The place of the body in psychoanalytic thinking : theoretical and clinical

Join us for this fascinating series of seminars from Catalina Bronstein.

This course, through 2025, includes a monthly series of seminars exploring the body's conceptual, theoretical, and clinical dimensions within psychoanalytic thought and practice. It delves into the body's role in psychic development, symbolic meaning, and the therapeutic encounter.

Seminar 1: Why the Body Matters in Psychoanalysis (Thursday 30 January 2025, 4.00 to 5.30pm - online via Zoom) 

Freud's foundational concepts: somatic symptoms, drives, and the body. Freud’s notion of ‘body ego’ and the ‘mysterious leap’. The relevance of his first theory of anxiety, and the theory of "leaning on" or "propping" (Anlehnung). What ‘body’ does the psychoanalyst have in mind in the therapeutic encounter?

Bibliography1) Freud S (1895 [1894]) On the grounds for detaching a particular syndrome from neurasthenia under the description ‘anxiety neurosis’ SE 3, 90-1152) Freud S (1905) Three essays on the Theory of Sexuality .SE 7 :123- 246. (Read from The manifestations of Infantile Sexuality : p179 to page 193)

Seminar 2: The Psychosexual Body in Psychoanalysis (Thursday 27 February 2025, 4.00 to 5.30pm - online via Zoom) 

Freud's drive theory and its focus on bodily zones. Theoretical implications of theory of Life/Death drives.Hysteria, psychosomatic, hypochondria. Two different frameworks: Theories of conflict vs theories of deficit (Paris School of Psychosomatics and Kleinian approach)

Bibliography1) Isaacs S (1948) The nature and function of phantasy. Int J Psychoanal 29 : 73-972) Bronstein C (2015) Finding unconscious phantasy in the session : recognizing form. Int J of Psychoanal 96: 925-944

The Speaker

Catalina Bronstein, MD, is a Fellow and Training analyst of the British Psychoanalytical Society and Visiting Professor at the Psychoanalysis Unit, University College London’ and at the Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex. Former President of the British Psychoanalytical Society. Bronstein trained as a medical doctor and specialist in psychiatry in Buenos Aires. She also trained as a child psychotherapist at the Tavistock Clinic in London and then became a psychoanalyst at the British Psychoanalytical Society. Catalina Bronstein works at the Brent Adolescent Centre in London and in private practice with adults and adolescents. She has written and published many book chapters and papers. She also has edited a number of books : ‘ Kleinian Theory. A contemporary perspective’ which has been translated into many languages . She has co-edited with Edna O'Shaughnessy ‘Attacks on linking revisited’ . She also co-edited ‘The New Klein-Lacan Dialogues’ and ‘On Freud’s The Uncanny’ and with Sara Flanders the book: Child and Adolescent Psychoanalysis in a Changing world that will be published in July by Routledge. She has also co-edited : 'Neurosis and Psychosis Revisited' . She was former London Editor of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis and now sits on the Board of IJP.

Details of the remaining monthly seminars will be advertised in due course.