Fall Workshop:
Race, Class, and Culture in Psychoanalysis
Neil Altman, PhD
Psychoanalysis has established its own culture and, for the most part, embedded itself as the therapy of choice for the economically privileged. As a result, until recently, there has been a paucity of attention to how psychoanalysis can be useful to understanding and providing psychotherapeutic work among a wider variety of people, especially in across race, culture, and class.
In this presentation Dr. Altman will describe how race, social class, and culture are understood from a relational psychoanalytic perspective. He will describe the various ways these social categories may play out in transference and countertransference, including situations in which both participants identify as "white".
You can read his article "Black and White Thinking" here
Learning objectives: At the conclusion of this presentation, participants will be able to:
- Describe how race is understood from a relational psychoanalytic perspective
- Describe how social class is understood from a relational psychoanalytic perspective
- Describe how culture is understood from a relational psychoanalytic perspective
- Describe how these social forces may structure transference and countertransference in psychotherapy.
Biography:
Neil Altman is faculty and supervisor at the William Alsnson White Institute in New York, and at the Ambedkar University of Delhi, India. He is Editor Emeritus at Psychoanalytic Dialogues: the International Journal of Relational Perspectives. He is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy, the International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, and the Journal of Child Psychotherapy. He is author the Analyst in the Inner City: Race, Class, and Culture through a Psychoanalytic Lens, Routledge, 2010, and Psychoanalysis in Times of Accelerating Cultural Change: Spiritual Globalization, Routledge 2015, and Relational Child Psychotherapy, Other Press, 2002.
References:
Altman, N. (2010) The Analyst in the Inner City: Race, Class, and Culture through a Psychoanalytic Lens. London and New York: Routledge
Altman, N. (2015) Psychoanalysis in Times of Accelerating Cultural Change: Spiritual Globalization. London and New York: Routledge.
Brickman, C. (2003) Aboriginal Populations in the Mind: Race and Primitivity in Psychoanalysis. New York: Columbia University Press.
3 Professional Continuing Education credits, which meet cultural diversity requirements, are available for psychologists, counselors, social workers, and marriage and family therapists. Category II CME available for physicians.
