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This conference took place online on 24th September 12.30pm – 6pm and 25th September 12.30 pm – 6pm BST
Who or what decides who we reckon we (and others) are? Are we the architects of our own identities or else the pliable outcomes of internal and external forces, both conscious and unconscious? How should we navigate the wide medley of rival theories between those two stark positions? Psychology revolves around these core questions for which the repertoire of answers has never been entirely value-free, satisfactory or settled.
Freudian psychoanalysis posits a primal ingredient of autonomy in the newborn as an inherently unruly creature, and later some autonomy is gained insofar as a person works through their acquired demons and delusions. For Erikson, identity is a ‘fundamental organizing principle which develops throughout a life span’ and consists of experiences, relationships, values, beliefs, memories, that make up a person’s subjective sense of self, which can remain stable even as new aspects of self are added. For Lacanians, by contrast, identity appears to be the ultimate objet petit a. In any case, the way one conceives of identity, and its (de)formation, has consequences for how one views the wider world and its varied occupants. Modern identity politics, whatever its merits may be, seems geared to drown out issues of class and of economic advantage.
This online conference examines these questions in several interrelated arenas, (1) in the realm of theory, (2) in the treatment room and group, and (3) in the public sphere, where “identity politics” is prominent and often operates as a divisive instrument socially.
Click here for speakers’ biographies
Click here for titles of papers
Panels
Saturday 24th September (12.30pm – 6.00pm)
1. Getting IDed: Who Decides Who We Are? (Eli Zaretsky, Philip Stokoe, Susie Orbach) Chair: David Morgan
2. Identity and Class: Complementary or Antagonistic? (David Pilgrim, Lauren Langman, Ian Parker, Sally Sales) Chair: Agnieszka Piotrowska
3. Identity as Concept and Tool (Barry Richards, Karl Figlio, David Bell, Lene Auestad) Chair: Janet Sayers
Sunday 25th September (12.30pm – 6.00pm)
4. Race, Ethnicity and Identity (Carlton Jama Adams, Narendra Keval, Maxine Dennis) Chair: Fakhry Davids
5. Ukraine and Israel/Palestine: Is Identity the Difference? (Diana Bass, Sabby Sagall, Neil McLaughlin) Chair: Kurt Jacobsen
6. Protean Man and Neoliberal Society: Roundtable Discussion (Lynne Layton, Samir Gandesha, Marilyn Charles, Rye Holmboe, Michael Rustin) Chair: Ken Fuchsman
Click here for reading list ‘Blacks and Psychoanalysis’, compiled by C. Jama Adams
Please Note
All tickets prices include the Eventbrite booking fee. Recordings will be made available to attendees for 30 days after the event. You will receive your access details automatically 24 hours after the close of the conference.
A limited number of bursary tickets for the full conference are available at £20 for young people under the age of 18, and people receiving UK benefits or accessing NHS mental health services. All bursary places have now been allocated.
Members’ Discount
Freud Museum Members will be able to receive a 20% discount on tickets with a special Members code. Details will be circulated to all Members on 31 March and again on 31 July by email.
