THE 2024-2025 EMBODIMENT SERIES
Claire Bien, MEd, Daniel Posner, MD, Louis Sass, PhD, Vincent Stephen, PsyD
with Moderators Doris Brothers, PhD and Jon Sletvold, PsyD
How is Madness Embodied in Psychoanalysis?
SATURDAY, MAY 17th
Online from 12 Noon – 2:00PM/Eastern
This series is presented in collaboration with The Wilhelm Reich Center for the Study of Embodiment.
ABOUT THIS EVENT
Although Freud doubted that psychotic patients could benefit from psychoanalysis, he acknowledged that “suitable changes” in his method might “succeed in overcoming this contra indication.” From a variety of perspectives, the four speakers in this conversation explore how a focus on the embodiment of madness represents a change in method that has brought about remarkable advances in the field.
COSTS
Professionals $50
Candidates and Students $30
CE CREDIT INFORMATON
2 CONTINUING EDUCATION CREDITS ARE AVAILABLE. Instructions about how to obtain available CEs are sent out to registrants in the entry link email, prior to the event. If you miss that letter (for late sign-ups), you should request CE instructions after the event.
For general CE Credit information, click here
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THE SPEAKERS
Claire Bien, MEd, is a research associate at the Yale University Program for Recovery and Community Health; mental health advocate and educator; and author of a memoir, Hearing Voices, Living Fully: Living with the Voices in My Head. She is a board member and immediate past president of the U.S. chapter of the International Society for Psychological and Social Approaches to Psychosis (ISPS-US); as well as a board member of the Hearing Voices Network (HVN)-USA. Claire speaks widely about her experiences with psychosis and her understandings of the nature and processes of her recovery, which was greatly helped by early exposure to psychoanalytically informed, psychodynamic therapy. Her paper, “My Body, My Psyche, My Self: An Empath’s Reflections on Being and Becoming in the World,” will be published in 2025 as part of a special issue on Madness of the journal Psychoanalytic Inquiry, edited by Daniel Posner, MD.
Daniel S. Posner, MD, is Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai where he teaches and supervises psychiatry residents in psychodynamic therapy. His writing explores a range of topics through the multiple lenses of psychoanalysis, enactive phenomenology, epistemic justice and infancy research. Dr. Posner has published work in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, Psychoanalysis, Self and Context and Psychoanalytic Inquiry, where he is an associate editor. He is also the co-host with Daniel Goldin of “The Conversation”– the podcast of Psychoanalytic Inquiry.
Louis Sass, PhD, is Distinguished Professor, Department of Clinical Psychology, Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, Rutgers University, where he is also affiliated with the Comparative Literature Program and Center for Cognitive Science. Dr. Sass has published on phenomenological psychopathology, psychoanalysis, and the thought of Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Lacan, and Foucault. He is the author of Madness and Modernism: Insanity in the Light of Modern Art, Literature, and Thought and of The Paradoxes of Delusion: Wittgenstein, Schreber, and the Schizophrenic Mind. A longtime fellow of the New York Institute for the Humanities, he has been a visiting professor in France, Belgium, Spain, England, Colombia, and Mexico. Dr. Sass has received various awards; a revised edition of Madness and Modernism (Oxford University Press) was awarded the British Medical Association First Prize as best book in psychiatry for 2018.
Vincent Stephen, PsyD, is a clinical psychologist working as a therapist and supervisor at the University Hospital in Tromsø, North Norway. He specializes in psychotherapy for people struggling with complex trauma, dissociation, and serious relational difficulties. Dr. Stephen is a candidate at the Norwegian Character Analytical Institute in Olso, a training institution for embodied psychoanalysis. He is interested in the therapeutic use of countertransference and has written on language, embodiment, suicide and authenticity. He is also a multi-disciplinary artist and musician, who has written and performed in various works, including several collaborations with dancer Mirte Bogaert.
ABOUT THE MODERATORS/CO-DIRECTORS OF THE WILHELM REICH CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF EMBODIMENT
Doris Brothers, PhD, is a co-founder and faculty member of the Training and Research in Intersubjective Self Psychology Foundation (TRISP). She was co-editor with Roger Frie of Psychoanalysis, Self and Context from 2015-2019 and is an associate editor of Psychoanalytic Inquiry. She serves on the council of the International Association of
Psychoanalytic Self Psychology (IAPSP). Doris has published many journal articles and book chapters as well as four books. Her latest book, written with Jon Sletvold is entitled A New Vision of Psychoanalytic Theory, Practice and Supervision: TALKING BODIES. Her earlier books are: Toward a Psychology of Uncertainty: Trauma-Centered Psychoanalysis (2008), Falling Backwards: An Exploration of Trust and Self-Experience (1995), and with Richard Ulman, The Shattered Self: A Psychoanalytic Study of Trauma (1988). She has presented her work internationally and leads supervision/study groups with Jon Sletvold. She sees patients in private practice in New York and Oslo.
