The Association for Psychosocial Studies

Lita Crociani-Windland and Jonathan Mosley: Buildings as psychosocial assemblages: a psychosocial mapping of political architecture- La Siege du PCF/Espace Niemeyer (prepared in collaboration with Sophie and Nigel Williams)
2023-03-09 17:00 - 19:00 (Europe/London)
Psychosocial Interventions: Aesthetic Analysis in Practice and Theory
An Event Series by APS and the Department of Visual Cultures, Goldsmiths

Psychosocial Studies is a transdisciplinary form of academic scholarship that engages the ways in which subjective experience is interwoven with social life. Psychosocial Studies is characterised by its orientation towards progressive social and personal change. An important, but often overlooked, aspect of Psychosocial theory and practice are aesthet-ic interventions. More than a mere science of perception, aesthetics plays an important, but often overlooked, role in the theory and practice of institutional forms of psychotherapy, and guide psychosocially informed politics. The Visual Cultures Spring 2023 Public Programme looks to elucidate a psychosocial understanding of the interconnected role aesthetics play in politics and psychotherapeutic practice.
This series is organised in partnership with the Association for Psychosocial Studies.

Schedule:
• Thursday 19/01: Jacob Johanssen
• Thursday 26/01: Susan Kelly
• Thursday 02/02: Hannah Dee
• Thursday 09/02: George Dake
• Thursday 16/02: Rachel Wilson
• Thursday 02/03: Janna Graham and Wanderley Santos
• Thursday 09/03: Lita Crociani-Windland and Jonathan Mosley
• Thursday 16/03: Felix Birch and Sebastian Birch
• Thursday 23/03: Guilaine Kinouani
• Friday 24/03: Workshop with Lynn Frogget
• Thursday 30/03: Nini Fang

Lectures will be held in the Professor Stuart Hall Building (Goldsmiths), LG01. No booking required.

Guilaine Kinouani: Difference, Whiteness and the Group Analytic Matrix
2023-03-23 17:00 - 19:00

Nini Fang: Culture as the Bad Object
2023-03-30 17:00 - 19:00

Digital Culture and the Object of Race
2023-06-09 18:30 - 21:00 | Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art, St James's, London, SE14 6AD, United Kingdom
Register here

Violence of Politics and Politics of Violence
2024-02-01 15:00 - 17:00 | 1.264 Usha Kasera Lecture Theatre, Old College South Bridge Edinburgh EH8 9YL, 1.264 Usha Kasera Lecture Theatre, Old College South Bridge Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH8 9YL, United Kingdom

2024-03-13 14:00 - 2024-07-12 16:00
DECOLONISING COUNSELLING & PSYCHOTHERAPY – REFLECTIONS FROM PSYCHOSOCIAL PERSPECTIVES

This public-facing seminar series challenges Eurocentric perspectives in traditional therapy and develop politically progressive, decolonial alternatives in line with University- and sector-wide decolonisation efforts. It examines the psychosocial impacts of colonial violence on contemporary socio-political dynamics. It is funded by the Principal’s Teaching Awards Scheme and is led by Nini Kerr in collaboration with Rhea Gandhi and Mariya Levitanus.

You can register for any/all of our events here – they are free and open to everyone!

Programme Schedule:

13th March, Wednesday, 2-4pm: Nini Kerr on ‘Culture as the Bad Object’ and Erica Burman on ‘Child as Method as a resource for decolonial theory and practice‘ – G.07 Meadows Lecturer Theater, Doorway 4

[Special Book Launch Event] 18th March, Monday, 4.30-6.30pm: ‘The Rebel’s Clinic’ by Adam Shatz. Register here.

12th April, Friday, 2-4pm: Mariya Levitanus on ‘Beyond the Norm: Decolonial Queer Perspectives on Counselling and Psychotherapy’ – Sydney Smith Lecture Room – Doorway 1

10th May, Friday, 2-4pm: Rhea Gandhi & Isaac Yu on ‘Therapy as Political Resistance’ – Sydney Smith Lecture Room – Doorway 1

5th June, Wednesday, 2-4pm – Lynne Layton ‘Social Psychoanalysis, Normative Unconscious Processes, and an Ethic of Repair [room tbc]

12th July, Friday, 2-4pm – Sheyda Esmali on ‘Unravelling Xenophobia Psychoanalytically’ [room tbc]

We look forward to seeing you there!

Project Team:
Nini, Rhea, and Mariya

Lynne Layton on 'Social Psychoanalysis, Normative Unconscious Processes, and an Ethic of Repair.
2024-06-05 14:00 - 15:00
We are delighted to invite you to join us for a public lecture by Lynne Layton on ‘Social Psychoanalysis, Normative Unconscious Processes, and an Ethic of Repair. The lecture is part of the seminar series on ‘Decolonising Counselling and Psychotherapy: Reflections from Psychosocial Perspectives’, organised by Nini Kerr, Rhea Gandhi, and Mariya Levitanus, in collaboration with the Association for Psychosocial Studies.

When: Wednesday, 5th June, from 2-3pm.
How: MS Teams – please contact Rhea Gandhi for the link to join the event

Session abstract
This talk takes up the question of what a social psychoanalysis might look like in the clinic, in our psychoanalytic institutions, and in our society. Drawing on some earlier psychoanalysts’ concepts that have connected the social world and the psychic world, I introduce the concept of normative unconscious processes, which addresses the ways that racism, heterosexism, classism and other social inequalities are unconsciously replicated in the clinic. The talk then explores how therapists can resist unconsciously replicating such cultural inequalities. We will then look outside the clinic at how cultural inequalities manifest in the wider circles of contemporary institutional and sociocultural life. Here, too, we will explore how we, as citizens and therapists, both unconsciously replicate and can resist replicating harmful, unequal relations. We will think together about how to address the places in our different subjective and communal worlds where harm has been done, and engage together on how to make repair.

Author bio:
Lynne Layton has a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and in Clinical Psychology. She is a psychoanalyst and has taught and supervised at the Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis. She is also a Corresponding Member of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Psychiatry Department at Harvard Medical School. Lynne is the author of Who’s That Girl? Who’s That Boy? Clinical Practice Meets Postmodern Gender Theory, and co-editor of 3 books: Narcissism and the Text: Studies in Literature and the Psychology of Self; Bringing the Plague: Toward a Postmodern Psychoanalysis; and Psychoanalysis, Class and Politics: Encounters in the Clinical Setting. From 2004-2017, she was co-editor of the journal Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society and she is currently an associate editor of Psychoanalytic Dialogues. She is a past-President of Psychoanalysis for Social Responsibility and founded Reflective Spaces/Material Places-Boston, a group of psychodynamic therapists committed to community mental health and social justice. Lynne is on the organizing committee of a national Black-led reparations campaign. She is the author of the 2020 book Toward a Social Psychoanalysis: Culture, Character, and Normative Unconscious Processes, winner of a 2021 book award from the American Academy and Board of Psychoanalysis.

Please contact Rhea Gandhi for the link to join the event.
