Trauma and the Supernatural in Psychotherapy

In his new book Trauma and the Supernatural in Psychotherapy, psychotherapist Alex Monk explores the ways in which relational trauma interacts with haunting unconscious phantasies which manifest in what he calls ‘the curse position.’ In his monograph, Monk posits that the curse position is a place in the mind to where the individual repeatedly returns under psychic pressure. Importantly, it is also a place where the subject is at the mercy of what Freud calls a daimonic uncanny, and which is experienced as both chronic and inescapable.

Drawing upon psychoanalysis, anthropology, and esoteric philosophy, Alex Monk presents examples from folklore and literature to enrich case illustrations which offer important clinical perspectives on ways of working with clients who repeatedly experience misfortune and/ or self-sabotage, and how such experiences relate to what is broadly understood as ‘the supernatural’. According to Monk, the curse position stems from a universal, yet archaic dread of supernatural attack which interacts with the fragmented residue of developmental trauma, and results in a frightening, daimonic imaginary that stubbornly resists symbolisation.

Monk’s clinical illustrations offer readers an in-depth analysis of the way in which this cursed imaginary impacts powerfully upon the unconscious processes of both therapist and client, and pays particular regard not only to uncanny phenomena, but also Ferenczi’s ideas on clairvoyance, the ‘mystical’ aspects of projective identification, and telepathy. Monk also considers the tension between the terms ‘magical thinking’ and ‘magical consciousness’ and the way in which clients with developmental trauma may experience the supernatural and its psychic representatives as not only persecutory, but potentially a source of empowerment and healing. Trauma and the Supernatural in Psychotherapy also considers the historically conflicted relationship between psychoanalysis and the occult, and provides examples of the way in which this manifests in clinical literature.

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Schedule

The event will begin with a half hour presentation of the book by the author which will be followed by a conversation about the pertinent issues raised with fellow author, professor of religion, and psychoanalyst Doctor Marsha Hewitt and a Q & A session. The event will be chaired by Jamie Ruers of the Freud Museum.

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Speakers

Alex Monk is a psychotherapist, art therapist, and musician based in London, UK. He has a private practice in East London and has a particular interest in psychoanalysis, the arts, the weird, and the magical. https://alexmonktherapy.com 

Marsha Hewitt is a professor of religion in the Department for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto, and the Faculty of Divinity at Trinity College. She is a psychoanalyst. Dr. Hewitt teaches undergraduate and graduate students in the areas of theory and clinical practice in psychoanalysis, the study of religion and critical theory. She also teaches candidates in psychoanalytic training. Dr. Hewitt’s most recent books include Critical Theory of Religion: A Feminist Analysis, Freud on Religion, Legacies of the Occult: Psychoanalysis, Religion, and Unconscious Communication. Some of her most recent published articles include “Freud and the Unconscious”, “Christian anti-Judaism and early Object Relations Theory”, and “Spirits in the Mind, Gods in the Brain: Contemporary Psychologies of Religious Experience”.