This is a virtual event held via Zoom at Eastern Time (ET).

Psychoanalysis, Jewishness, Colonialism, Fort and Da

Part of BGSP’s Fall 2024 | Spring 2025 Speaker Series: Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Race, Racism and Culture, hosted by BGSP’s Department of Continuing Education

The ‘fort-da’ game described by Freud is one origin for his thinking on the ‘Death Drive’ and on the return of the repressed. It can also be understood metaphorically as an account of the Jewish experience that was central to the production of psychoanalysis. Jews were on the margins of European society, both ‘invited in’ through emancipation and repudiated by antisemitism. The Jewish experience, with its ethical injunctions but also its awareness of exclusion, is important for considering possibilities of alliance across different racialized groups. However, it also seems to be the case that Freud, like other secular Jews of his time, worked (whether intentionally or not) to align Jews with Europeans and to transfer the opprobrium of ‘otherness’ to the Black, or what he called ‘savage other’, of Africa and Australia. This seminar examines some of these contradictory tendencies in Freudian thought: towards awareness of marginalization and racialized oppression, leading towards a ‘solidarity of the oppressed’, set against occlusion of shared otherness. Repetition (fort-da), expressed in modes of haunting and working through, is a key focus for psychoanalytic thinking on these issues.

Presenter

Stephen Frosh, Ph.D. is a Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Birkbeck, University of London, where he was Pro-Vice-Master and founding Head of the Department of Psychosocial Studies. He has a background in academic and clinical psychology and was Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Vice Dean at the Tavistock Clinic, London, in the 1990s. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, a Fellow of Birkbeck, University of London, an Academic Associate of the British Psychoanalytical Society, a Founding Member of the Association of Psychosocial Studies, and an Honorary Member of the Institute of Group Analysis. He has been Visiting Professor at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, and at the University of São Paulo, Brazil.

Dr. Frosh is the author of over twenty books and many papers on psychosocial studies and on psychoanalysis. His most recent book is Antisemitism and Racism: Ethical Challenges for Psychoanalysis, published by Bloomsbury in 2023. Previous books include Those Who Come After: Post-memory, Acknowledgement and Forgiveness (2019) (winner of the British Psychological Society Best Academic Monograph award for 2023); Hauntings: Psychoanalysis and Ghostly Transmissions (2013), Feelings (2011), A Brief Introduction to Psychoanalytic Theory (2012), Psychoanalysis Outside the Clinic (2010), Hate and the Jewish Science: Anti-Semitism, Nazism and Psychoanalysis (2005), For and Against Psychoanalysis (2006), After Words (2002), The Politics of Psychoanalysis (1999), Sexual Difference (1994) and Identity Crisis (1991). He is co-editor of the Palgrave Handbook of Psychosocial Studies (2024) and of the Routledge International Handbook of Psychoanalysis and Jewish Studies (2025). 

Discussant

Eugene Goldwater, Psy.D.

OBJECTIVES

The participant will be able to:

• To deepen participants’ understanding of the history of psychoanalysis’ engagement with social issues, especially racism and antisemitism.
• To develop participants’ thinking about the potential for psychoanalysis to engage actively and positively with antiracism.
• To engage as a seminar group with psychoanalysis as a social theory and critical practice.

(2 CEUs / Clock Hours)

Students | FREE
BGSP/CMPS Community Members | $25
General Admission | $40

Questions? Email us at continuinged@bgsp.edu or call (617) 277-3915.

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BGSP is authorized to provide CEs for: Psychologists (all levels), Social Workers, Counselors

Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. BGSP maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 5676. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.

Application for social work continuing education credits is being submitted. Please contact us at continuinged@bgsp.edu for the status of social work CE accreditation.

For information on continuing education credits for nurses, social workers, or marriage and family counseling, call (617) 277-3915.

Direct inquiries may be made regarding the accreditation status by NECHE to the administrative staff of the institution. Individuals may also contact: New England Commission on Higher Education, 3 Burlington Woods Drive, Ste 100, Burlington, MA 01803-4514, at (781) 425-7785 or email: info@neche.org

The Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis is accredited by the New England Commission on Higher Education.

Direct inquiries may be made regarding the accreditation status by NECHE to the administrative staff of the institution. Individuals may also contact: New England Commission on Higher Education, 3 Burlington Woods Drive, Ste 100, Burlington, MA 01803-4514, at (781) 425-7785 or email: info@neche.org