Appalachian Psychoanalytic Society
(a local chapter of Division 39 of the American Psychological Association)
presents an
Online Saturday Morning Seminar
with
Sheldon George, PhD
on
The Neurotic Structure of Race
in Freud and Lacan
February 18, 2023
Online Via Zoom
Please click here for instructions on using Zoom.
This program, which addresses issues related to race, meets the
3.0-hour requirement for psychologists licensed in the state of Tennessee
to obtain continuing education that pertains to cultural diversity.
Program Description
The tripartite structure of the oedipal complex has been central to Freudian understandings of the psychoanalytic subject. In the early 1950’s, however, Jacques Lacan introduces a revised reading of the structural relation between father, mother and child by presenting death as a fourth term that determines the subject’s mythic relation to the self and others. By working through a rereading of the case of the Rat Man in his lecture “The Neurotic’s Individual Myth,” Lacan shows how obsessional neurosis reveals deeper layers of myth that may shape subjectivity even across generations. This intermediate workshop will focus on understanding the mythical psychic structures expressed in American race relations. It will investigate how myths about race position racialized individuals within oedipal relations of Eros and aggression that are fundamentally determined by deep psychic relations to the fourth term applied by Lacan to the oedipal dynamic, the factor of death that defines a fundamental relation to subjectivity and alterity. We will work through this reading of the mythic structure of race in America by first returning to Lacan’s lecture and then advancing toward an investigation of race in fiction by the African-American author Ralph Ellison.
Presenter
Sheldon George, PhD, is Chair of the department of Literature and Writing at Simmons University in Boston, Massachusetts. His scholarship centers on application of cultural and literary theory to analyses of American and African American literature and culture. He is an associate editor of the journal Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society and has coedited two special issues of the journal: one titled “Lacanian Psychoanalysis: Interventions into Culture and Politics” and the other titled “African Americans and Inequality.” His book Trauma and Race, published in 2016, was the first to offer an extended Lacanian analysis of African American identity. George is coeditor of Reading Contemporary Black British and African American Women Writers; and his recent publications include the pioneering collection of essays, Lacan and Race: Racism, Identity and Psychoanalytic Theory.
Schedule
8:55am Welcome and Introduction
9:00am Race and Fantasy, Making the Other
9:30am Discussion
10am Race and Myth - Ratman to Lacan, Part 1
10:30am Break
10:45am Race and Myth - Ratman to Lacan, Part II
11:30am Discussion
12:15pm Complete Evaluations and Adjourn.
Learning Objectives
After attending this intermediate seminar in full, participants will be able to:
1. Describe how Lacan rethinks the Oedipal Complex through neurosis and death.
2. Analyze how death becomes overlapped with myth to shape psychic fears and obsessions.
3. Describe how the static four-part oedipal structure acts as a frame into which racial others are actively inserted.
Participants
This program is open to all APS members. It is not limited to individuals practicing in a predominately psychoanalytic mode. The material will be appropriate for clinicians with intermediate levels of experience and knowledge.
Registration
By February 13, 2023:
Professional Members and Scholar Members: $45
Non-members: $60
Early-Career Professional Members: $35
Graduate Student Members: Free.
AFTER February 13, 2023:
Professional Members and Scholar Members: $60
Non-members: $75
Early-Career Professional Members: $50.
Graduate Student Members: Free
Registration will close on February 18, 2023.
Although walk-ins will be accepted, please register online at www.aps-tn.wildapricot.org in advance to assure adequate food and seating.
If you prefer to pay by check, please print the Program Registration form, and mail with your payment to:
Wesley Gosselin, LMSW
APS Treasurer
100 Forest Court
Knoxville, TN 37919.
Refunds honored with written/electronic notice at least 48 hours before date of conference. Contact Wesley Gosselin, LMSW.
Contact the APS President Renee Repka, PhD to negotiate fees, if needed.
Facility is accessible to persons who are physically challenged. If participants have special needs, we will attempt to accommodate them. Please address requests, questions, concerns and any complaints to Renee Repka, PhD.
APS Membership
Eligible professionals can join APS or renew their membership for the 2022-2023 program year for $80. Scholars can join/renew for $50 and Early-Career Professionals can join/renew for $45. Graduate students may join or renew for $25.
American Psychological Association Approval Statement
Division 39 is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Division 39 maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
Continuing Education
This program, when attended in its entirety, is available for 3.0 continuing education credits. With full attendance and completion of an online program Evaluation and Learning Assessment, a certificate will be issued by email. Partial credit for partial attendance is not available. Psychologists who attend in full will have their participation registered through Division 39.
To be eligible for CE credit, please:
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Make sure your Zoom name (first and last) is identifiable. Use the Chat Box to inform program hosts if more than one person is watching via a single Zoom account.
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Be present for the entire program.
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A link to the program evaluation will be shared with participants via the Chat Box at the end of the presentation while the speaker is answering final questions. Participants will enter their names and email addresses on the evaluation so that APS can distribute certificates via email.
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Please complete the evaluation by 2pm on the day of the program.
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CE certificates will be emailed within a week after the program.
In order to fulfill licensure requirements, the Rules of the Board of Examiners in Psychology in Tennessee (https://publications.tnsosfiles.com/rules/1180/1180-01.20210706.pdfl) state that psychologists must obtain three continuing education hours that pertain to cultural diversity as specifically noted in the title, description of objectives, or curriculum of the presentation, symposium, workshop, seminar, course or activity. Cultural diversity includes aspects of identity stemming from age, disability, gender, race/ethnicity, religious/spiritual orientation, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and other cultural dimensions, but one of the objectives or descriptions of the topics covered shall clearly indicate attention to cultural diversity.
This program meets the 3.0-hour requirement for psychologists licensed
in the state of Tennessee to obtain continuing education that pertains to cultural diversity.
APS and Division 39 are committed to conducting all activities in conformity with the American Psychological Association’s Ethical Principles for Psychologists. APS and Division 39 are also committed to accessibility and non-discrimination in continuing education activities. Participants are asked to be aware of the need for privacy and confidentiality throughout the program. If program content becomes stressful, participants are encouraged to process these feelings during discussion periods.
Selected References/Recommended Reading
George, Sheldon. Trauma and Race: A Lacanian Analysis of African-American Identity. Texas: Baylor UP, 2016.
Hook, Derek. “Racism and jouissance: Evaluating the ‘racism as (the theft of) enjoyment’ hypothesis.” Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society. Special Issue on “Lacanian Psychoanalysis: Interventions in Culture and Politics.” Sept. 2018, Vol. 23, Issue 3.
Laurent, Eric. “Racism 2.0.” Lacan Quotidien 371: 1–6 (2014)
Stephens, Michelle. “Skin, stain and lamella: Fanon, Lacan, and inter-racializing the gaze.” Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society. Special Issue on “Lacanian Psychoanalysis: Interventions in Culture and Politics.” Sept. 2018, Vol. 23, Issue 3.
Swales, Stephanie. “Transphobia in the bathroom: Sexual difference, alterity and jouissance.” Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society. Special Issue on “Lacanian Psychoanalysis: Interventions in Culture and Politics.” Sept. 2018, Vol. 23, Issue 3.
Contact
If participants have special needs, we will attempt to accommodate them. Please address requests, questions, concerns and any complaints to APS President Renee Repka, PhD.