January 2021: the NWPRA does not meet in January.
Unknowing in Psychotherapy
David Henderson
Friday 12 February 2021, 6.30pm – 7.45pm
Therapists are often at a loss. They do not understand what is happening in the session, what their clients are talking about, or what to make of their own thoughts and feelings. In this Zoom talk we will discuss some of the ways in which ‘not knowing’ is thought of in psychoanalysis and what resources there might be in philosophy and theology to support the therapist’s capacity to remain present.
David Henderson, PhD, is a lecturer in the Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex and a psychotherapist in private practice. He is a member of the British Jungian Analytic Association (BJAA) and the British Psychotherapy Foundation (BPF). His website is https://davidhendersonpsychotherapy.com/
Feelings, Truth and Clinical Technique in Freud, Lacan and other Schools
Philip Hill
Friday 12 March 2021, 6.30pm – 8.30pm
In this extended, two-hour event, Philip Hill provides a clinically-orientated workshop on the place of feelings and truth in different schools of therapy.
Philip is a psychoanalyst in London and author of Lacan for Beginners and Using Lacanian Clinical Technique: An Introduction.
My Heart Aches: Therapy and an Ode to a Nightingale
Meg Harris Williams
Friday 9 April 2021, 6.30pm – 7.45pm
In this Zoom talk Meg will provide a close reading of a poem – Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale – to help make vivid and imaginable the progression towards self-knowledge that therapy can facilitate.
Meg Harris Williams is a writer and artist with a particular interest in the relationship between therapy and aesthetic experience. She is editor of the Harris Meltzer Trust, an educational charity publishing books that promote psychoanalytic understanding of children and young people. Her website is, http://www.artlit.info/
Mourning, Separations, and Losses
Dr Mark Fisher
Friday 14 May 2021, 6.30pm – 7.45pm
After exploring transference and comedy in a series of NWRPA talks during the Autumn of 2020, Mark uses three new talks to consider the tragic dimensions of transference. You do not need to have heard Mark’s earlier talks to attend any of the talks in this new series.
An individual’s fantasies about love and loss are like quanta, little round objects for love and distress. Can psychotherapy help reconfigure one’s love-loss fantasies along with the delights and anguishes they bring?
In this evening’s talk Mark shows how, in Freud’s writings, love, sexuality and loss implicate each other asymmetrically. Here transference becomes less of a comedy and more tragic. Mark explores this by drawing on examples from culture.
Mark Fisher’s introduction to psychoanalysis took place during the 1970s while a research fellow at Oxford University. Following an individual analysis there was group analysis and then a Lacanian analysis. For many years Mark worked within the NHS. He now runs a clinical and supervisory practice in Liverpool and online.
Some Hauntologies
Dr Mark Fisher
Friday 11 June 2021, 6.30pm – 7.45pm
In this Zoom talk Mark asks about “endings” in analysis and psychotherapy. Are endings absolute or are they partial, ambivalent, presences? If endings are achieved, what happens next?
You do not need to have heard Mark’s earlier talks to attend this event.
Dissolutions
Dr Mark Fisher
Friday 9 July 2021, 6.30pm – 7.45pm
In this Zoom talk Mark reflects on the end of psychotherapy and analysis as a dissolution/de-solution/desolation.
You do not need to have heard Mark’s earlier talks to attend this event.
The NWRPA does not meet in August
Making Assessments: Psychiatry
Dr Andrew Shepherd
Friday 10 September 2021, 6.30pm – 8.00pm
A psychiatric assessment is influential and spans many fields in terms of its impact. In this Zoom talk Dr Andrew Shepherd explores the nature and purpose of psychiatric assessment – drawing on forensic work as an illustrative example – and seeks to identify some of the limitations and issues that can arise.
Andrew is a consultant forensic psychiatrist, working in secure hospital and prison settings, he also carries out work as an expert witness, aiding the courts in relation to criminal legal proceedings. He is an honorary lecturer in the University of Manchester and his research interests focus on the psychosocial dynamics that influence care provision in secure settings.
Enjoy Your Suffering!
Philip Hill
Friday 8 October 2021, 6.30pm – 8.30pm
In this extended two-hour Zoom event Philip Hill provides a clinically-orientated workshop on the place of need, demand, desire and love in and out of the psychoanalytic clinic.
Philip is a psychoanalyst in London and author of Lacan for Beginners and Using Lacanian Clinical Technique: An Introduction. His website is,
https://philiphill.com/
Special Event – Meet the Author
The Autistic Subject: On the Threshold of Language
Dr Leon S. Brenner
Friday 12 November 2021, 6.30pm – 8.00pm
In this Zoom talk Leon S. Brenner describes autism as a singular mode of being that is fundamentally linked to one’s identity and basic practices of existence, offering a rigorous alternative to the prevailing treatment of autism as a mental or physical disorder. Brenner outlines the unique features of the autistic subjective structure and provides a comprehensive synthesis of contemporary work on the psychoanalysis of autism. The Autistic Subject: On the Threshold of Language was published by Palgrave MacMillan in 2020.
Leon is a founder of Lacanian Affinities Berlin (laLAB) and Unconscious Berlin, and a lecturer at the International Psychoanalytic University in Berlin. His website is,
https://leonbrenner.com/
New Writings on the Psychoses
Dr Mark Fisher
Friday 10 December 2021, 6.30pm – 8.00pm
In this Zoom talk Mark will present an overview of new writings on the psychoses including schizophrenia, paranoia and melancholia.
For many years Mark Fisher was professional lead in the NHS’ psychotherapy service. In 2013 he entered private practice as both a supervisor and psychoanalyst working in Liverpool and online. His website is,
https://rodneystpsychoanalyticpractice.blogspot.com/