Free zoom event open to all on the topic of Psychoanalysis as a Means of LiberationWith Debra J. Myers, MD, PsyD.
Individuals engage in psychoanalysis motivated by dissatisfaction with life as they experience it. In psychoanalytic training, we spend a great deal of time preparing to understand family of origin, relationship, and developmental discontinuities. Too often, socio-cultural discontinuities do not receive significant emphasis as warranted. I intend to analyze my personal biography using eclectic psychoanalytic theories to demonstrate the potential to use psychoanalysis in the service of personal liberation. Mentalization, as well as, Developmental and Attachment psychoanalytic theories may be used in an emancipatory effort by those currently oppressed or marginalized in our society when trained psychoanalysts are accessible. I believe the history of anti-Black racism is relevant to the psychoanalysis of patients regardless of race. The concept of ‘Racial Battle Fatigue’ will be described and applied to the analysis of myself, a person of African descent.