The Erasure of the Feminine and the Clinic of the Contemporary Disaffected Patient
In collaboration with The New School for Social Research Concentration in Psychoanalysis in the Department of Philosophy
Friday June 9 – Saturday June 10, 2023
Location: The New School for Social Research
6 East 16th Street, Albert and Vera List Academic Center, Room D1103, Wolff Conference Room
This is an in-person, free event in NYC

Dance Of The Nymphs by Nikolaos Gyzis, 1842-1901
About
The June 2023 clinical days will pick up the threads of thinking introduced in Pulsion’s inaugural symposium in Fall 2022 on The Erasure of the Feminine. In June, we will introduce three projects of investigation and research from an ethno-analytic perspective at Rose Hill Psychological Services, the affiliate clinic of Pulsion, in New York City. These projects – a seminar on the erasure of the feminine in contemporary times, a working group on the pandemic, and a clinical group study of disaffection all develop techniques for working on psychoanalytic thought.
While Freud originally identified the repudiation of the feminine and the interminability of psychoanalytic treatment nearly a century ago, our work investigates these issues as they present today. During the clinical days, we will examine the problematic of how to use terminology and concepts across traditions in psychoanalysis and amongst clinicians at different levels of their practice. More specifically, questions such as the following will be considered: is anything new emerging today in our patients’ speech and symptoms living in a world that is hostile to thinking, denies lack and pushes relentlessly for an ideal of complete happiness? Do we observe a different kind of transference as the links between the social and intrapsychic have been altered in the larger landscape of a post pandemic era of decreased Eros?
And if so, is there a need for a ‘transitional psychoanalysis’ in the clinic that would aim to re-libidinalize the patient, augmenting the analytic work with a transitional space of creativity, preconscious activity, the fabric of our dreams?
Drawing from inter-generational work on these issues, we will distinguish the aims of psychoanalytic technique responding to a number of contemporary problematics, including but not limited to virtuality, identity politics, and cultural globalization.
Please consider supporting this free event by donating.
The Program
Friday June 9, 2023
Time: 6:30pm – 8:30pm
6:00pm – 6:30pm: Walk in and registration
6:30pm – 6:40pm: Introduction by Vaia Tsolas on Pulsion Institute/Rose Hill mission
6:40pm – 6:50pm: Introduction by Marisa Berwald on orientation to the work of the clinic
6:50pm – 7:20pm: Case Presentation
Presenter: Piyali Kundu-Veldhoven
7:20pm – 8:00pm: Case Discussion
Discussants: Christine Anzieu-Premmereur and Patricia Gherovici
8:00pm – 8:30pm: Q&A
Saturday June 10, 2023
Time: 9:30am – 1:30pm
9:00am – 9:30am: Walk in and registration
9:30am – 9:45am: Introduction by Marisa Berwald to Pulsion’s ethno-analytic approach
9:45am – 10:30am: Panel presentation on the research at Rose Hill
Panelists: Sean Lynch, Brian Johnston, Evan Moriarty, Gabrielle Jensen
Moderator: Marisa Berwald
10:30am –10:45pm: Coffee Break
10:45am – 12:00pm: Faculty Roundtable Discussion
Discussants: David Lichtenstein, Patricia Gherovici, Vaia Tsolas, Jamieson Webster, Anand Desai
Moderator: Michael Civin
12:00pm – 12:15pm: Q&A
12:15pm – 1:30pm: Luncheon and Pulsion Open House