THE WORK OF PSYCHOANALYSIS
Overview
Amidst the burgeoning public discourse on psychotherapy that is ‘eclectic,’ ‘insight(ful)’, ‘inner child,’ ‘trauma informed,’ and of course, ‘decolonial,’ this interactive session attempts to speak to their underlying psychoanalytic impetus, which informs the clinical curiosity: What is therapy supposed to do? Furthermore, what becomes our role as therapists in it? How is it different from our role as patients?
Drawing upon 15 years of clinical experience, cinematic and poetry references, academic recommendations, Dr Zehra Mehdi’s discussion will unpack the ‘psychic work’ of ‘the’ psychoanalytic technique, in a world that is actively unmaking itself.
Who This Is For
- For anyone interested in the fundamental questions of therapeutic work- what it is, and what it seeks.
- For the therapist who has seen words available to them multiplying, and the thinking thinning on how to, & if to, use them.
- For the practitioner who is drawn to psychoanalysis, sans the vagueness.
- Therapists whose patients bring history & politics into the clinic.
About the Facilitator
Dr. Zehra Mehdi is a practicing Psychoanalytic therapist with a Doctorate in Religious Studies and advanced certificates in Psychoanalysis and South Asian Studies from Columbia University.
Her research interests lie at the blurred borders of psychoanalysis, religious / theological ethics, and politics. She is particularly attentive to the arc of Muslim minority experiences, Hindu-Muslim relations, the limits of secularism, and the iterations and textures of violence.