Tampa Bay Psychoanalytic Society

Tampa Bay Psychoanalytic Society, Inc.

Speaker Program Meeting: April 10, 2021

Presenter:

Presenter: Mari Ruti, PhD

Mari Ruti is Distinguished Professor of Critical Theory and of Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Toronto. A graduate of Brown and Harvard universities, she has devoted her career to the study of contemporary theory, continental philosophy, psychoanalysis, and feminist and queer theory. She is the author of thirteen books, most relevantly A World of Fragile Things: Psychoanalysis and the Art of Living (2009); The Singularity of Being: Lacan and the Immortal Within (2012); The Call of Character (2013); Between Levinas and Lacan: Self, Other, Ethics (2015); Penis Envy and Other Bad Feelings: The Emotional Costs of Everyday Life (2018); Distillations: Theory, Ethics, Affect (2018); and Critical Theory Between Klein and Lacan: A Dialogue (2019; with Amy Allen).  

DATE:                     Saturday, April 10, 2021

TIME:                      8:15-9:15 am; 9:30 am-12:30 pm; 1:30 pm-4:30pm

LOCATION:            Zoom

CHARGE:                 8:15am: $15 member/ $20 non-member; (1 CME/CEU upon request); 

9:30am:  Free to members/ $10 for non-member & no CEUS / $45 non-members and friend members if requesting CME/CEUs; 3 CME/CEUs free to Clinical Members upon request, 9 CME/CEUs per speaker year free to Corresponding Members upon request,)

1:30pm: $35 charge to members / $45 to non-members; (3 hrs. CE credits upon request). Students      $25 no CME/CEUs included.

The Tampa Bay Psychoanalytic Society is registered with: the Florida Board of Medicine, The Florida Board of Psychology, and the Florida Board of Clinical Social Work, Marriage and Family Therapy and Mental Health Counseling to give CEU/CMEs. We cannot give you CEUs if you are licensed in another state other than Florida.

8:15-9:15 “When the Cure Is that There Is No Cure.”

Summary: This presentation draws on Lacan and Klein to propose that negativity—what Lacan calls “lack-in-being” and Klein calls “the depressive position”—is intrinsic to human ontology in ways that preclude the possibility of a definitive cure for constitutive (existential) dislocation, disorientation, and disenchantment. However, the goal of the talk is not to present a hopeless portrait of the human condition but, quite the contrary, to argue that it is only when the subject understands that there is no cure for constitutive negativity that it is able to begin to live to the fullest of its potential. Among other things, the recognition that there is no cure for existential discomfort can become a platform for a productive working-through of such discomfort in clinical situations. The presentation also distinguishes between constitutive and context-specific forms of lack (or trauma), emphasizing that the claim that there is no cure for the former does not mean that the latter—such as the effects of social injustice—cannot be concretely addressed.

Objectives: Upon completion of the program the participant will be able to:

1. Discuss the theories of Lacan and Klein regarding human ontological negativity.

2. Discuss the distinction between constitutive and context-specific forms of lack (or trauma).

9:30-12:30 “Melancholia, Mourning, and Creativity”

Summary: This presentation illustrates that, far from being an impediment to creativity, the subject’s foundational lack-in-being (Lacan) and the depressive position (Klein) are a necessary precondition for creative activity, broadly understood. The presentation also draws a distinction, indebted to Julia Kristeva, between melancholia and mourning in order to suggest that creativity often requires the subject’s ability to move from the paralysis of melancholia to the movement—however gradual or halting—that mourning represents.

Objectives: Upon completion of the program the participant will be able to:

1. Discuss the connection between mourning and creativity in human life.

2. Discuss the distinction between the paralysis of melancholia and the potentially transformative movement of mourning.

1:30-4:30 “Mourning and Melancholia in Everyday Life”

Summary: The purpose of this session is to consider the ways in which mourning and melancholia—both in their constitutive and context-specific forms—inform everyday life. Ranging from the mourning involved in political life (where sadness-inducing compromises are frequently inevitable) and everyday bad feelings (such as the depression and disillusionment that result from social realities such as poverty, sexism, and racism) to the challenges of living with terminal illness (which the presenter herself is grappling with), the session focuses on the centrality of mourning and melancholia to daily life.

Objectives: Upon completion of the program, the participant will be able to:

1. Discuss the ways in which mourning and melancholia inform daily life.

2. Discuss the everyday ramifications of acute traumatization, such as racism or terminal illness.

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This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the Essential Areas and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education through the joint sponsorship of the American Psychoanalytic Association and the Tampa Bay Psychoanalytic Society. The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

The American Psychoanalytic Association designates this Live Activity for a maximum of 6 hours AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE INFORMATION FOR ALL LEARNERS: None of the planners and presenters of this CME program have any relevant financial relationships to disclose.

The Tampa Bay Psychoanalytic Society has been approved by the Florida Dept. of Health to provide Continuing Education Accreditation to Psychologists (Provider # PCE-46, Exp. 5/22) and Clinical Social Workers, Marriage & Family Therapists, Mental Health Counselors (Provider # BAP 423, Exp. 3/21). The Society certifies that these courses meet the requirements of the Board on an hour-per-hour basis for continuing education credits.

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Deadline for Payment Online is the Wednesday before the event, by 5 PM.  Registered attendees will be sent an invitation to join the Zoom presentation by Friday, the day before the program.  If by chance you paid and did not receive a Zoom invite, please contact Alan Alonso, President of the TBPS via email at: PresidentTBPS2020@gmail.comor by phone at (813) 265-3859 ext.4.