Thursday, September 23, 2021

8:00PM – 9:30PM


Life and Living in the Shadow of the Dead Mother: Making Psychoanalytic Meaning from Covid 19
“…what is conflictual and paradoxical in this situation is that everything continues to go on, and yet everything has changed”
–Andre Green
Dayna Sharp, LCSW – presenter
Maxwell Sucharov – discussant

The spirit of the “Dead Mother” is evoked when the ultimate catastrophe has occurred–the loss of everything that mattered, the extraordinary absence left in its wake, and the ways in which we must adapt to incomprehensible tragedy. In this presentation, Dayna Sharp will consider Andre Green’s concept of the “Dead Mother” as a metaphor for the pandemic, lockdowns and general loss of physical and social connectedness. She will present a case study, illuminating the experience of the “Dead Mother” in the clinical setting while exploring the complexity of context. How did the pandemic change the way we were with our patients? Can we expand our understanding of cotransference to include the sociocultural environment? What happens when the ghosts in the consulting room meet with the ghosts of the political realm? What draws us to particular theory? In what ways do divisions in psychoanalysis deaden or enliven our field and clinical work? Finally, the author will examine possible windows to reconstruction from the devastating impact of Covid-19, cultural disillusionment, and ultimately, from the experience of the “Dead Mother”.


Location:

Virtual, via Zoom

(Meeting link will be e-mailed to registered participants on the day of the event)

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER


Dayna Sharp, LCSW is a psychotherapist in private practice with offices in Philadelphia, PA and Haddonfield, NJ. She is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College’s Graduate School of Social Work, is a current member of and graduate from a two-year Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Program with the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia and has just completed her first year of formal analytic training with the Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity in New York City. She holds an adjunct faculty position with LaSalle University, teaching a variety of courses for the Department of Social Work. Dayna enjoys clinical work with children and adults, and looks forward to a long career as a psychoanalyst.

Maxwell Sucharov is a psychoanalytic psychiatrist in private practice in Vancouver. He is on the editorial board of Psychoanalysis Self and Context and is an Emeritus Council member of IAPSP. He has been an active member of the Self Psychology community for more than 30 years, presenting and publishing papers on post Cartesian philosophy, systems and complexity, theory, trauma, spirituality, and socio-political issues.


1.5 Continuing Education Credits for Social Workers & LMHC’s