APS/JPS Reading Group Event: Lita Crociani-Windland – “On transience and other hatreds”

Association of Psychosocial Studies and Journal of Psychosocial Studies

Online Reading Group

Lita Crociani-Windland, “On transience and other hatreds”

Friday 27 November 4 – 6pm

We are pleased to invite you to our fifth in a series of monthly online reading groups where we will be coming together to discuss topical psychosocial issues.

Like everyone, APS members are working under very altered and potentially isolating circumstances and it was with great regret that the we had to postpone our 2020 conference on The Psychosocial Body at the beginning of June. In an effort to keep our community engaged during a time when psychosocial thinking is needed more than ever, we hosted an online summer programme that culminated in our two-day conference Psychosocial Thinking in the Times of Covid-19. However, as the pandemic continues to keep most of us in lockdown condition throughout the winter, we have decided to continue our summer reading groups throughout the year.

This month we will be discussing Lita Crociani-Windland’s article, “On transience and other hatreds”. This article originates in a free associative extended reflection on what the author sees as the many faces of our relationship to transience in Western culture. It begins with the image of plastic flowers in graveyards, wild flowers pushed to verges and marginal spaces, women, migrants and transient communities. Our relation to life, death and their relation to movement and limitation are key aspects being reflected on and taken up for further analysis. The result of the free associative experiment is to invite reflections on the Freudian concepts of Eros and Thanatos and revisit the highly controversial question of whether these should be viewed in terms of a dualist or a monistic understanding. What is being presented here is a way of working with free associations outside the consulting room and group processes, using free associations as a reflexive research tool within a psychosocial hermeneutic approach.

The article is available to download and read for free here

These reading groups are free to attend and open to all. Simply click here to register on Eventbrite. All registered attendees will be sent a link to join a Zoom call before the event.

Author biography:

Lita Crociani-Windland is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Psycho-Social Studies at University of West England, Bristol. Following an early career teaching early years and then leading a specialist residential college for young people with moderate to severe learning difficulties and disabilities, Lita first came to UWE to join an innovative Masters of Science degree in Group Relations and Society, just as Psycho-Social Studies was establishing itself as its own distinctive field and the then Centre for Psycho-Social Studies was launched at UWE. She now leads the Psycho-Social Studies and Therapeutic Practices  theme, part of the Social Science Research Group.

Other events are currently in the planning stage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook or sign up as a Member to keep up to date with everything. Members will continue to receive copies of the Journal of Psychosocial Studies as a further benefit of subscription to the Association.