Presented by Jeanine M. Vivona, PhD

We tend to think of language as an abstract system that is imposed upon us from outside. Yet, as Hans Loewald knew, language is also an inner system, one that is learned from particular others in particular lived moments, one that is idiosyncratic and inherently relational. Indeed, every person’s language enacts and conveys the ways that person has experienced the potentials of language for imagining and construing self and world. This deeply personal imagining of self and world is what we encounter when we engage in the therapeutic talking that is psychoanalysis.

In this lecture, I explore the early roots of this imaginative capacity of language in the ways that parents speak with their infants, drawing on empirical infant research to stir our imagination. An exploration of both individual and cultural differences in early language experience enriches our understanding of the meanings that are inherent in psychoanalytic talking, as well as the versions of self and language we encounter in our therapeutic work.

This program is intended to help fulfill licensure renewal requirements for continuing education in diversity and cultural competence. However, registrants should check with their licensing board if uncertain.

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