A Kristevan Birth in Analysis: Case Material Expounds the Deliverance of Psychic Freedom Through Maternal Eroticism

A Kristevan Birth in Analysis: Case Material Expounds the Deliverance of Psychic Freedom Through Maternal Eroticism

Scientific Meeting #4
Presenter: Summer Telio
Discussant: Vaia Tsolas
Chair: Darren Thompson

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Maternal eroticism is explored as an etiological agent in the birth of psychic freedom. Pre-Oedipal functioning is revealed in an otherwise sophisticated patient, with pseudo maturity concretized in virginity. Themes of pregnancy, early infant care and breastfeeding repeatedly erupt in the analysis with a predominantly erotic transference-countertransference. Waves of abjection in the treatment, culminating in the analyst’s pregnancy, are emphasized in the development of independent thought and Oedipal operations. Family of origin impressions convey deadened sexuality in the analysand’s mother, consistent with Kristevan theory. In contrast, the analyst’s own desire for a baby is explored as an enigmatic signifier and developmental catalyst. Cournut-Janin’s description of maternal cathexis of the female child’s body is noted in the treatment.

Dr. Summer Telio is a psychoanalyst and psychiatrist faculty member of the University of British Columbia. She is a member of the Western Canada Psychoanalytic Society and Institute and Medical Director of the Vancouver General Hospital Access and Assessment Centre, an outpatient emergency psychiatric service. She is a graduate of the UBC Centre for Health Education Scholarship Medical Educator Fellowship Program and has a Masters in Medical Education from the University of Dundee. She is active in providing supervision to medical trainees in acute psychiatry as well as psychodynamic psychotherapy and developed a research interest in feedback in medical education.

Vaia Tsolas, Ph.D. is a psychoanalyst and a clinical psychologist who lives and practices in NYC. She is an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Albert Einstein Medical School, and founder/director of Rose Hill Psychological Services, a clinic in the Bronx and Manhattan. Dr. Tsolas is the winner of the 2017 Klar best teacher award, the 2010 Lionel Ovesey (Columbia) and  the 2007 Sacerdoti Prize (IPA). She is the chair of the APM scientific meetings. Dr Tsolas was born in Greece and immigrated to the USA in her adult life. Her work focuses on issues of otherness and she specializes in student populations and gender issues. She is a corresponding member of the Hellenic Psychoanalytic Association.

Learning Objectives: After this presentation, participants can expect to…

1. Describe Freud’s theory of primary repression and its relation to Laplanche’s concept of the enigmatic signifier
2. Explore maternal eroticism as a fundamental structural matrix which facilitates the birth of the infant’s mind
3. Apply Kristevan theory to the clinical material of an analysis with an exploration of the development of feminine sexuality