The Michigan Psychoanalytic Council

Meetings:

Additional information may be obtained by contacting Brenda Lovegrove Lepisto, Psy.D. at or (517) 333-0332

Current Program Year (2004 - 2005)

September 19, 2004

Gender Unbound

Ellen Toronto, Ph.D.

11:00 A.M.-1 P.M.

The paper will present case material with all identifying data except gender. The material was chosen because it presents a set of issues that are frequently exhibited by both men and women. Gender-related issues, i.e., doing more than a fair share of the housework while working outside; an inability to express feelings; having more responsibility for the children even though the major breadwinner; strong possibility of sexual abuse; anxiety about penetration and a marked lack of a sense of agency, have been identified. The discussion will focus on two related issues, the first being that by eliminating crucial information about gender we may be able to listen to the data in a new way and recognize those possibly skewed assumptions that we automatically bring to bear when we learn that a person is male or female. The paper will then address the seemingly innate and compelling need that we have to know a person's gender and will offer possible explanations for the etiology of our anxiety about gender..

Ellen Toronto, Ph.D. is a psychoanlayst in private practice in Ann Arbor. She is a Founding Member and Past President of MPC and has also been Past President of the Section on Women and Gender in the Division of Psychoanalysis of APA. She has published in the areas of women and gender with particular interest in the non-verbal communication of mother and child as it becomes manifest in the clinical setting. Dr. Toronto is lead editor of a book entitled Into the Void which has recently been accepted for publication by Brunner-Routledge. The book is a compilation of articles by Section III members with current commentary centered around a gender-free case.

University Club
East Lansing, Michigan

Saturday, October 16, 2004

Reflections on Transference and Countertransference Issues when Patients Return for Analytic Work

Steven Cooper, Ph.D.

9:00 A.M.-4 P.M.

Content to be announced.

Steven Cooper, Ph.D. teaches...
this section under construction

Doubletree Hotel
Novi, Michigan

November 16, 2003

“I NO LONGER BELIEVE”: Did Freud Abandon the Seduction Theory?

Karin Ahbel-Rappe, Ph.D., MSSW

11:00 A.M.-1:00 P.M.

Recent histories of the seduction theory and its abandonment have emphasized the continuity of Freud’s work before and after the seduction theory, claiming that Freud did not give up his concern with the event of seduction but rather came to appreciate that an understanding of phantasy was also critical. This claim will be challenged. It will be shown that Freud left behind his early interest in reconstructing unconscious infantile incest and focused instead on later, conscious seduction, primarily among children; that he at times clearly reduced paternal incest to phantasy; that he turned away from the phenomenology of incest; and that he theoretically nulllified the difference between real and phantasied seduction. It will also be shown that concern with actual seduction need not detract from concern with phantasy and infantile sexuality, but rather leads right to the capacity for phantasyzing, to the core of the Freudian psyche. In this way the intuition of the seduction theory that there is something of particular psychoanalytic significance about incest finds support.

Karin Ahbel-Rappe, PhD,MSSW is in independent practice in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She is a candidate in psychoanalysis at the Michigan Psychoanalytic Council. Her current research focus is Freudian theory and language. **Note time change from regular third Sunday of the month.

Ann Arbor Women's City Club. 1830 Washtenaw
Ann Arbor, Michigan

Directions to the Women's City Club

January 16, 2005

To Be Announced

To Be Announced

11:00 A.M.-1:00 P.M.

To be announced

To be announced xxx

Ann Arbor Women's City Club. 1830 Washtenaw
Ann Arbor, Michigan

Directions to the Women's City Club

February 20, 2005 TBA

To be announced

To be announced.

11:00 A.M.-1:00 P.M.

To be announced.

To be announced xxx.