The Uncanny, Revisited
Transpersonal Communication in the Interpersonal Field
A Live Webinar Series with Neil Altman, Anthony Bass, Lori Bohm, Robert Langan, Suzanne Little, James Ogilvie, Janine de Peyer, Terri Rubinstein, Rogelio Sosnik, Morgan Stebbins, Mary Tennes and Sara Weber
Chaired by Rande Brown
Since the time of Freud there has been reluctance in some quarters to pursue the topic of the uncanny. Yet a wealth of practicing therapist authors and literature attests to the degree of interest in the uncanny and unconscious communication among therapists. Indeed, the material we will be presenting throughout this series points to a potential paradigm shift towards non-dualistic theorizing about the nature of consciousness itself. The title for this series “The Uncanny, Revisited – Transpersonal Communication in the Interpersonal Field” has been chosen to reflect a fascination with the role that unconscious communication and moments of anomalous transmission, which often defy sensory involvement, play in the psychoanalytic encounter.
This programme was originally created for the William Alanson White Psychoanalytic Society Colloquia, 2021-22, the Psychoanalytic Society being the membership organization of psychoanalytic graduates of the William Alanson White Institute in New York City. Founded in 1943 by Harry Stack Sullivan, Frieda Fromm- Reichmann, Clara Thompson and Erich Fromm, among others, the Institute upholds a dynamic intellectual heritage, offering an annual colloquial series in support of that tradition, and we are delighted to be able to run this series for colleagues further afield.
TIMES
Friday evenings at 19.30-21.00
This series will not be recorded
FEES
Per seminar
£40 (Member £32)
(Click here to become a member)
Whole series of 6 seminars
£200 (Member £160)
(Click here to become a member)
CPD
1.5 hours per evening / 9 hours whole series
Certificates of Attendance will confirm that the participant joined the seminars
BOOK WHOLE SERIES OF 6 SEMINARS (for single seminars see below)
This series will not be recorded.
9 September 2022
Janine de Peyer with discussant Robert Langan
Extraordinary Knowing: Case studies of bipersonal communication
More frequently than we may realize, the invisible psychic veil ‘separating’ analyst and patient is pierced by an uncanny exchange or moment of anomalous transmission. Such moments often defy sensory involvement, as with telepathic dreams. Janine De Peyer will present case material illustrating both the clinical dilemmas and transcendent opportunities proffered by such windows into the unconscious.
By attending this event, participants will be able to:
- Discuss what is meant by the concept of unconscious communication
- Explain how the uncanny might function in the clinical encounter
TIME:
UK British Summer Time: 19:30 – 21:00
US Eastern Time: 14:30 – 16:00
US Pacific Time: 11:30 – 13:00
CPD:
Certificates of Attendance will confirm that the participant joined the webinar
FEES:
Please note booking closes 5pm (BST) Tuesday 6 September
14 October 2022
Mary Tennes with discussant Neil Altman
Beyond Intersubjectivity
Throughout the history of psychoanalysis, beginning with Freud, the exploration of uncanny, telepathic, and mystical experiences has evoked both fascination and fear, and for good reason: these occurrences challenge our ordinary conceptualization not only of the psyche but of reality itself. How do we approach this territory, both within ourselves and with our patients, in a way that allows us to open to its radical nature? Using case material, Mary Tennes will explore how psychoanalysis offers us a particularly nuanced and fertile arena for this project.
By attending this event, participants will be able to:
- Consider how the uncanny provides a portal to unconscious meaning
- Describe with greater complexity the fears that the uncanny generates
TIME:
UK British Summer Time: 19:30 – 21:00
US Eastern Time: 14:30 – 16:00
US Pacific Time: 11:30 – 13:00
CPD:
Certificates of Attendance will confirm that the participant joined the webinar
FEES:
Please note booking closes 5pm (BST) Tuesday 11 October
11 November 2022
Anthony Bass with discussant Suzanne Little
Unconscious Communication Between Therapist and Patient: The ordinary uncanniness of everyday psychoanalytic life
In this talk, Tony Bass will consider the ways that bi-directional unconscious communication (the dialogue between unconsciouses that constitutes psychoanalytic work) is a central feature of our daily life with our patients and our therapists. It is the root of the sense of the uncanniness of human relations that is integral to the sense of what it is like to be in an analytic relationship. The absence of such feelings may constitute an impasse, or obstacle, or sense of deadness in the transference/countertransference field. We will consider how therapist and patient can find their way back to life by making use of their imaginations, their curiosity and other forms of access to the life of the unconscious.
By attending this event, participants will be able to:
- Examine the notion of the possible ubiquity of unconscious communication
- Explain how unconscious communication functions in everyday clinical encounters
TIME:
UK Greenwich Mean Time: 19:30 – 21:00
US Eastern Time: 14:30 – 16:00
US Pacific Time: 11:30 – 13:00
CPD:
Certificates of Attendance will confirm that the participant joined the webinar
FEES:
Please note booking closes 5pm (GMT) Tuesday 8 November
13 January 2023
James Ogilvie with discussant Rogelio Sosnik
Bion: On Language, ineffability and the problem of experience itself
Throughout his writing, Bion describes his struggle to find language through which he might communicate his psychoanalytic experience. As his work progresses, he begins to sense ways in which this struggle is itself of clinical and theoretical interest. Bion states that psychoanalysts’ experience of philosophical issues is “so real” that they often have a keener grasp of the need for philosophy than do professional philosophers. This is especially true when working with patients for whom “experience itself” is a problem. In this talk, we will consider how Bion turns to the works of Western mystics and philosophers—among them Eckhart, Kant and Wittgenstein—to frame his dilemma describing psychoanalytic experience, ultimately contributing to his dawning conception of psychoanalysis as the practice of a “science of at-one-ment.”
By attending this event, participants will be able to:
- Describe what Bion means by the concept of communication
- Discuss how to conceptualise ineffability in the clinical encounter.
TIME:
UK Greenwich Mean Time: 19:30 – 21:00
US Eastern Time: 14:30 – 16:00
US Pacific Time: 11:30 – 13:00
CPD:
Certificates of Attendance will confirm that the participant joined the webinar
FEES:
Please note booking closes 5pm (GMT) Tuesday 10 January
10 February 2023
Morgan Stebbins with discussant Lori Bohm
A Jungian Perspective: Zen and Synchronicity
It was a tragic love story: Carl Jung was a psychiatrist and research scientist when he discovered Freud’s work on dreams. After just one fateful letter and a famous thirteen-hour discussion, he became Freud’s early collaborator, crown prince and adopted son. But then it all went wrong. Against Freud’s warning Jung dived headfirst into that “black slime of the occult”, and in so doing became an outcast in the traditional world of psychoanalysis. Instead, he trod a path that makes his work more relevant now than ever as the split involved Jung’s early adoption of interpersonal, creative and spiritual elements. This talk will outline what that dive means for exploring the uncanny in both theoretical and clinical terms. We will visit the realms of theoretical physics, alchemy, Zen and the understanding of images on our way to describe the phenomenon of synchronicity: that moment when the unseen world and the conscious world arise together in the most uncanny way.
By attending this event, participants will be able to:
- Discuss an expanded understanding of the concept of the analytic container
- Explain the ways in which the unconscious perception of the analytic container impacts the dynamics of the transference and countertransference
TIME:
UK Greenwich Mean Time: 19:30 – 21:00
US Eastern Time: 14:30 – 16:00
US Pacific Time: 11:30 – 13:00
CPD:
Certificates of Attendance will confirm that the participant joined the webinar
FEES:
Please note booking closes 5pm (GMT) Tuesday 7 February
10 March 2023
Terri Rubinstein with discussant Sara Weber
Listening for the Spoken and Unspoken
Receptivity to the uncanny involves attuning to the dimension of being in which dual and nondual realms interpenetrate within the mind-body of the therapist and within the intersubjectivity of the therapist-patient unit. Terri Rubinstein will speak about how empathy and compassion can serve as an opening to this domain. Using personal and clinical vignettes she will invite you into the felt experience of sensing and using the unthought.
By attending this event, participants will be able to:
- Discuss an expanded notion of the concept of listening
- Explain the difference between empathy and compassion.
TIME:
UK Greenwich Mean Time: 19:30 – 21:00
US Eastern Time: 14:30 – 16:00
US Pacific Time: 11:30 – 13:00
CPD:
Certificates of Attendance will confirm that the participant joined the webinar
FEES:
Please note booking closes 5pm (GMT) Tuesday 7 March