Michael Eigen
Dianne Elise
Pamela Raab
Dan Shaw
A Memoir of the Future
Presented by Michael Eigen (USA)
Mike Eigen will be showing an unfinished movie based on Wilfred Bion’s autobiographical works and A Memoir of the Future on October 19, 2014, from 1:00 to 4:00pm at the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis (NPAP), 40 West 13th Street, in New York City. The movie was made by the director Kumar Shahani in India (the place of Bion’s birth), in 1982 and 1983, but was never finished owing, in part, to financial difficulties and a tragic event. Extant scenes will be shown and Mike will lead audience discussion. The script was written by Kumar Shahani and Meg Harris Williams. Actors include Angela Pleasance, Sir Nigel Hawthorne, Peter Frith, Alaknanda Samarth, Carol Drinkwater, Robert Burbage, Jonathan Page, Neil Cunningham, and Jalal Agha. Characters are drawn from phases of Bion’s life and psyche and the culture of his time. After the showing, the script will be studied in Mike’s ongoing Tuesday seminars, together with A Memoir of the Future.
225 Central Park West, Apt. 101A
New York, NY 10024
email Michael Eigen
Failure to Thrive: Shame, Inhibition, and
Masochistic Submission in Women
Presented by Dianne Elise (USA)
This presentation will take place at the Clinical and Cultural Diversity Conference at the Austin Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology (ASPP) and the Center for Psychoanalytic Studies (CFPS), on November 22, 2014. In my presentation I approach masochistic submission in women—a “failure to thrive”—from the perspective of undermined female desire. Masochism can be viewed as a disorder of desire. I conceptualize masochistic submission as a relinquishment of one’s own desire, motivated by a fear of object loss. Shame and a depleted sense of self worth lead to inhibiting one’s own desire, the woman instead trying to fulfill the desire of the other, and typically failing to do so.
Masochistic submission in females, as the expression of a felt need to secure relational bonds, is directly linked to elements of the girl’s oedipal experience that may heighten insecurity regarding the capacity to obtain and retain one’s erotic object. Compromised confidence with obtaining and keeping one’s sexual love object is the heritage of what has been classically referred to as the negative oedipal complex. I propose that a girl’s experience of the first oedipal object, her mother, not being “accessible”—because she is a girl—may play a role in generating a relational strategy of masochistic submission as a fearful “grasp” on the object. Shame as a female leads to women becoming not only invested in, but often wedded to, self-destruction rather than “self-construction.” Female masochism easily resides with male narcissism. Rather than thinking in terms of sado-masochism, a maso-narcissistic pairing is theorized.
Melanie Klein at the Theater: Love, Guilt and Reparation
in Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale.”
Presented by Pamela Raab (USA)
IARPP member, Pamela Raab (New York, Institute for Expressive Analysis and National Institute for the Psychotherapies) and her colleague, Cenk Cokuslu (New York, Director, Institute for Expressive Analysis) presented papers at the 31st International Conference on Psychology and the Arts in Madrid, on June 27th, 2014. This conference attracts a rich variety of clinicians and academics from institutions worldwide, and is known for its focus on using a psychoanalytic lens through which to examine works of art, most notably literature.
Using Shakespeare’s play, “The Winter’s Tale,” Raab and Cokuslu gave papers entitled:
Melanie Klein at the Theater: Love, Guilt and Reparation in Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale.” (Raab)
Thus the Whirligig of Time Brings or Not: Temporality in “The Winter’s Tale.” (Cokuslu)
Pamela Raab
115 Washington Place, #4
New York, NY 10014
email Pamela Raab
Traumatic Narcissism: Relational Systems of Subjugation
Presented by Dan Shaw (USA)
On Saturday, November 8th, Dan Shaw will present on the subject of his book, “Traumatic Narcissism: Relational Systems of Subjugation,” at the Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis (ICP) in New York, along with Shelly Rosen, a director of the Trauma Studies Program at ICP; and speakers who are former cult members. The program will address the issue of traumatic abuse in cults. Shaw will discuss his concept of the relational system of the traumatizing narcissist in the context of cults, and describe post-cult trauma and its treatment. Details of this program are still being finalized. Refer to the ICP website, at http://icpnyc.org/, as more information becomes available.
And on Saturday, Nov. 15th, Shaw will present to the Tampa Bay Psychoanalytic Society (TBPS) in Tampa, Florida, on Nov. 15th, from 8:15 am to 4:30 pm. This workshop will review the concepts of traumatic narcissism developed in Shaw’s book, and will include a clinical presentation by a Tampa Bay Society participant, which Shaw will discuss with the participants. Visit http://tbpsychoanalytic.org/ for further details.
He gave a similar presentation to the New York State Society of Clinical Social Workers (NYSSCSW) in New York City on Sunday, October 12th.
Shaw was also interviewed on the subject of traumatic narcissism by Rob Kall for “The Rob Kall Bottom Up Radio Show”. A podcast of the interview is on iTunes, and can be streamed for free. Go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/rob-kall-bottom-up-radio-show/id359765013?mt=2
Shaw locates the roots of narcissism in relational trauma, and describes the relational dynamics of the traumatizing narcissist. He details the traumatizing narcissist’s need to subjugate his (or her) objects by destabilizing and invalidating the object’s subjectivity. By establishing hegemony for his subjectivity, suppressing his object’s capacity for developing good enough subjectivity, and trapping the object in the sado-masochistic binary, the traumatizing narcissist maintains the narcissistic delusion of omnipotence. Shaw’s work on “traumatic narcissism” has been widely acclaimed by colleagues and lay readers alike.
Details for the programs can also be found on Dan’s website, www.danielshawlcsw.com
And here is a link to information about his new book: http://www.routledgementalhealth.com/books/details/9780415510257/
Dan Shaw
211 W. 56th St., Apt, 5K
New York, NY 10019
99 Main St.
Nyack, NY 10960
