Е-мейл Оргкомитета: admin@childpsychotherapy.org.uk
Организаторы: The Association of Child Psychotherapists
The differences people meet in each other inhabit many forms, some may be visible, some not immediately discernible, some may be hidden or may only become evident within a process of ‘getting to know the other’ in a relational encounter. Differences may evoke curiosity or be experienced as frightening and sometimes deeply disturbing.
How do we apprehend, relate to, think and communicate about encounters with ‘otherness’ that are inherent in our relationships? Broad brush stroke descriptors which seek to define difference across multiple dimensions (such as heritage, ethnicity, race, language, culture, subculture, gender identity, sexual orientation, social class, age, mental health, physical and learning abilities, religious or political belief systems) may serve a purpose when considering matters of inclusion, exclusion and equality. However, the terminology of labelling can readily nullify the complexity of individuality (including fluidity in identity and fluctuations in states of mind), or can occlude what it means to be a part of humanity. The categorising language associated with diversity can readily become imbued with attributions with which not all inferred ‘members’ of groupings identify. Individuals hold some of the responsibility for the construction and maintenance of these groups which can serve a function at a societal level.
Artist Lubaina Himid has spoken to this phenomena in relation to the grouping of refugees. She describes how the grouping is a way of ‘distancing’ which is ‘easy’ and ‘lazy’ and avoids seeing and thinking about ‘people being actual people…each one born out of someone’s womb.’ She reminds us that ‘we must not do this distancing – we are none of us more important that the others’ (The Observer 24.09.17).
We are aware that some ACP members are working in communities where enactments stemming from fundamentalist states of mind (associated with a particular form of apprehending ‘otherness’) have starkly erupted in terror attacks, or in areas where insidious social neglect has become shockingly apparent, perhaps painfully revealing the functions that an ‘other’ oppressed strata might hold within our society.
As psychoanalytic thinkers we have a conceptual framework to try to illuminate aspects of how ‘otherness’ is created and related to, e.g. persecutory anxieties, denial, splitting, identification, shifting states of mind. We hope that members might share their experiences, struggles and insights.
The stark consequences of ‘othering’ can burst into full view in our society and globally, and yet grappling with difference and thinking about relatedness between self and other is a familiar fundamental part of the work of Child Psychoanalytic Psychotherapists – this dynamic is central every time we meet a patient. We are well placed, and well ‘equipped,’ to think and consider this challenging area and develop a psychoanalytic response and understanding of the extreme or insidious forms ‘otherness’ can take.
How do we and our patients manage the ‘otherness’ of ourselves and of the other?
How do we understand the development and construction of personal and group identities in relation to what we each experience and perceive of the otherness of ourselves and of others?
How do we and our patients encounter and relate to fundamentalist states of mind?
How do we understand hate crime and racism?
How do we enter cross cultural domains?
How do we meet situations where we fear that another’s experience is beyond our capacity to imagine or contain?
How do organisations relate to members of staff who might be ready receptacles for projections associated with difference?
How do we allow ourselves to be aware of and respond to ‘otherness’ present in the structure of society?
How do we as a profession encourage, welcome, and make room for diversity amongst our membership?
Веб-сайт конференции: http://childpsychotherapy.org.uk/annual-conference-2018
