Considerations on Continuity and Disruption – Reflections on the Future of Psychotherapy

 

 

Although this is a hybrid event, public tickets are for online access only and you will be sent a Zoom link closer to the event. There will still be an opportunity during the event for the online audience to participate in discussions. Please note that the programme may be subject to change. 

 

You are invited to share in the 40th birthday celebrations of the British Journal of Psychotherapy (BJP). The in-person event is by invitation only, but we will be live streaming the day so as many people as possible can join in the celebration. As well as reflecting on the journey of the journal, we will turn our attention to what are the challenges facing the profession of psychotherapy over the next 40 years, including harnessing digital innovation, such as online working and Artificial Intelligence (AI), issues of inclusion, diversity and social justice, ethics and ethical practice, pluralism, research, and interdisciplinarity. 

 

Programme:

9:30: Introduction & Welcome:  Frances Gillies (read out by Gary Winship)

9.40: Keynote session.  Chaired by Poul Rohleder 

Keynote 1 (35 mins, 10 mins Q&A): Helen Morgan

Continuing the Disruption. Disrupting the Continuous. 

From its beginnings both the theory and method of psychoanalysis and Jungian analysis contains an exasperating polarity that makes it both profoundly radical and also deeply conservative. It is a way of understanding human behaviour that has potentially much to offer this very troubled world, but both its revolutionary concepts and its conformist aspects make it vulnerable to destruction from without - but also from within. Our tendency towards tribalism and arrogance can insulate us from the potential creative disruption of discourses other than our own with the danger that we become increasingly irrelevant. This keynote considers what may need to be addressed internally if analytic psychotherapy is to offer a helpful contribution to the struggles of our times. 

Keynote 2 (35 mins, 10mins Q & A): David Black

Ethics as Foundational. 

Ethics is foundational in human living. But the psychoanalytic theory of the superego gives no adequate picture of the role ethics play in our lives. This keynote will explore the basis of ethics using ideas from the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas, which many psychoanalysts have found relevant to psychoanalytic understanding, including Viviane Chetrit-Vatine and Donna Orange. Levinas typically presents his ethical thinking without referring to a subject's personal history. This keynote attempts to show that, from a psychoanalytic perspective, a person’s ethics and their personal history are necessarily interconnected. The presentation will further consider how the ethical values of obligation and responsibility, which Levinas recognized as the product of direct experience, stand behind the conditions in which a “true self” can come into being, both in mother-baby interaction and in the consulting room. 

11:30: Coffee/comfort break

11:45: Live Clinical Commentaries with audience contribution. Led by: Konstantin Nemirovskiy & Katya Orrell. Commentators, Jennifer Davids, Ronald Doctor, Kannan Navaratnem (10 minutes each commentary).  15-minute Q & A with the audience.

The Clinical commentaries section of the BJP offers readers an opportunity to think carefully about a detailed piece of real clinical work, and to clarify their own ideas in relation to those of the commentators. In this session, three experienced commentators from different theoretical orientations and professional backgrounds will provide a live commentary on a clinical paper (paper either to be included in the delegate pack or read to the audience on the day by Katya Orrell). Each contributor will approach the material in a similar way that they would when listening to a colleague in peer supervision, commenting on the session, whilst also spelling out clearly their own position of the material. The audience can also join the discussion to share their understanding. 

13:15: Lunch break

14:15: Session Chair:  Gary Winship

3 Editors in Boat! (Ann Scott, Jean Arundale, Bob Hinshelwood). Each to share reflections on a classic paper followed by 20-minute Q&A

Ann Scott has selected the following paper:  

Isaacs Russell, G. (2020). Remote working during the pandemic: A Q&A with Gillian Isaacs Russell. British Journal of Psychotherapy, 36(3), 364 - 374. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjp.12581 

Ann writes: “This is the first of Gillian Isaacs Russell's two Q&As during Covid. It isn't strictly speaking a paper, but it is a paper effectively, as her answers are so full and scholarly. I thought it would be helpful to draw out the impact of Covid on our clinical work and this could contribute to a discussion in the conference, as remote working has permeated our profession since Covid and there are important debates about the place of the consulting room in our work. It is a paper that attracted a lot of interest and was one of the most downloaded in 2020.” 

Bob Hinshelwood has selected the following paper: 

Will, D. (1984). The Progeny of Positivism: The Maudsley School and Anti-Psychiatry. British Journal of Psychotherapy, 1:50-67 

Bob writes: “Although it is very difficult, this paper raises an important philosophical question: if everything is mechanically 'caused' as positivist science says, how come we have free will? The paper is about transcendental realism (or sometimes called critical realism). I still feel pleased we could raise such important questions in the very first issue of the journal. Not that we have solved them, of course. But it is a question that always bothered me from the beginning of my psychiatric training and led me to the view that psychoanalysis is not science - more like a parascience, and much more interesting than natural science.” 

Jean Arundale has selected the following paper: 

Weatherill, R. (1994) In the Name-of-the-Father: Absent Presence. British Journal of Psychotherapy 11:83-91

Jean writes: 'This is an author who critiques postmodern 'therapy culture' and the forgetting of Freud. Rob Weatherill’s paper is a deeply thoughtful integration of the theories of Bion, Lacan and Freud, examining projection and containment, and reminding us that the unconscious ground of psychoanalysis extends beyond problem solving and ego to ego dialogue. The ground is always beyond our knowing and our grasp because it links with the desire of the human subject, essentially unknowable, diminished by teleology and the notions and aims of the ‘growth movement’ and societal adjustment. Neo-Freudian psychotherapy trainings, says Weatherill, should not overlook the desire for truth that goes beyond the actual nourishment it affords, but depends on a belief in the inherent goodness of the psychoanalytic method and of ultimate reality.' 

3.15: Break

3:30: Early Career Viewpoint: 3 early career colleagues, Victoria Nicolodi, Alice Field and Dea Chantal Minors-Prempeh will join the editorial board members and will kick off discussions for a final plenary Q & A session considering the future of psychotherapy and the BJP.  Joined by Joan Fogel (Focus Point), Joe Druce (book reviews) and Dr Wayne Full (bpf): Chaired by Gary Winship

16:30: Wine reception.

 

About the speakers 

Dr Jean Arundale, PhD is a training and supervising analyst for the British Psychoanalytic Association (BPA). In the BPA, she has served as Chair of the Scientific Committee and other committees and is now President of the BPA. Primarily in private practice in North West London, she is also a part-time Consultant Psychotherapist in the NHS, supervising groups of psychotherapy trainees at Guy’s Hospital. She has taught widely and presented papers at University College London (UCL), European Psychoanalytic Federation (EPF), and International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA) conferences, and published papers and books on psychoanalysis, the most recent being The Omnipotent State of Mind, published by Routledge, 2022. Jean was Editor of the British Journal of Psychotherapy from 1994 to 2004. 

David M. Black is a Scottish writer and psychoanalyst. He is editor of Psychoanalysis and Religion in the 21st Century: Competitors or Collaborators? (Routledge 2006) and author of Psychoanalysis and Ethics: the Necessity of Perspective (Routledge 2024).  He has published seven collections of poetry, most recently Claiming Kindred (Arc 2011) and The Arrow Maker (Arc 2017). In 2022 his translation and commentary on Dante's Purgatorio (NYRB Clasics) won the American National Translation Award in Poetry. 

Jennifer Davids is a Fellow of the British Psychoanalytical Society (BPaS), International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA), Association of Child Psychoanalysis (USA), Association of Child Psychotherapists (UK), is a member of the editorial board of the BJP, and peer reviewer for the International Journal of Psychoanalysis (IJP) and Journal of Child Psychotherapy (JCP). She practises in London as an adult, child and adolescent supervising psychoanalyst. Jennifer trained in child and adolescent psychoanalysis and psychotherapy and then worked at the Anna Freud Centre where she was the Chief Clinical Psychologist, and then a senior clinician and teaching staff member for 20 years. She went on to train in adult psychoanalysis at the Institute of Psychoanalysis (IoPA), where she taught for several years. Jennifer worked in the NHS as a Consultant Psychotherapist and lead of a team for looked- after children in South London and Maudsley Trust. She is serving her second term on the IPA in Health committee and is a moderator of an IPA thinking lab on money matters. Jennifer, originally a clinical psychologist and research fellow at the University of Cape Town, continues her clinical research. She teaches nationally and internationally and has published widely. 

Ronald Doctor is a Consultant Psychiatrist in Psychotherapy at the West London NHS Trust. He has a private Psychoanalytic Practice and is a Fellow of the British Psychoanalytical  Society (BPaS). He is a Senior Member of the British Psychotherapy Foundation (bpf), and Chair of the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA) Psychoanalysis and Law Committee. He is a Visiting Professor at Nagoya University, Japan, and Coordinator of the Klein Module on the Master’s degree in Psychoanalysis at University College London (UCL).  

Joe Druce is the current Book Reviews Editor for the BJP.  He is co-lead for MBT treatment at the Haringey Personality Disorder Pathway and a senior clinician in an NHS Perinatal Team.  He is currently training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy with the BPF. 

Alice Field is a 3rd Year IPCAPA Clinical Doctoral Trainee. She is currently in placement at a specialist NHS clinic for children in care. She completed her pre-clinical MSc in Child and Adolescent Psychodynamic Psychotherapy at Birkbeck in 2015, having initially been introduced to psychoanalytic concepts through queer theory and decolonial pedagogy. Her professional work has been with young people in and leaving local authority care and she has worked in and managed residential care homes and semi-independent accommodation.  

Joan Fogel is a group-analytic psychotherapist and represents the FPC (Foundation for Psychotherapy and Counselling) on the BJP editorial board. She co-edits the Focus Point section along with Anne Kane. Originally a school teacher and teacher trainer, she has a therapy group, individuals and supervisees, in private practice, is a Balint group leader with online groups for educators and medics, and is a tutor and group conductor on a psychotherapy training. She is an active member of the Group Analytic Society International (GASi) and a member of the Climate Psychology Alliance (CPA).  

Dr Wayne Full is Director of Diversity, Development and Research at the British Psychotherapy Foundation (bpf). Wayne has a PhD in Psychoanalytic Studies (2021) and a MSc in Theoretical Psychoanalytic Studies (2013), both qualifications from the Psychoanalysis Unit at University College London (UCL). He is a British Psychoanalytic Council (BPC) Scholar, a member of the Society for Psychotherapy Research (SPR) and is a peer reviewer for the British Journal of Psychotherapy and for Counselling and Psychotherapy Research. He has had research and papers published in peer-reviewed journals and has taught psychoanalytic theory at postgraduate level at the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families and at UCL. From 2013 – 2021, he was a member of the BPC Task Group on Gender, Sexuality and Relationship Diversity. Wayne is a passionate advocate for a UK psychotherapy profession that is inclusive, diverse, collaborative, pluralistic, interdisciplinary, and evidence-informed. He plans to train as a Jungian analyst at some point in the future.

Frances Gillies is Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of  British Psychotherapy Foundation (bpf). She has extensive experience working in the NHS, as well as within the charity and higher education sectors. Recognized for her outstanding leadership, she secured the Outstanding Leadership Award in 2023 from the British Psychoanalytic Council (BPC). Before her bpf executive role, she was a principal psychologist at Devon Partnership NHS Trust from 2004 to 2015, where she designed and ran a therapeutic team, reducing waiting times and expanding access to psychological interventions. She holds a Doctorate in Psychotherapeutic and Counselling Psychology, an MSc in Psychological Therapies and Research, and a Professional Qualification in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. She is a fellow of the Higher Education Authority (HEA). 

Robert Hinshelwood qualified as a psychoanalyst in 1976. In 1980 he instigated the founding of the International Journal of Therapeutic Communities (IJTC) along with Nick Manning, David Kennard, Jeff Roberts and Barry Shenkar. In 1984 he founded the British Journal of Psychotherapy and edited it for ten years. He was Director of the Cassel Hospital 1993-1997. In 1999 he founded the journal Psychoanalysis and History. He is Fellow of the British Psychoanalytical Society (BPaS), Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCP) and  Professor Emeritus of the University of Essex.  

Helen Morgan is a Fellow of the British Psychotherapy Foundation (bpf) and is a training analyst and supervisor for the British Jungian Analytic Association within the bpf. Her background is in therapeutic communities with adolescents and in adult mental health. She was chair of the British Association of Psychotherapists (BAP) from 2004–2008, and chair of the British Psychoanalytic Council (BPC) from 2015-2018. Over the years she has written and published a number of papers of a variety of subjects including on the subject of racism and psychotherapy, and her book, The Work of Whiteness - a Psychoanalytic Perspective was published in 2021 by Routledge. She is also co-author with Fanny Brewster of the book Racial Identities published by Routledge in 2022 as part of their ‘Jung, Politics and Culture’ series. 

Dea Chantal Minors-Prempeh  is a 4th Year IPCAPA Clinical Doctoral Trainee. She completed her pre-clinical studies at The Tavistock Clinic, where she gained a Post Graduate Diploma in Psychoanalytic Observational Studies. Her professional work has been with children, young people and parents/carers in schools, communities and CAMHS.

Kannan Navaratnem is a Psychoanalyst in private practice and a member of the Institute of Psychoanalysis (IoPA), London and the British Psychoanalytical Society (BPaS). He is an Honorary Associate Professor in the Psychoanalysis Unit at University College London (UCL), teaches at the Tavistock Clinic, the Institute of Psychoanalysis, the British Psychoanalytic Association (BPA) and the British Psychotherapy Foundation (bpf) and a member of the Scientific Committee of the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA), and Visiting Professor in Psychoanalysis at the University of Kyoto in 2024/25.  

Konstantin Nemirovskiy is a current Clinical Commentaries Editor for the British Journal of Psychotherapy (BJP) . He is a Senior Psychodynamic Psychotherapist at Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, registered with the British Psychoanalytic Council (BPC), a member of the European Federation for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (EFPP) and the Forensic Psychotherapy Society (FPS). He is also a Candidate of the Moscow Psychoanalytical Society. 

Victoria Nicolodi is a newly qualified child and adolescent psychotherapist from the Independent Psychoanalytic Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy Association (IPCAPA) and the Anna Freud Centre. She trained as a Clinical Psychologist in Brazil. She also holds a Post-Graduate Certificate in working with children, adolescents, and families from the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. She works in the community by supporting adoptive parents and their toddlers and holds a position within the NHS working with care experienced young people. 

Katya Orrell is a former Clinical Commentaries Editor for the British Journal of Psychotherapy (BJP). She is Assistant Head of the Maresfield Unit at the Tavistock Clinic where she is also a Visiting Lecturer and Clinical Lead for Outreach Services in Hertfordshire. She is a Candidate at the Institute of Psychoanalysis (IoPA), London. 

Ann Scott has over 30 years' experience in the mental health field, in different roles. She has been in private practice for over 15 years, specializing in intensive analytic work.  During this time she has taught, supervised and/or undertaken clinical assessment for psychodynamic and psychoanalytic psychotherapy trainings. She has been a Senior Member of the British Psychotherapy Foundation (Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Association) since 2014, and a Training Therapist for IPCAPA - the Independent Psychoanalytic Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy Association of the BPF - since 2017. In addition to her analytic practice, she has worked and researched in acute in-patient psychiatric settings. She has a long background in psychoanalytic publishing and was Editor-in-Chief of the British Journal of Psychotherapy (2009-2022), having been Deputy Editor of the BJP from 1992-2002. She is the author of Real Events Revisited: Fantasy, Memory, Psychoanalysis and the literary executor of Isabel Menzies Lyth. 

Poul Rohleder is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalytic psychotherapist in full-time private practice in central London. He is a member of the BPF and a member of the editorial board of the British Journal of Psychotherapy and the journal Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. 

Gary Winship is professor of Trauma, Education and Mental Health, University of Nottingham. UKCP registered psychoanalytic psychotherapist. Research lead for the Universities Psychotherapy & Counselling Association (UPCA). Editor-in-Chief, British Journal of Psychotherapy. Member of executive steering group, and Education Lead, Institute of Mental Health (IMH). MHN (NMC), psychoanalytic psychotherapist (UKCP). Visiting professor at the Moscow Institute of Psychoanalysis and Russian State University for Humanities (RSUH). Worked in the NHS for 30 years, latterly held consultant psychotherapist positions in Broadmoor Hospital and HMP Dovegate. Published 120 + papers and chapters, 6 books. Delivered 50+ keynote addresses in 8 different countries. Part of research grant capture of £2.8m, £350K as project lead. 

Image Caption:

© Freud Museum London.

"This porcupine was given to Freud by James Jackson Putnam as a memento on his trip to the United States in 1909. In a footnote to his 1921 essay Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, Freud referred to aversion and hostility inevitably arising in any long-lasting human relationship, and pointed to Schopenhauer’s 1851 parable Parerga und Paralipomena in which Schopenhauer talks about a group of porcupines who crowd close together on cold winter’s day, so as to generate warmth to avoid being frozen, but then finding their quills injurious, are caused to separate again. The story goes on that, ‘they were driven backwards and forwards until they found a mean distance at which they could most tolerably exist’. This idea appealed to Freud and he mentions the porcupine again in 1930 in Civilisation and its Discontents. The porcupine gift always occupied a prime location on Freud’s desk, and is still there today in the Freud museum. We are grateful to the Museum for use of the image. The porcupine has been described as Freud’s prickly muse, or perhaps a symbol of Freud’s ambivalence to America. Whatever the source of Freud’s enduring attachment to the object, we know the porcupine has been around for at least 30 million years in one evolved form or another. It’s in part a continuity of dinosaurs, getting on with life quietly, but when attacked it has a fantastic defence which will repel even the most hostile enemy, hence its longevity. Any resemblance to psychoanalysis, if Freud were asked, would probably be entirely intentional. "

- Quote from Gary Winship