NCSPP is aware that historically psychoanalysis has either excluded or pathologized groups outside of the dominant population in terms of age, race, ethnicity, nationality, language, gender, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, disability, and size. As an organization, we are committed to bringing awareness to matters of anti-oppression, inequity, inequality, diversity, and inclusion as they pertain to our educational offerings, our theoretical orientation, our community, and the broader world we all inhabit.

Presenters Response:

Daniel Butler: This course explicitly addresses how psychoanalytic praxis does and does not consider the experiences of marginalized peoples. Rather than centering the ‘power’ and ‘privilege’ of whiteness, we will focus on the social violence through which power and privilege are secured. Studying social violence will not be an afterthought; it is integral to the course itself.

Susana Winkel: Course participants will become aware of sociocultural factors that affect a patient’s life development and the role these may play in any given relationship and situation. Emphasis will be placed on working with diverse populations; on the need to develop an appreciation of and sensitivity to patients’ social and cultural contexts in order to avoid biases; and on the ability to form meaningful therapeutic alliances to work effectively.

Deborah Melman: The social discourses and implicit cultural assumptions that constitute human identity require attention. In this course which is concerned with difficulties of taking up living in a vital and responsive way we will attend to the impact of denuded, othering and alienated modalities and social constructions which both shape and stultify the self.