Appalachian Psychoanalytic Society
(a local chapter of Division 39 of the American Psychological Association)
presents a
Spring Conference
with
Malin Fors, PhD,
on
Geographical Narcissism:
Countering Urban Norms
and
Empowering Rural Subjectivity.
Implications for Treatment.
and a case presentation by Marisa Whitley, PhD.
April 5, 2025
8:30am - 3:00pm
Lighthouse Knoxville
6800 Baum Drive
Knoxville, Tennessee 37919
In order to fulfill licensure requirements, the Rules of the Board of Examiners in Psychology in Tennessee (1180 - Board of Examiners of Psychology (tnsosfiles.com)) 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.
This program meets the requirements for psychologists licensed in the state of Tennessee for continuing education that pertains to cultural diversity.
Please click here to read "Dynamics of Power and Privilege,"
a chapter from Dr. Fors' book "A Grammar of Power in Psychotherapy."
Program Description
Most training on cultural competence, power-sensitive ethics, feminist psychotherapy, and similar areas focuses on addressing power discrepancies. This workshop goes further in two dimensions. First, it introduces a seldom-addressed power theme: urban-rural tension. Acknowledging discrimination against the rural and exploring urban norms in health care and psychotherapy is the starting point to learn about clinical applications for countering geographical narcissism and empowering the rural clinic. Founded on theories about care ethics, similarity of non-privilege, "potato ethics," rural place stigma, structural urbanism, clinical courage, and intersectionality, the frame of geographical narcissism provides a language to see the rural clinic as progressive and in the frontline of clinical development.
Dr. Fors will suggest non-shaming ways for therapists to engage with difficult topics and argue that becoming more aware of power dynamics helps us make more effective technical choices. The seminar suggests how to increase therapeutic effectiveness within the therapist´s preferred model. In other words, its perspective can easily be integrated into any therapy method. Clinical topics explored include, among many others, rural place stigma, urban tension, class issues, voluntary and involuntary self-disclosure, visible and invisible similarities between patient and therapist, internalized oppression, and choosing whether to address privilege explicitly. Dr. Fors will discuss core themes of her seminal paper "Geographical Narcissism in Psychotherapy," her 2018 book, A Grammar of Power in Psychotherapy (APA Books), and her upcoming book, tentatively entitled Working with Interpersonal Power Dynamics in Psychotherapy, (Guilford Press).
Presenter
Malin Fors, PhD, is a psychologist and psychoanalyst residing in Hammerfest, Norway - the world's northernmost town. Dr. Fors has served at the local psychiatric outpatient clinic and in private practice for 17 years. She is Adjunct Associate Professor at University of Technology, Sydney, Australia, and Associate Professor at the Arctic University of Norway.
Fors' writing on rural realities and her concept of "geographical narcissism" has travelled the world. She has been a keynote speaker in Hobart, Tasmania, Cape Town, South Africa, and Alberta, Canada. In Berri, Australia, she gave a talk invited by WHO European Regional High-level Forum on Health in the Well-being Economy in Denmark. Fors has been a guest lecturer in psychology for numerous universities in Scandinavia and instructs medical students about cultural sensitivity and power issues.
She is the author of A Grammar of Power in Psychotherapy (APA Books, 2018), recently translated into Swedish, for which she won the Johanna Tabin Award from the Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology. She has appeared in a Master Clinician DVD in the APA Psychotherapy Series. For work on her upcoming book Working with Interpersonal Power Dynamics in Psychotherapy. Dr. Fors was an Erikson Scholar at the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, in 2020. She received the Research Award for Finnmark Hospital Trust, Norway, in 2021, and was awarded the Psychotherapy Literature Stipend by the Stockholm Academy for Psychotherapy Education (SAPU) in 2022. Dr. Fors is currently a teaching and supervising faculty member of Institute for Psychotherapy, Oslo.
Case Presenter
Marisa Whitley, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist who works in private practice with children, adolescents, and adults. She also teaches psychology courses at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Dr. Whitley received her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2020. She completed a clinical internship focused on trauma, infant mental health, and acute inpatient psychiatric care at Louisiana Health Sciences Center in New Orleans. Her postdoctoral training was completed in private practice.
Schedule
8:30am Registration
8:55am Welcome and Introduction
9:00am Grammar of Power
10:30am Break
10:45am Countering Geographical Narcissism
12:15pm Lunch will be provided on-site and is included in the registration fee. A vegetarian option will be available.
1:00pm The Rural Clinic as Frontline for Clinical Development and
Case Presentation with Marisa Whitley, PhD
2:00pm Discussion
2:45pm Complete Evaluations
3:00pm Adjourn.
Learning Objectives
After attending this intermediate conference in full, participants will be able to:
1. Compare and contrast three different frameworks of urban domination.
2. Identify urban norms in clinical work.
3. Compare urban-rural tension with other intersectional dimensions.
4. Distinguish between four sources of power in the clinic.
5. Enumerate four different models on how internalized dominance is on a continuum.
6. Apply the framework of similarity on non-privilege to clinical work in a rural setting.
7. Identify specific technical issues to consider before wording a political interpretation.
8. Identify specific technical issues to consider before choosing self-disclosure as an intervention.
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 Fees and Policies
BY March 31, 2025:
Professional Members and Scholar Members: $125
Non-members: $145
Early-Career Professional Members: $50
Graduate Student Members: $25
AFTER March 31, 2025:
Professional Members and Scholar Members: $145
Non-members: $165
Early-Career Professional Members: $70
Graduate Student Members: $45
Registration will close on April 4, 2025.
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 Bill MacGillivray, 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 Bill MacGillivray, PhD.
APS Membership
Eligible professionals can join APS or renew their membership for the 2024-2025 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 5.0 continuing education credits. With full attendance (sign-in at start of program) and completion of a program Evaluation and Learning Assessment, a certificate will be issued. Psychologists will have their participation registered through Division 39. Partial credit is not available for partial attendance.
In order to fulfill licensure requirements, the Rules of the Board of Examiners in Psychology in Tennessee (1180 - Board of Examiners of Psychology (tnsosfiles.com)) 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.
This program meets the requirements for psychologists licensed in the state of Tennessee for 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
Fors, M. (2018a). Geographical Narcissism in Psychotherapy: Countermapping Urban Assumptions About Power, Space, and Time. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 35, 446-453. DOI: 10.1037/pap0000179
Fors, M. (2018c). A Grammar of Power in Psychotherapy: Exploring the dynamics of privilege. Washington DC: APA Books: Fors, M. (2021). Power dynamics in the clinical situation: A confluence of perspectives. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 242-269.
Fors, M. (2021). Power dynamics in the clinical situation: A confluence of perspectives. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 242-269.
Fors, M. (2023). Potato Ethics: What Rural Communities Can Teach Us about Healthcare. Bioethical Inquiry 20, 265–277 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11673-023-10242-x
Fors, M. (2024). Power and privilege: the relationship between power and privilege and anxiety and mood disorders. In Friedman- Wheeler (Eds) The SAGE Encyclopedia of Mood and Anxiety Disorders, SAGE.
Hankivsky, O. 2014. Rethinking care ethics: On the promise and potential of an intersectional analysis. American Political Science Review 108(2): 252–264.
Hörk, Vujičić & Fors (2024). How female therapists and their patients deal with being a disputable, unimaginable, or occasional Swede: Explorations of similarity of non-privilege. European Journal for Qualitative Research in Psychotherapy, 14, 175-190.
Jagdeep, A. et. Al. (2024). Instructing animosity: how dei pedagogy produces the hostile attribution bias. Rutger University Social Perception Lab.
Konkin, J., L. Grave, E. Cockburn, et al. 2020. Exploration of rural physicians’ lived experience of practising outside their usual scope of practice to provide access to essential medical care (clinical courage): An international phenomenological study. BMJ Open 10(8): e037705.
Maclellan, K. 2011. Clinical courage. Canadian Journal of Rural Medicine 16(3): 107.
Malatzky, Christina & Couch, Danielle. (2023). The Power in Rural Place Stigma. Journal of bioethical inquiry. 20. 10.1007/s11673-023-10260-9.
Piff, P. K. (2014). Wealth and the inflated self: Class, entitlement, and narcissism. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 40, 34–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0146167213501699Weinberger, J., & Stoycheva, V. (2019). The unconscious: Theory, research, and clinical implications. Guilford Publications.
Probst, J., J.M. Eberth, and E. Crouch. 2019. Structural urbanism contributes to poorer health outcomes for rural America. Health affairs 38(12): 1976–1984.
Reader, S. 2003. Distance, relationship and moral obligation. The Monist 86(3): 367–381.
Tronto, J. 2012. Partiality based on relational responsibilities: Another approach to global ethics. Ethics and Social Welfare 6(3): 303–316.
Winther, R.G. 2014. World navels. Cartouche 89(Summer–Autumn): 15–21. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271531137_World_Navels.
Contact
If participants have special needs, we will attempt to accommodate them. Please address requests, questions, concerns and any complaints to APS President Bill MacGillivray, PhD.
There is no commercial support for this program nor are there any relationships between Division 39, APS, presenter, program content, research, grants or other funding sources that could reasonably be construed as conflicts of interest. During the program, the validity/utility of the content and risks/limitations of the approaches discussed will be addressed, as applicable.