New Orleans-Birmingham Psychoanalytic Center

Mikita Brottman, PhD, will present on her paper, “Nomen Est Omen: A Psychoanalytic Exploration of Names.” She will discuss how personal names and naming are shaped by unconscious dynamics, implicit associations, cultural influences, and relationships to parents.

Through the lenses of psychoanalysis, memory, and cultural reinvention, Laura McMaster, LMFT, will explore Joan Crawford, the contested narratives surrounding her life, and the film’s unexpected second life in drag culture. Drawing on Freud’s ideas about memory and recollection, this discussion examines how stories are retold, reimagined, and transformed over time.