Presentation Announcement by Irwin Hirsch, Phillip Blumberg and Robert Watson (USA)
(2023). Discussion. October 14, online.
This discussion on a variety of psychoanalytic perspectives on sport is led by the three co-editors of the 2021 Routledge book of the same name. The talk highlights the importance of sports for different individuals and how the function and use of sports can be brought into the consulting room. Given the universality of passionate interest in and active engagement in sports, Hirsch, Blumberg and Watson note the striking omission of sport from psychoanalytic literature. They discuss how a better psychoanalytic understanding of sports helps us discover more about ourselves, our patients and our culture. It is suggested that intense involvement in sports prioritizes commitment and active engagement over passivity and that such involvement provides an emotionally tinged distraction from the various misfortunes of life. The ups and downs in mood related to athletic victory or defeat often supplant, temporarily, matters in life that may be more personally urgent. Engaging in sports or rooting for teams provides a feeling of community and a sense of identification with like-minded others, even among those who are part of other communities and have sufficient communal identifications.
Irwin Hirsch, Ph.D.
New York, NY
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Phillip Blumberg, Ph.D.
New York, NY
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Robert I. Watson, Jr., Ph.D.
New York, NY
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