Borders, Bad Objects, and Psychoanalysis: The Revolution Will Not Be Live-Streamed

Nicole Pardo, MD, Discussant Ali Kimmell, LCSW, CGP

Saturday Jan 10, 9:00 AM – 10:30 AM

Nicole's paper integrates classical and contemporary psychoanalytic theory to expand upon the concept of internalized bad objects and to explore how individual survival strategies intersect with broader group dynamics, including within the field of psychoanalysis itself.

Drawing on Fairbairn’s theory of internalized bad objects, the paper posits an attendant omnipotent phantasy. Repetitions and re-enactments of this phantasy are examined through Saketopoulou’s framework of traumatophilic repetition. In dialogue with autotheory, group theory, and dream interpretation, as well as theorists including Dimen, Kimmell, and Dajani, the work examines repetitions within the field, and situates psychoanalysis within the larger macrocosm in which it is embedded.

The paper argues that the field’s enduring blind spots—its resistance to confronting power, social location, and its own “badness”—reveal an institutional omnipotent defense that mirrors destructive enactments of othering, disavowal, and fragmentation in the sociopolitical surround. Proposing a form of self-analysis for the field itself, this presentation invites psychoanalysis to metabolize its history of scapegoating and idealization, integrate group theory, and consider the social unconscious.

The discussant for Nicole’s paper will be Ali Kimmell, LCSW, CGP, founder of the Bay Area Group Therapy Center, where she leads weekly process therapy groups, therapist training groups, and provides consultation and teaching in group therapy.

Please note that this graduation paper presentation will be in-person only.