Process II and Ethics

Second Year Adult Psychoanalytic Training (APT)
2022-23, 2nd Trimester — Fridays, 1:45-3:15pm
Diane Wolman, MSW

View Whole Syllabus

February 17, 2023 — Ethnic Difference and Sadistic Transferences

[26 pages]

“In each analytic dyad, the analyst and the patient can differ in numerous ways.  Even when they belong to similar racial, ethnic, or religious groups, significant differences can exist that sometimes never get talked about.  To understand the meaning these dissimilarities have for a patient and how he or she uses them, starting with the most superficial and accessible and moving toward the deepest underpinnings, is one of the tasks of an analysis.”

Aisha Abbasi opens chapter 6 of The Rupture Of Serenity with the above commentary on differences within analytic dyads and the task of discovering the meaning of how analysands use these differences.

Please pay particular attention to the second full paragraph on page 114.

Abbasi, A. (2014). “Part IV: When Political Events Intrude Upon Clinical Space, Ch. 6: Sadistic transferences in the context of ethnic difference: before and after 9/11” in The Rupture of Serenity: External Intrusions and Psychoanalytic Technique. Karnac Press. pp111-136.