Dilating psychoanalytic trauma discourse: on pleasure and poignancy

PINC Visiting Scholar Avgi Saketopoulou

Saturday Mar 11, 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM, PT via zoom

A particular epistemology of trauma now wields an outsized hold over psychoanalytic theory and practice: trauma, we have come to accept, is of destructive, if not catastrophic effects. But what if we got this wrong? What if our staunch commitment to psychoanalysis as a healing practice which is invested in the working through of trauma is but a manifestation of a disciplinary spell? Naming as traumatophobic the imagining that trauma is possible to work through, Avgi Saketopoulou introduces us to the notion of traumatophilia. A traumatophilic framework can help us move from the clinical preoccupation of what to do about trauma to orienting our attention to what subjects do with their trauma. This presentation takes as its starting point a film that attendees will be given a link to watch ahead of time. The film is startling and raises powerful questions about trauma, oedipality, transness and sexual desire. This meeting will be an invitation have a real conversation that goes beyond platitudes: about gender, about trauma, and about psychoanalysis.

Note that there is a film to watch before the presentation, details are included in the registration confirmation.

CE Credits offered: 2

Course Objectives

After completing this course participants will be able to:

1. discuss how transphobic logics within psychoanalysis have made it hard to think complexly about transness
2. explain how current trauma discourse has become stalled, becoming too tied to representation and identity
3. discuss an alternative model of understanding gender development which retains the idea that gender accrues out of dynamic forces without capsizing into transphobia or conversion practices.

pincsf.org/events – 415-288-4050 — 530 Bush St, Suite 700, SF CA USA — pincsf@gmail.com

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 pincsf.org/policies for policies and disclaimers.