Analytic Study Group

 A Monthly reading group studies the writings of Freud, Lacan, and of those whose work has extended the theory and practice of Sigmund Freud's discoveries of the human psyche. 

 

The group meets on Zoom to read, discuss and sustain interest in ongoing learning in the analytic field. At the start of 2025, the group was reading "Narcissism - A New Theory".

Psychoanalytic Focus

Psychoanalytic understanding is always based on dialogue as its fundamental communication between practitioner and the other. Jacques Lacan wrote "We don't exist without the other,"

and Mikhail Bakhtin, " We live in our language." This leads to the understanding of what we are hearing from the other; and

to what the other understands as important in what they have spoken. This is crucial to the understanding of themselves. The dialogue must consist of listening attentively, responding to and respecting the other. Dialogue can be used in this way in what has been called Open Dialogue; a very effective group therapy.

"Whenever knowing and doing have parted company, the space of freedom is lost." - HANNAH ARENDT