Analysis Possible and Impossible

Cassie Kaufmann in conversation with Ben Kafka (SIPsaS co-organizer)

The aim of this seminar is learning what theory can look like in practice. We will focus on the process and development of a career practicing psychoanalysis. We will explore what is happening in the field of clinical psychoanalysis currently, touching on: theoretical questions analysts are exploring; political schisms that are roiling the field; routes and obstacles to practice; what accounts for the current popularity of psychoanalysis; what makes the work “impossible”. We will discuss accessibility, attempts to make a more racially and economically inclusive psychoanalysis, and the history of community psychoanalysis.

Dr. Cassie Kaufmann is a licensed clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst. She is the founder and director of Greene Clinic, a sliding scale psychoanalytically oriented training clinic in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. There she supervises, teaches, and introduces psychoanalytic theory and practice to students and early career psychologists, social workers, and counselors. She is on faculty at the New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, where she also completed her adult psychoanalytic training. She is a founding board member of the Foundation for Community Psychoanalysis, a nonprofit whose mission is to make psychoanalysis more accessible to historically marginalized people.

Readings
Malcolm, Janet. The Impossible Profession. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1981.
Duong, Kevin. “Broke Psychoanalysis: In Memory of Harlem’s Lafargue Clinic.” Parapraxis 3.
Joseph, Betty. “Transference: The Total Situation.“ The International Journal of Psychoanalysis 66 (1985): 447-454.

Please register for access to readings and to reserve a seat and a box lunch.