The Breach: Do We Find or Lose Ourselves in the Negative?

Jade McGleughlin, LCSW

Saturday Oct 18, 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM

In this presentation, Visiting Scholar Jade McGleughlin discusses the therapeutic action of using non-verbal material as a means of representing trauma.

In a case where language fails, the analyst may turn to art. Jade McGleughlin and her patient immerse themselves in a group of haunting photographs that the artist created before her suicide at age 22. In looking together at the photographs, analyst and patient perceive a liminal space that defines the patient's existence. The images, visually representing states of nonbeing, become a metaphor for the analytic couple to create a new medium of communication about the sequelae of the patient's traumatic past without reducing it to language. In describing the experience, McGleughlin incorporates part of her own history -- not only to protect confidentiality but also to sustain the claim that "minds are not located in our singular self" and the importance of listening from our places of not knowing or psychic breach.

CE Credits offered: 2

Course Objectives

After completing this course participants will be able to:

1. discuss a clinical situation where language fails, while shared experience of photographs representing states of nonbeing provides a mode of therapeutic actio.
2. describe how and why the analyst’s written account of her clinical work may incorporate pieces of her own history.

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The Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California (PINC) is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. PINC maintains responsibility for this program and its content. Visit db.pincsf.org/policies for policies and disclaimers.