in relation to the family group or as a reflection of wider social dynamics.
This workshop will be an attempt to explore some interactions which young people have found helpful in addressing destructive and symptomatic behaviour. The structure of the workshop will consist of a series of discussions, focussed around the writings of Foulkes, Winnicott and de Mare.
Mike says: ‘My own thoughts are shaped by working in therapeutic communities with young people and the adults who worked with them - and particularly by conversations had with young people many years afterwards about what they found helpful. Attached are some quotes which may evoke thoughts, memories and stories from participants. I view these writings more as poetry than science - evoking a changing resonance with each reading - but poetry that changes lives’.
"Meeting and matching the moment of hope…... creating an environment that can stand the strain". D.W.Winnicott
Here, Winnicott is referring to the opportunity to understand delinquent behaviour as a communication looking for a thoughtful response. Very often the response is punitive, which S.H Foulkes suggests is more likely to help manage the delinquent inside the judicial official or the average citizen, rather than to address the needs of the offender.
Winnicott, de Mare and Foulkes, are all interested in viewing psychological difficulties as arising between people rather than from within individuals. These difficulties may be understood and addressed in developmental terms, in relation to the family group or as a reflection of wider social dynamics.
This workshop will be an attempt to explore some interactions which young people have found helpful in addressing destructive and symptomatic behaviour. The structure of the workshop will consist of a series of discussions, focussed around the writings of Foulkes, Winnicott and de Mare.
Mike says: ‘My own thoughts are shaped by working in therapeutic communities with young people and the adults who worked with them - and particularly by conversations had with young people many years afterwards about what they found helpful. Attached are some quotes which may evoke thoughts, memories and stories from participants. I view these writings more as poetry than science - evoking a changing resonance with each reading - but poetry that changes lives’.
Mike Tait is a group analyst and drama-therapist who has spent four decades facilitating groups with young people and adults with a variety of client groups.
He has worked as a drama-therapist and group analyst in a variety of contexts including homelessness projects, drug and alcohol projects, an eating disorder unit, adolescent psychiatric units, University counselling and counselling trainings.
In the main he has - but primarily within therapeutic community environments with young people in which he has been a therapist, supervisor, consultant and organizational group analyst.
He works currently as a drama-therapist in a psychiatric hospital with young people and as an organizational group analyst in therapeutic communities working with children and adolescence. He is a long-standing member of the International Courses Committee at the IGA and is a member of the teaching staff on the Group Analytic Qualifying course in Albania. He is a Squiggle Trustee and has been involved in a range of activities and workshops exploring the practical applications of the work of S.H.Foulkes, D.W.Winnicott and Pat de Mare both in the UK and Europe.
He has worked as a drama-therapist and group analyst in a variety of contexts including homelessness projects, drug and alcohol projects, an eating disorder unit, adolescent psychiatric units, University counselling and counselling trainings.
In the main he has - but primarily within therapeutic community environments with young people in which he has been a therapist, supervisor, consultant and organizational group analyst.
He works currently as a drama-therapist in a psychiatric hospital with young people and as an organizational group analyst in therapeutic communities working with children and adolescence. He is a long-standing member of the International Courses Committee at the IGA and is a member of the teaching staff on the Group Analytic Qualifying course in Albania. He is a Squiggle Trustee and has been involved in a range of activities and workshops exploring the practical applications of the work of S.H.Foulkes, D.W.Winnicott and Pat de Mare both in the UK and Europe.
Abstract.
Two years ago, through the Hank Nunn Institute (HNI), we started working with Swakshatra, a rescue home for young girls in Bangalore, Karnataka. The home aims to provide post trauma-care and rehabilitation for the girls.
This opportunity presented us with a twofold challenge – a) communicating with the girls with no common spoken language between us, and b) addressing their trauma and providing psychological care without them re-living the experience .
All of the girls speak Kannada (official language of Karnataka, India) which is different from both our mother tongues. The language barrier seemed to have added to the ‘us and them dynamics’ which already existed because of our privileged backgrounds.
The idea to use play-based groups seemed like a safe intervention to begin addressing both these challenges. Over time, play has helped us form a relationship with each of them, understand the nature of their inter- and intrapersonal relationships, their dreams and nightmares, and their desire to reconnect with their families. This paper is an attempt to share our journey and in the process answer the question – How do you begin to relate through play when it has been the symbol of abuse?
Two years ago, through the Hank Nunn Institute (HNI), we started working with Swakshatra, a rescue home for young girls in Bangalore, Karnataka. The home aims to provide post trauma-care and rehabilitation for the girls.
This opportunity presented us with a twofold challenge – a) communicating with the girls with no common spoken language between us, and b) addressing their trauma and providing psychological care without them re-living the experience .
All of the girls speak Kannada (official language of Karnataka, India) which is different from both our mother tongues. The language barrier seemed to have added to the ‘us and them dynamics’ which already existed because of our privileged backgrounds.
The idea to use play-based groups seemed like a safe intervention to begin addressing both these challenges. Over time, play has helped us form a relationship with each of them, understand the nature of their inter- and intrapersonal relationships, their dreams and nightmares, and their desire to reconnect with their families. This paper is an attempt to share our journey and in the process answer the question – How do you begin to relate through play when it has been the symbol of abuse?
Ishani Bayal & Reshmi Sahadevan
Feb 13, 2021
The Language of Play: When the Unspoken Takes Centre Stage
Developing therapeutic practice in a girl's shelter home in Karnataka, India
Developing therapeutic practice in a girl's shelter home in Karnataka, India
Reshmi Sahadevan is a Clinical Psychologist with over 10 years of experience in Psychotherapy. She is also a trainee Group Analyst and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner. She has experience in building mental health spaces in organisations. She is passionate about working with community and reaching more people through the application of psychology beyond the therapy room.
Ishani Badyal is a psychologist-psychotherapist working in a personality disorder/difficulty service since 2016. She has a keen interest in working with people with complex trauma. She has worked in various community mental health spaces, both in rural and urban settings. She is training to become a group analyst and is part of the Therapeutic Environments Practitioner Course (TCEPT). Her long-term goal is to set up therapeutic communities in the semi urban and rural areas of India.
Ishani Badyal is a psychologist-psychotherapist working in a personality disorder/difficulty service since 2016. She has a keen interest in working with people with complex trauma. She has worked in various community mental health spaces, both in rural and urban settings. She is training to become a group analyst and is part of the Therapeutic Environments Practitioner Course (TCEPT). Her long-term goal is to set up therapeutic communities in the semi urban and rural areas of India.
Farhad Dalal
Ethics and the Bureaucratization of the Psychotherapy Professions
March 20, 2021
Abstract
The talk starts by outlining three ways that philosophers have thought about ethics – deontology, consequentialism and virtue ethics. I argue that society in general, including the field of psychotherapy, has become enamoured by the shallowest of these, consequentialism. Further, the world has become bewitched by the siren song of the logical positivists and their take on the fact/value dichotomy. When combined, both these have resulted in quantity being used to police not only quality but also human qualities.
The body of the talk takes up a number of issues, arguing for example that codes of ethics serve a number of tacit socio-political functions rather than the espoused one of protecting the general public. In effect, the talk will critically deconstruct the notion of codes of ethics in numerous ways by asking questions like: Are good therapists necessarily ethical therapists? I will argue that ethics cannot be objectified in codes, at least not without grievous distortion of those very ethics.
The talk starts by outlining three ways that philosophers have thought about ethics – deontology, consequentialism and virtue ethics. I argue that society in general, including the field of psychotherapy, has become enamoured by the shallowest of these, consequentialism. Further, the world has become bewitched by the siren song of the logical positivists and their take on the fact/value dichotomy. When combined, both these have resulted in quantity being used to police not only quality but also human qualities.
The body of the talk takes up a number of issues, arguing for example that codes of ethics serve a number of tacit socio-political functions rather than the espoused one of protecting the general public. In effect, the talk will critically deconstruct the notion of codes of ethics in numerous ways by asking questions like: Are good therapists necessarily ethical therapists? I will argue that ethics cannot be objectified in codes, at least not without grievous distortion of those very ethics.
Farhad Dalal is a psychotherapist and group analyst living and working in Devon. He is the convenor of the group analytic training in Bengaluru, India. His books to date include: Taking the Group Seriously (1998), Race, Colour and the Processes of Racialization (2002), Thought Paralysis: The Virtues of Discrimination (2012), and CBT: The Cognitive Behavioural Tsunami - Managerialism, Politics and the Corruptions of Science (2018)
www.dalal.org.uk.
Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian
Sep 25, 2021
The Psychological Dialectics of Gun to Body:
Palestinian Children and/in the Settler Colony.
Palestinian Children and/in the Settler Colony.
Abstract
In Palestine, children experience and locate their suffering within the colonial violence that dominates their reality. Following Martín-Baró's model of articulating a critical psychology “of the people,”, my talk will offer an analysis through the words and reflections of Palestinian children from Jerusalem, Hebron and Gaza.
To understand Palestinian children's narrations, the talk analyzes (1) how territorial siege, segregation and separation from the homeland constitute, as children in Gaza explained, “non-breathing,” non-living spaces, produced by rendering lands, bodies, and lives exterminable and disposable; (2) how securitization and military checkpoints (“killing boxes”) dominate the geography of the neighbourhood, so as to confine children within a condition of “caging” and maintain them as “caged others;” and (3) how the settler colonial governance of childhood invades not only public space with their “killing boxes,” but also the Palestinian home and intimate familial spaces.
The talk concludes by illustrating the ways in which children endure ongoing wounding and engage in the process of healing while living under the ideological militarized force of the settler colony. Politicizing the examinations, and interventions with children's wounds and traumas, when living and surviving what I frame as a “gun to body” context can promote mental health worker's attentiveness to children's performances and transformations, recognizing and affirming the agency of subjects undergoing dispossession and cruel injustice.
In Palestine, children experience and locate their suffering within the colonial violence that dominates their reality. Following Martín-Baró's model of articulating a critical psychology “of the people,”, my talk will offer an analysis through the words and reflections of Palestinian children from Jerusalem, Hebron and Gaza.
To understand Palestinian children's narrations, the talk analyzes (1) how territorial siege, segregation and separation from the homeland constitute, as children in Gaza explained, “non-breathing,” non-living spaces, produced by rendering lands, bodies, and lives exterminable and disposable; (2) how securitization and military checkpoints (“killing boxes”) dominate the geography of the neighbourhood, so as to confine children within a condition of “caging” and maintain them as “caged others;” and (3) how the settler colonial governance of childhood invades not only public space with their “killing boxes,” but also the Palestinian home and intimate familial spaces.
The talk concludes by illustrating the ways in which children endure ongoing wounding and engage in the process of healing while living under the ideological militarized force of the settler colony. Politicizing the examinations, and interventions with children's wounds and traumas, when living and surviving what I frame as a “gun to body” context can promote mental health worker's attentiveness to children's performances and transformations, recognizing and affirming the agency of subjects undergoing dispossession and cruel injustice.
Prof. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian- a Palestinian feminist, is the Lawrence D. Biele Chair in Law at the Faculty of Law-Institute of Criminology and the School of Social Work and Public Welfare at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Global Chair in Law- Queen Mary University of London.
Her research focuses on trauma, state crimes and criminology, surveillance, gender violence, law and society and genocide studies. She studies the crime of femicide and other forms of gendered based violence, violence against children in conflict ridden areas, crimes of abuse of power in settler colonial contexts, surveillance, securitization and social control.
She is the author of numerous books including
Militarization and Violence Against Women in Conflict Zones in the Middle East: The Palestinian Case Study” (2010);
“Security Theology, Surveillance and the Politics of Fear”(2015).
“Incarcerated Childhood and the Politics of Unchilding”.(2019)
Other edited works in the pipeline are:
* Understanding Campus-Community Partnerships in Conflict Zones”,
* The sacralization of politics and its effect on human suffering, and
* Islam and gender based violence.
She has published articles in multi-disciplinary fields including British Journal of Criminology, Feminist Studies, Ethnic and Racial Studies, State Crime, Violence Against Women, Social Science and Medicine, Signs, Law & Society Review, International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies.
As a resident of the old city of Jerusalem, Shalhoub-Kevorkian is a prominent local activist. She engages in direct actions and critical dialogue to end the inscription of power over children’s lives, spaces of death, and women’s birthing bodies and lives.
Her research focuses on trauma, state crimes and criminology, surveillance, gender violence, law and society and genocide studies. She studies the crime of femicide and other forms of gendered based violence, violence against children in conflict ridden areas, crimes of abuse of power in settler colonial contexts, surveillance, securitization and social control.
She is the author of numerous books including
Militarization and Violence Against Women in Conflict Zones in the Middle East: The Palestinian Case Study” (2010);
“Security Theology, Surveillance and the Politics of Fear”(2015).
“Incarcerated Childhood and the Politics of Unchilding”.(2019)
Other edited works in the pipeline are:
* Understanding Campus-Community Partnerships in Conflict Zones”,
* The sacralization of politics and its effect on human suffering, and
* Islam and gender based violence.
She has published articles in multi-disciplinary fields including British Journal of Criminology, Feminist Studies, Ethnic and Racial Studies, State Crime, Violence Against Women, Social Science and Medicine, Signs, Law & Society Review, International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies.
As a resident of the old city of Jerusalem, Shalhoub-Kevorkian is a prominent local activist. She engages in direct actions and critical dialogue to end the inscription of power over children’s lives, spaces of death, and women’s birthing bodies and lives.
Sarah Benamer
Not So Hysterical Now?
Psychotherapy, Menopause & Hysterectomy
Psychotherapy, Menopause & Hysterectomy
June 5, 2021
Abstract
In the context of the body, the essentially female; wombs, menstrual cycles and concurrent hormones, have seen women ascribed madness, insatiability, untrustworthiness, and danger. Female bodies have been identified in selective parts, considered in abstract, or envisaged as having overwhelming power over the mind. ‘Hysteria,’ the problematic neurosis of uterine origin was at the heart of early psychoanalysis. This diagnosis enshrines a slippage from the physical to the fantastical, and ultimately to the denial of the lived reality of women and girl’s bodies.
In apparent collusion with patriarchy the neglect of some female bodily experience is perpetuated in contemporary psychoanalytic theory. Nowhere is this more evident than around menopause and hysterectomy (as experienced by either client or therapist). There has been little or no exploration of how practitioners might best support clients for whom menopause is significant, or how we might facilitate women before or after gynaecological surgery. It is as if removal and psychological loss of the same female body parts that our forbears used to so neatly differentiate, diagnose, and pathologise women are now not of note.
So if we are damned as hysterics with wombs, who are we when our wombs are removed, or as the power of our presumed feminine imperative wanes? How can psychotherapeutic theory develop to manage the tension between physical fact and symbolic meaning for individual women in this context? How may we best empower women to reclaim ‘down there’ and normalise rather than stigmatise women’s bodies?
In the context of the body, the essentially female; wombs, menstrual cycles and concurrent hormones, have seen women ascribed madness, insatiability, untrustworthiness, and danger. Female bodies have been identified in selective parts, considered in abstract, or envisaged as having overwhelming power over the mind. ‘Hysteria,’ the problematic neurosis of uterine origin was at the heart of early psychoanalysis. This diagnosis enshrines a slippage from the physical to the fantastical, and ultimately to the denial of the lived reality of women and girl’s bodies.
In apparent collusion with patriarchy the neglect of some female bodily experience is perpetuated in contemporary psychoanalytic theory. Nowhere is this more evident than around menopause and hysterectomy (as experienced by either client or therapist). There has been little or no exploration of how practitioners might best support clients for whom menopause is significant, or how we might facilitate women before or after gynaecological surgery. It is as if removal and psychological loss of the same female body parts that our forbears used to so neatly differentiate, diagnose, and pathologise women are now not of note.
So if we are damned as hysterics with wombs, who are we when our wombs are removed, or as the power of our presumed feminine imperative wanes? How can psychotherapeutic theory develop to manage the tension between physical fact and symbolic meaning for individual women in this context? How may we best empower women to reclaim ‘down there’ and normalise rather than stigmatise women’s bodies?
Sarah Benamer is a UKCP registered Relational Attachment Based Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist and supervisor who works with individuals and couples. She has a particular interest in the many roles of the body in our emotional and relational worlds. She is deeply committed to the accessibility of therapy and theory that is grounded in the real world, particularly as it relates to the body. Sarah originally trained as a psychotherapist at The Bowlby Centre and has subsequently undertaken a COSRT psychosexual and couples therapy training. Prior to becoming a psychotherapist Sarah was a community worker, advocating for those in crisis within the NHS psychiatric system, for individuals in chronic pain, and for people with long-term illness and severe physical disabilities. In addition to therapeutic training she has an MA in Applied Anthropology which informs her ‘participant observer’ approach to clinical practice.
Publications:
Past:
‘Telling Stories’ Attachment Based Approaches to the Treatment of Psychosis (Ed)
Trauma and Attachment (Edited with Kate White)
Killing Me Softly; A Relational Understanding of Attachment to Pain in ATTACHMENT Journal
Future:
‘Embodied Intimacies’ a clinical chapter in a book edited by Brett Kahr to be published later this year in honour of Susie Orbach.
Publications:
Past:
‘Telling Stories’ Attachment Based Approaches to the Treatment of Psychosis (Ed)
Trauma and Attachment (Edited with Kate White)
Killing Me Softly; A Relational Understanding of Attachment to Pain in ATTACHMENT Journal
Future:
‘Embodied Intimacies’ a clinical chapter in a book edited by Brett Kahr to be published later this year in honour of Susie Orbach.
Paul Hoggett & Sally Weintrobe
December 11, 2021
Climate Reality: Psychological Challenges Facing up to the Fierce Urgency of Now
Paul Hoggett
'Ethics in the Face of Disaster'
Abstract: For fifty years voices have been warning of the disastrous material and psychological effects of neo-liberalism. An ethic of survival, the survival of the fittest, has seeped into the pores of everyday life and into peoples’ inner worlds. And now we have the imminent disaster of climate change, another spur to a survivalist mentality. What can we learn from history and from our understanding of the human psyche of the dynamics of survivalism and of the ways in which it can be countered and transcended?
Paul Hoggett is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist and member of the Severnside Institute for Psychotherapy. He is Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at UWE, Bristol where, with Simon Clarke, he was a Director of the Centre for Psycho-Social Studies. In 2012, with Adrian Tait, he founded the Climate Psychology Alliance (CPA) and was its first chair. He recently edited a collection of CPA research papers, Climate Psychology: On Indifference to Disaster (2019, Palgrave Macmillan). Previous books have included Politics, Identity and Emotion (2009, Paradigm) and Partisans in an Uncertain World (1992, Free Association Books).
'Ethics in the Face of Disaster'
Abstract: For fifty years voices have been warning of the disastrous material and psychological effects of neo-liberalism. An ethic of survival, the survival of the fittest, has seeped into the pores of everyday life and into peoples’ inner worlds. And now we have the imminent disaster of climate change, another spur to a survivalist mentality. What can we learn from history and from our understanding of the human psyche of the dynamics of survivalism and of the ways in which it can be countered and transcended?
Paul Hoggett is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist and member of the Severnside Institute for Psychotherapy. He is Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at UWE, Bristol where, with Simon Clarke, he was a Director of the Centre for Psycho-Social Studies. In 2012, with Adrian Tait, he founded the Climate Psychology Alliance (CPA) and was its first chair. He recently edited a collection of CPA research papers, Climate Psychology: On Indifference to Disaster (2019, Palgrave Macmillan). Previous books have included Politics, Identity and Emotion (2009, Paradigm) and Partisans in an Uncertain World (1992, Free Association Books).
Sally Weintrobe
'Noah's Arkism: the saved and the drowned'
Abstract: Noah’s Arkism is an integral part of the climate bubble that blocks taking action on climate. It involves the phantasy that I/we will be saved the effects of climate because ‘worth it’ while others are sacrificed. Sally Weintrobe explores the Exceptionalism underpinning the mindset that is Arkism, emphasising it is based on omnipotent thinking. She looks at what sorts of frameworks of care are needed to hold Exceptionalism in check.
Sally Weintrobe is a Fellow, British Psychoanalytic Society, Member, Climate Psychology Alliance (CPA); Chair, International Psychoanalytic Association’s Committee on Climate. and was (2020) one of the 31 Global Commissioners for the Cambridge Sustainability Report.Talks, blogs and writes on the climate crisis.
(2012). Edited and contributed to Engaging with Climate Change: Psychoanalytic and Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Routledge: London.
(2021). Psychological Roots of the Climate Crisis: Neoliberal Exceptionalism and the Culture of Uncare.Bloomsbury: New York and London.
'Noah's Arkism: the saved and the drowned'
Abstract: Noah’s Arkism is an integral part of the climate bubble that blocks taking action on climate. It involves the phantasy that I/we will be saved the effects of climate because ‘worth it’ while others are sacrificed. Sally Weintrobe explores the Exceptionalism underpinning the mindset that is Arkism, emphasising it is based on omnipotent thinking. She looks at what sorts of frameworks of care are needed to hold Exceptionalism in check.
Sally Weintrobe is a Fellow, British Psychoanalytic Society, Member, Climate Psychology Alliance (CPA); Chair, International Psychoanalytic Association’s Committee on Climate. and was (2020) one of the 31 Global Commissioners for the Cambridge Sustainability Report.Talks, blogs and writes on the climate crisis.
(2012). Edited and contributed to Engaging with Climate Change: Psychoanalytic and Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Routledge: London.
(2021). Psychological Roots of the Climate Crisis: Neoliberal Exceptionalism and the Culture of Uncare.Bloomsbury: New York and London.
Feb 12, 2022
Farhad Dalal
Psychotherapy: A Kind of Clinical Philosophy?
Abstract
I will speak up for philosophy as a deep questioning attitude as well as a form of critical thinking. I will argue that the development of this kind of attitude is not only necessary and intrinsic to the therapeutic endeavour, it is identical to it. The work is not easy because it requires great courage to work one’s way towards inhabiting this kind of attitude; courage that is required not only from the ones-who-come-for-help (patient/client), but also the one-who-tries-to-help (therapist).
Amongst other things, I will speak against ideas of psychotherapy as ‘treatment that seeks to ‘cure’ ‘mental illnesses’; I will say something about my understanding of ‘Eastern’ philosophies, and contrast them with my evolving philosophy of psychotherapy. In this task I will call on a range of philosophers from Wittgenstein to Hume, Mead, Gaita, Keats, Weil, and de Beauvoir.
I will speak up for philosophy as a deep questioning attitude as well as a form of critical thinking. I will argue that the development of this kind of attitude is not only necessary and intrinsic to the therapeutic endeavour, it is identical to it. The work is not easy because it requires great courage to work one’s way towards inhabiting this kind of attitude; courage that is required not only from the ones-who-come-for-help (patient/client), but also the one-who-tries-to-help (therapist).
Amongst other things, I will speak against ideas of psychotherapy as ‘treatment that seeks to ‘cure’ ‘mental illnesses’; I will say something about my understanding of ‘Eastern’ philosophies, and contrast them with my evolving philosophy of psychotherapy. In this task I will call on a range of philosophers from Wittgenstein to Hume, Mead, Gaita, Keats, Weil, and de Beauvoir.
Farhad Dalal is a psychotherapist and group analyst, working with individuals, groups and organizations. He has been in independent practice for about thirty years, initially in London and latterly in Devon. He has published numerous papers and four books to date.
He is the convenor of the Group Analytic Psychotherapy Training in Bengaluru, India, (now in its third year) which is being run in partnership with the Hank Nunn Institute, Bengaluru.
He has published numerous papers on the subjects of 'race' and racism, power relations, groups and ethics, as well as four books to date.
www.dalal.org.uk
He is the convenor of the Group Analytic Psychotherapy Training in Bengaluru, India, (now in its third year) which is being run in partnership with the Hank Nunn Institute, Bengaluru.
He has published numerous papers on the subjects of 'race' and racism, power relations, groups and ethics, as well as four books to date.
www.dalal.org.uk
March 12, 2022
Gwen Adshead
Safety In Numbers:
The Value of Group Work with Offenders
The Value of Group Work with Offenders
Tickets for this event will be available after Feb 12
Abstract
In this talk I will take up themes from my recent book The Devil You Know: Stories of Human Cruelty and Compassion, and explore the problem of being antisocial and its relevance for offending. I then explore what it might mean to become prosocial, and how groups might help with this process. I discuss group work with offenders, including my own experience of conducting groups with violence perpetrators. I also explore the challenges of running such groups.
In this talk I will take up themes from my recent book The Devil You Know: Stories of Human Cruelty and Compassion, and explore the problem of being antisocial and its relevance for offending. I then explore what it might mean to become prosocial, and how groups might help with this process. I discuss group work with offenders, including my own experience of conducting groups with violence perpetrators. I also explore the challenges of running such groups.
Gwen Adshead's first book for general readers, The Devil You Know: Stories of Human Cruelty and Compassion, (co-authored with Eileen Horne) was published in 2021 and will come out in paperback in June 2022.
The Devil You Know was BBC Radio 4’s book of the week in June 2021 and one of the Sunday Times’ book of the year recommendations.
Gwen has appeared regularly on Radio 4 and is consultant for a drama serial about a forensic psychiatrist called ‘this thing of Darkness’ for BBC Scotland.
Gwen is a forensic psychiatrist and psychotherapist. She has worked in forensic psychiatry for over 25 years, mainly providing psychodynamic psychotherapy to violent offenders in secure psychiatric hospitals and prisons.
She qualified as a member of the Institute of Group Analysis in 2000, and is also trained in mentalisation based therapy and mindfulness based cognitive therapy. Gwen is the editor and/or author of a number of academic papers, book chapters and textbooks; including the Oxford Handbook of medical psychotherapy and the Oxford handbook of forensic psychiatry. Also, Clinical Topics in Personality Disorder; Personality Disorder: The Definitive Reader; A Matter of Security; The Application of Attachment Theory to Forensic Psychiatry and Psychotherapy and The Approved Mental Health Professional's Guide to Psychiatry and Medication.
The Devil You Know was BBC Radio 4’s book of the week in June 2021 and one of the Sunday Times’ book of the year recommendations.
Gwen has appeared regularly on Radio 4 and is consultant for a drama serial about a forensic psychiatrist called ‘this thing of Darkness’ for BBC Scotland.
Gwen is a forensic psychiatrist and psychotherapist. She has worked in forensic psychiatry for over 25 years, mainly providing psychodynamic psychotherapy to violent offenders in secure psychiatric hospitals and prisons.
She qualified as a member of the Institute of Group Analysis in 2000, and is also trained in mentalisation based therapy and mindfulness based cognitive therapy. Gwen is the editor and/or author of a number of academic papers, book chapters and textbooks; including the Oxford Handbook of medical psychotherapy and the Oxford handbook of forensic psychiatry. Also, Clinical Topics in Personality Disorder; Personality Disorder: The Definitive Reader; A Matter of Security; The Application of Attachment Theory to Forensic Psychiatry and Psychotherapy and The Approved Mental Health Professional's Guide to Psychiatry and Medication.
Death is not my friend, neither is it my enemy; it is my destiny
Rupert will speak to themes from his new book 'What Remains?', which is a deeply moving book that will change the way readers think about life, death and the all-important end-of-life experience.
As Ru memorably says, ‘Death has shown me unimaginable horror, the unbreakable core of love and courage that lies at the heart of what it means to be human.’
About Rupert:
When he became an undertaker, Rupert Callender undertook to deal with the dead for the sake of the living. What Remains? is the brilliant, unforgettable story of the life and work of the world’s first punk undertaker – but it is also a book about ordinary, everyday humanity and our capacity to face death with courage and compassion. To say goodbye to the people we love in our own way.
And in becoming the world’s first ‘punk undertaker’ and establishing the Green Funeral Company in Devon, Ru Callender and his partner Claire challenged the stilted, traditional, structured world of the funeral industry: fusing what he had learned from his own deeply personal experiences with death, with the surprising and profound answers and raw emotion he discovered in rave culture and ritual magick.
From his unresolved grief for his parents and his cultural ancestors to political and religious non-conformists, social outlaws, experimental pioneers and acid house culture, Ru Callender has taken an outsider ‘DIY’ ethos to help people navigate grief and death. He has carried coffins across windswept beaches, sat in pubs with caskets on beer-stained tables, helped children fire flaming arrows into their father’s funeral pyre, turned modern occult rituals into performance art and, with the KLF, is building the People’s Pyramid of bony bricks in Liverpool.
Rupert hopes to redefine the funeral.
www.thegreenfuneralcompany.co.uk
enquiry@thegreenfuneralcompany.co.uk
Rupert will speak to themes from his new book 'What Remains?', which is a deeply moving book that will change the way readers think about life, death and the all-important end-of-life experience.
As Ru memorably says, ‘Death has shown me unimaginable horror, the unbreakable core of love and courage that lies at the heart of what it means to be human.’
About Rupert:
When he became an undertaker, Rupert Callender undertook to deal with the dead for the sake of the living. What Remains? is the brilliant, unforgettable story of the life and work of the world’s first punk undertaker – but it is also a book about ordinary, everyday humanity and our capacity to face death with courage and compassion. To say goodbye to the people we love in our own way.
And in becoming the world’s first ‘punk undertaker’ and establishing the Green Funeral Company in Devon, Ru Callender and his partner Claire challenged the stilted, traditional, structured world of the funeral industry: fusing what he had learned from his own deeply personal experiences with death, with the surprising and profound answers and raw emotion he discovered in rave culture and ritual magick.
From his unresolved grief for his parents and his cultural ancestors to political and religious non-conformists, social outlaws, experimental pioneers and acid house culture, Ru Callender has taken an outsider ‘DIY’ ethos to help people navigate grief and death. He has carried coffins across windswept beaches, sat in pubs with caskets on beer-stained tables, helped children fire flaming arrows into their father’s funeral pyre, turned modern occult rituals into performance art and, with the KLF, is building the People’s Pyramid of bony bricks in Liverpool.
Rupert hopes to redefine the funeral.
www.thegreenfuneralcompany.co.uk
enquiry@thegreenfuneralcompany.co.uk
Rupert Callender
What Remains?
Life, Death & the End-of-Life-Experience
Sept 24, 10.30am to 12.45pm
Zoom
What Remains?
Life, Death & the End-of-Life-Experience
Sept 24, 10.30am to 12.45pm
Zoom
