REGISTER | Online Cultural Competence Presentation with Vamik Volkan, MD on 11/3

Houston Psychoanalytic Society

Cultural Competence

Evening Speaker Series

The Need for Friends and the Need for Enemies and Allies and Malignant Propaganda

Vamik Volkan, MD

Thursday, November 3, 2022

7:30PM – 9:00PM Central Time

Live via Zoom

*Pre-Registration required for Zoom invitation

Registration Fees

HPS Members: Free

Non-Members: $20

CE/CME/CEU Fees

(1.5 hrs. Cultural Competence)

HPS Active/Student Members: Free

HPS Friend Members: $20

Non-Members: $20

Instructional Level: Advanced

The term “large group” describes thousands or millions of people, most of whom never see or even know about each other as individuals, but who share many of the same sentiments and the same realistic or fantasied ancestral history. We articulate large-group identities in terms of commonality such as “we are Lithuanian Jews; we are French; we are Sunni Muslims; we are Al-Qaeda members; we are white supremacists in the USA.” Large groups do not have one brain to think or two eyes to cry. When members of a large group share a psychological journey, what we see are social, cultural, ideological, political and sometimes military processes that are specific for the large group under study. The presenter will explain how large-group identities develop in childhood, how new large-group identities appear in adulthood, and how the need to have enemies and allies evolves. He will describe the six steps of malignant propaganda that begins with the inflammation of a “chosen trauma” or an undigested shared trauma by a destructive political leader and how this propaganda allows huge numbers of people in one large group to take steps to purify themselves from the elements perceived as belonging to the “enemy.”

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

At the completion of this activity, the learner will be able to:

Describe how a child stops being a “generalist” and develops a large group identity.
Describe the psychology of a two-way street between a political leader and his or her followers.
Explain the intertwining of external and internal events in large group identities.

Presenter

Vamik D. Volkan, MD is an Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia; an Emeritus Training and Supervising Analyst at the Washington Baltimore Center for Psychoanalysis; and an Emeritus Senior Erik Erikson Scholar at the Erikson Institute of the Austen Riggs Center. He is the Emeritus President of the International Dialogue Initiative and a former President of the Turkish-American Neuropsychiatric Society, the International Society of Political Psychology, the Virginia Psychoanalytic Society and the American College of Psychoanalysts.

Dr. Volkan was a member of the International Negotiation Network under the directorship of former President Jimmy Carter, an Inaugural Yitzhak Rabin Fellow, Rabin Center for Israeli Studies, Tel Aviv, Israel; a visiting Professor of Psychiatry at four universities in Turkey, a visiting Professor of Psychoanalysis at East-European Institute of Psychoanalysis, Saint Petersburg, Russia; a visiting Professor of Law, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts; a Fulbright/Sigmund Freud-Foundation Visiting Scholar of Psychoanalysis in Vienna, Austria; a visiting Professor of Political Science at the University of Vienna; and a visiting Professor at El Bosque University, Bogota, Colombia. He was also a board member of the Freud Foundation in Vienna and a member of the Working Group on Terror and Terrorism, International Psychoanalytic Association.

Dr. Volkan is the author, coauthor, editor or co-editor of 62 psychoanalytic and psychopolitical books. He has written hundreds of published papers and book chapters. He is a recipient of the Nevitt Sanford, Elise Hayman, Bryce Boyer, Hans Strupp, Sigmund Freud (given by the city of Vienna), Mary Sigourney and the Gradiva 2021 Best Book Awards, and the Margaret Mahler Literature Prize. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize 5 times; letters of support were sent from 27 countries.

REFERENCES

Volkan, V. D. (1988). The Need to Have Enemies and Allies: From Clinical Practice to International Relationships. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson.

Volkan, V. D. (2013). Enemies on the Couch: A Psychopolitical Journey Through War and Peace. Durham, NC: Pitchstone.

Volkan, V. D. (2020). Large-Group psychology: Racism, Societal Divisions, Narcissistic Leaders and Who We Are Now. London: Phoenix.

This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of American Psychoanalytic Association and the Center for Psychoanalytic Studies, as a co-sponsor of Houston Psychoanalytic Society. The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

The American Psychoanalytic Association designates this Live Activity for a maximum of 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE INFORMATION FOR ALL LEARNERS: None of the planners and presenters for this educational activity have relevant financial relationship(s)* to disclose with ineligible companies* whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.

*Financial relationships are relevant if the educational content an individual can control is related to the business lines or products of the ineligible company.

-Updated July 2021-

Houston Psychoanalytic Society is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Houston Psychoanalytic Society maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

HPS, through co-sponsorship with the Center for Psychoanalytic Studies, also offers approved CEs for social workers, licensed professional counselors, and marriage and family therapists.

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