Inaugural Talk with Dr. Carolyn Laubender: We are excited to open this new series with an evening conversation with Carolyn Laubender on her book The Political Clinic – winner of the 2025 Book Prize of the American Psychoanalytic Association and the 2025 Book Award of the British Psychological Society. Examining the work of influential British psychoanalysts including Klein, Winnicott, Sachs, and Bowlby. The book combines history with feminist and decolonial social theory to trace how concepts such as race, gender, colonialism, and democracy were both shaped by and reshaped within clinical practice, challenging the assumption that psychoanalysis is or should be politically neutral.

For this evening, Dr. Laubender will draw on chapter 4 of her book entitled “Dreaming of ‘Black Mummy: Race, Gender, Decolonization, and D. W. Winnicott”. The evening will offer a closer engagement with the material, followed by a response and open discussion.