Psychoanalysis for the People: Free Clinics and the Social Mission of Psychoanalysis

In 1918 Freud placed the free clinic at the heart of psychoanalytic thought and practice, and predicted that out-patient clinics would be started where treatment would be free.

His speech resonated with many psychoanalysts of his time, who were invested in the social mission of psychoanalysis and who were the authors of significant institutional innovations, setting up free and low-cost clinics in Vienna, Berlin and Budapest.

This conference starts from the premise that the more recent progressive histories of psychoanalysis remain little known among therapeutic practitioners. They are rarely written about in the professional literature or taught on trainings. Yet there is a rich tradition of psychoanalytic theory and practice which engages with the realities of social inequality based on class, gender, poverty, racism, and other forms of marginalisation. We aim to explore and recognise these socially-minded psychoanalytic practices, drawing on the experience of psychoanalysts working in free and low cost clinics in very different contexts, from Latin America, Africa, North America and Europe, through to the UK National Health Service. We ask what “psychoanalysis for the people” might mean in our times, more than 100 years after Freud’s famous speech.

Speakers: Joanna Ryan, Raluca Soreanu, Paul Hoggett, Penny Crick, Baffour Ababio, Kristina Valendinova, Xavier Fourtou, Dorothée Bonnigal-Katz, Earl Pennycooke, Tereza Mendonça Estarque, Kwame Yonatan and Aida Alayarian

Keynote lecture: Patricia Gherovici (Psychoanalysis in the Barrios: Race, Class, and the Unconscious [ed.])

This is the first of two conferences exploring socially engaged psychoanalytic practice. The second part will take place on 24th and 25th July 2021.

Programme 

Programme Booklet (Download)

SATURDAY 16th JANUARY, 2pm – 5pm

SESSION 1
Constructing a Vocabulary, Collectivising Practices

Joanna Ryan and Raluca Soreanu
Why a conference on social clinics? Constructing a Vocabulary, Collectivising Practices 

Keynote Speech
Patricia Gherovici
How not to say “you people” in psychoanalysis: Racism, exclusion and universalism.

SESSION 2
Independent Local Practices: Free Clinics in the UK, in Historical Perspective and in Our Time

Paul Hoggett
Psychotherapy in the Working Class Community: South London in the 1970s

Penny Crick
The London Clinic of Psychoanalysis, from the Origins in 1926 to Today

Baffour Ababio
Intercultural Therapy at Nafsiyat Therapy Centre:  Challenges, Insights and Developments

Workshop/roundtable discussion

SUNDAY 17th JANUARY, 2pm – 5pm

SESSION 3
Interventions and the Social Mission of Psychoanalysis  

Kristina Valendinova and Xavier Fourtou
Bubble and Speak: Taking the Risk of Welcoming 

Dorothée Bonnigal-Katz
The Psychosis Therapy Project: A Psychoanalytic Clinic of Psychosis in the Community

Earl Pennycooke
Everyday Racial Trauma and Psychosis: Diagnosis and Presentation

Workshop/Roundtable discussion

SESSION 4
The Free Clinic: Independent Practices around the World

Tereza Mendonça Estarque
The Complexity Studies Institute and the Question of Social Responsibility.

Kwame Yonatan
Aquilombamento nas Margens: A Clinic and the Struggle for Existence

Aida Alayarian
The Work of the Refugee Therapy Centre

Workshop/Roundtable discussion

Programme Booklet

A limited number of bursary tickets at £15 are available for people receiving UK benefits, users of NHS mental health services, or overseas colleagues who need financial assistance. To apply for a bursary, please contact Ivan Ward ([email protected]) If you cannot afford to pay any of the above, please let us know.

Organised by: Raluca Soreanu & Joanna Ryan

Supported by: The Waiting Times Project (Wellcome Trust, PIs Lisa Baraitser and Laura Salisbury) and Balint Groups Project (Wellcome Trust, PI Raluca Soreanu)