Given that we can detect in the canonical work of many psychoanalytic thinkers the philosophical influences of Kant, Schopenhauer, Hegel, and Heidegger this presentation explores this point of connection between philosophy and psychoanalysis. Few thinkers have matched Friedrich Nietzsche’s psychological insights—a fact Freud acknowledged when he admitted to avoiding Nietzsche’s work to preserve the originality of his own ideas—yet the value of these insights for our clinical practice remains to be explored.

In this presentation, Philosophers and Psychoanalysts, Allison Merrick, PhD, PsyD, RP, FIPA and Dr. Rochelle Godbout, PhD, RP, will focus on one of Nietzsche’s most clinically resonant insights: that morality is frequently employed as a psychological defense, shielding individuals from intolerable emotions such as shame and helplessness. Through detailed clinical examples and a conversation with Rochelle Godbout, Merrick will demonstrate how to identify moral defenses in therapeutic work and offer strategies for helping patients access the defended-against affects beneath them.