COLLOQUIUM: On the Subject of Psychiatry and the Subject of Psychoanalysis

On the Subject of Psychiatry and the Subject of Psychoanalysis

September 19–20, 2014

Mount Sinai Hospital, Davis Conference Center

Hess Center, 2nd floor, 1470 Madison Avenue

(between 101st and 102nd Streets) New York, New York

Since the 1980s, there has been a notable shift of focus in psychiatry toward neuroscience and biology. The result has been an upsurge in psychiatric conceptualizations of psychopathology based solely on material transformation, be it chemical, genetic, or neurological. By taking this approach, “biological” psychiatry has become increasingly estranged from the social sciences. From a psychoanalytic or humanistic perspective, this means that psychiatry has turned away from precisely what gives specificity to the human being as the subject of language. Scarcely, if at all, does it consider how suffering and symptoms are also effects of the ways in which language impacts the body; rarely does it acknowledge how the social environment affects subjectivity. These omissions parallel the steady revision of psychiatric diagnostic protocols, which, by expanding pathologies, medically standardize predictable yet invariably singular events and difficulties.

Our colloquium seeks to raise questions related to this shift in psychiatry, which is not embraced by the entire psychiatric profession. We welcome psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, scholars, clinicians from all disciplines, and other interested participants, to discuss such pertinent questions as: How can psychiatry establish an alternative to the neoliberal logic that ignores the social and ethical questions underlying psychic pathologies, and turns them into an illness like any other? Is the dominance of neurobiology a return to, or an extension of, nineteenth-century mechanistic ideology? How crucial to this return is “Big Pharma,” which profits by promising a “quick fix”? How does an idealistic faith in quantification and measurements belie the particularity of mental illness?

We look forward to hearing opinions on these controversial issues from within contemporary psychiatry, as well as from others, and will pay close attention to the differing approaches that Continental and American psychiatry bring to bear upon the notion of the subject.

René Magritte, Not to be Reproduced (La reproduction interdite), 1937. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Registration Information: General registration fee for entire conference—$105.00

Students and candidates with ID—$55.00

SEATING IS LIMITED. PRE-REGISTRATION IS STRONGLY RECOMMENDED. We cannot guarantee that tickets will be available on the day of the event. To pre-register, go to http://www.apres-coup.org and click on the event listing.

ALFAPSY and Après-Coup Psychoanalytic Association

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colloquium: On the Subject of Psychiatry and the Subject of Psychoanalysis

Friday, September 19, 2014

5:30 pm–9:00 pm

5:30 pm Opening remarks: Paola Mieli and Hervé Granier

5:45 pm Round table: “Psychiatry Between Neuroscience and Psychoanalysis: The Question of Neoliberalism”

Chairs: Paul Lacaze and Martin Winn

Moderator: Christopher Lane

Speakers: Hervé Granier, David Healy, Patrick Landman, Jean-Pierre Lebrun, Robert Whitaker

7:30 pm Break

7:45 pm Public discussion

Saturday, September 20, 2014

Morning Program, 9:00 am–12:30 pm

9:00 am Coffee

9:15 am Opening remarks: Juan Mezzich

9:30 am Round table: “Psychoanalysis in the Era of Neuroscience: The Question of Diagnosis”

Chairs: Kareen Malone and Hachem Tyal

Moderator: Paola Mieli

Speakers: Jalil Bennani, Lisa Cosgrove, Marco Antonio Coutinho Jorge, Michel Peterson, Frank Summers

11:15 am Break

11:30 am Public discussion

Saturday, September 20, 2014

Afternoon Program, 2:30 pm–6:00 pm

2:30 pm Opening remarks: Christopher Lane

2:45 pm Round table: “For a Person-Centered Psychiatry:

The Question of Care”

Chairs: Hervé Granier and Andrew Stein

Moderator: Ona Nierenberg

Speakers: Michel Botbol, Mario Eduardo Costa Pereira, Juan Mezzich, Hachem Tyal

4:00 pm Break

4:15 pm Public discussion

5:30 pm Closing remarks: Kareen Malone and Paul Lacaze

• PROGRAM •

ALFAPSY (Alternative Fédérative des Associations de Psychiatrie) is a not-for-profit international organization of Francophone psychiatrists that provides opportunities for alternative concepts, theories, and practices in psychiatry to have a voice and an impact within the contemporary psychiatric community. ALFAPSY was established in 2003 in order to bring together the National Private Practice Associations of Algeria, Belgium, France, Morocco, Senegal, Switzerland and Tunisia. Since its inception, it has established itself as distinctive in aim and interests from other official federations, associations, and organizations within the profession worldwide. It was founded by the Association of French Psychiatrists in Private Practice (AFPEP) and brings together practitioners who do not confine their work to the medical model as the sole means of conducting psychiatry. ALFAPSY is committed to a global scope in its work and development of alternative paradigms within psychiatry.

Après-Coup Psychoanalytic Association, established in New York in 1987, is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to analytical formation and the discussion of contemporary issues in psychoanalysis and culture. An independent organization, Après-Coup has brought together researchers, scholars, and psychoanalysts from Europe, South America, Canada, Australia and the United States, along with specialists from other fields, in a variety of colloquia and seminars. Après-Coup Psychoanalytic Association is provisionally chartered by the Board of Regents of the State of New York. For more information, visit www.apres-coup.org

COLLOQUIUM PARTICIPANTS

Jalil Bennani, Psychiatrist and psychoanalyst; Michel Botbol, Professor of child and adolescent psychiatry; co-president of the World Psychiatric Association’s psychoanalytic division; Lisa Cosgrove, Psychology professor and researcher/author on psychiatric ethics; Mario Eduardo Costa Pereira, Psychiatrist and psychoanalyst; Marco Antonio Coutinho Jorge, Psychiatrist and psychoanalyst; Hervé Granier, Psychiatrist and psychoanalyst; David Healy, Psychiatrist and psychopharmacologist; Paul Lacaze, Neuropsychiatrist and psychoanalyst; founder and president, ALFAPSY; Patrick Landman, Psychiatrist, child psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst; Christopher Lane, Professor of literature and intellectual history; Jean-Pierre Lebrun, Psychiatrist and psychoanalyst; Kareen Malone, Professor of psychology; Analysand in Formation, Après-Coup Psychoanalytic Association (ACPA); Juan Mezzich, Psychiatrist; former president of the World Psychiatric Association; Paola Mieli, Psychoanalyst; president of ACPA; Annie Muir, Linguist, psychotherapist; Analysand in Formation, ACPA; Ona Nierenberg, Psychoanalyst; member, ACPC; Michel Peterson, Psychoanalyst, professor of literature and psychology; Andrew Stein, Clinical psychologist; Analysand in Formation, ACPA; Frank Summers, Psychologist, psychoanalyst; former president of Division 39; Hachem Tyal, Psychiatrist and psychoanalyst; Robert Whitaker, journalist on psychiatry; Martin Winn, Psychoanalyst; member, ACPC.

Scientific Committee: Hervé Granier, Paul Lacaze, Christopher Lane, Kareen Malone, Paola Mieli, Annie Muir, Ona Nierenberg, Andrew Stein, Martin Winn

Participants subject to change.