Misogyny in Psychoanalysis (​Online Presentation)

2 CE Credits for Psychoanalysts, Psychologists, and Social Workers

In psychoanalysis misogyny hides in plain sight, seemingly above the usual conventions of workplace etiquette or even a vague awareness of sexism. It is commonplace in psychoanalytic literature and case studies for a description of the (usually female) analysand’s attractiveness to be given as a diagnosis rather than an opinion, for the word “feminine” to be used as a synonym for submission, for descriptions of psychosexual development to glaringly miss the important stage of menarche, for a child’s development to be modeled on the theory of male psychosexual development as described by Freud, for women to still be described in terms of loss (not having a penis but gaining a baby, not being described in terms of having a vagina), and for the fundamental experiences of pregnancy and birth to continue to be overlooked. Ironically for a field whose main currency is reflection, the different treatment of women is overlooked as misogyny is institutionalized in psychoanalysis. This presentation will explore the pervasiveness of misogyny and the question of whether misogyny can be understood as a developmental failure.

Michaela Chamberlain, MA, MSc, trained at the Bowlby Centre and also studied in the Psychoanalysis Unit at UCL. Shortly after qualifying at the Bowlby Centre, in 2016, she became Chair of the Bowlby Centre. She worked as an honorary psychotherapist in two NHS Trusts for several years. She has presented widely and has been published in the journal Attachment: New Directions in Psychotherapy and Relational Psychoanalysis and the magazines New Associations and The New Psychotherapist. She was the keynote speaker at the British Psychological Society’s Psychotherapy Division Conference in 2022. Her new book, Misogyny in Psychoanalysis (2022), explores the historical and current context of misogyny in psychoanalytic theory and clinical practice.

Professionals and General Public:  $40

Students:  Free

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