Rethinking Absent Fathers
Contemporary, Historical, Personal and Analytical Reflections for Clinical Work
Recorded Saturday 21 January 2023
With Dr Aileen Alleyne, Eugene Ellis, Mark Linington and Susan Schwartz
CPD Credits: 4.5 hours
How we understand psychological development has evolved considerably since Freud theorised that a child with an absent father, raised by a single mother, will face challenges in their personality and identity. Today this theory is considered heterocentric, westernised and outdated, and contested in research. However, the ‘absent father phenomenon’ remains a pertinent area of exploration in therapeutic theory and practice.
READ MORE...How can we think about the ’absent father’ in a more meaningful and contemporary way, while holding in mind what might remain relevant from earlier psychoanalytic theory for understanding clients’ unconscious processes?
In this conference, we will hear from a range of speakers exploring ‘absent fathers’ from diverse social, personal and analytical angles. This will include exploring the complex and intergenerational impact of absent fathers in black families; the cultural legacy of war; the impact of illness and death as well a focus on daughters’ experiences of fathers’ ‘emotional deadness’ through a Jungian perspective.
Through both clinical and personal perspectives, the speakers will offer ideas and reflections on how to work with clients who have experienced physically and psychologically ‘absent fathers’ or other absent primary caregivers. This will include how Bowlby’s concepts of ‘relational presence’ and ‘relational absence’ may provide a reparative experience in psychotherapy, as well as how drawing on archetypal and collective symbols can be a route to healing in depth analytical approaches. We will finish with a Q&A between the participants and all speakers, focusing on considerations for clinical practice, such as working with loss and dislocation, transferential complexities, reparation and individuation.
CPD – Continuing Professional Development (CPD) credits for 4.5 hours are available as part of the course fee. You will need to pass a multiple choice questionnaire related to the content in order to receive your certificate.
Access to the Talks On Demand runs for 365 days from the date of purchase.
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