In this podcast lecture, I will discuss some (but definitely not all) of the concepts that make up the much broader field of Lacanian psychoanalysis. I've struggled to prepare for these lectures. I've struggled a lot. I've spent many years working to understand Lacan's ideas and his ideas' effects on psychoanalysis. I encountered Lacan when I was a doctoral student. He was a massive challenge, most people found him too difficult, but I stuck with it. And I've been at it for years now. For me, La...
Jan 23, 2022•47 min•Ep. 16
Hi, Welcome to the fourth in a series of podcast lectures, which will focus on the work of Donald Winnicott. This lecture follows lectures on the work of Melanie Klein and Ronald Fairbairn, and I'll be referring back to concepts I talked about in those prior lectures. So, while it is not essential to have listened to those prior lectures, I think this lecture will make more sense (the maximal amount os sense) if you have. Having said that: I want to make something clear right away. I really like...
Jan 06, 2022•52 min•Ep. 14
Fairbairn is one of the more difficult-to-understand thinkers we will be tackling in this class. His work is not easy to read, and I'd even say it is impossible to read if you don't already have a good grasp of Freudian concepts. This is because (I think) so much of what Fairbairn is doing is trying to show what he thinks Freud got wrong. As I prepared for this it became apparent to me that I could talk for several weeks about Fairbairn, but I don't have weeks, so I'm going to do my best to dist...
Jan 05, 2022•40 min•Ep. 13
Hello, This is the second in a series of podcast lectures on Object Relations Theories. This podcast lecture, and the several that will come after it, will focus on one specific object relations thinker. I hope that this will result in several short podcast lectures that add to what your text had to say about each of these thinkers. I also want these podcast lectures to help those of you who might want to use one of the object relations thinkers in the case study paper that you will be writing f...
Jan 02, 2022•44 min•Ep. 12
Hello! This is the first of two podcast lectures that will cover Object Relations Theories. You, my astute listener, will notice that I said object relations theories --plural. I did not say theory --singular. This is important! Your text pointed out. Object relations theory is the term that has come to describe the work of a group of psychodynamic thinkers, both in England and the United States. Although almost always written in the singular, object relations theory is not actually a theory, be...
Dec 17, 2021•33 min•Ep. 11
I want to start with a bit of a disclaimer. There are some psychoanalytic theories I know a lot about and some I know less about. Relational theory is definitely in the latter group. It is a theory that I've only dabbled in but I have not spent nearly as much time with as I have in interpersonal theory, self-psychology, object relations, classical Freudian, or Lacanian schools of thought. Additionally, relational psychoanalysis is a very new theory. It is probably the youngest theory we will be ...
Sep 08, 2021•44 min•Ep. 10
Review Ego psychology – Made mainly in America, has the goal of making the individual's ego stronger more flexible. This means increasing what is called ego functioning and become less defensive. This theory relies on the economic model, which postulates that there is a finite and limited amount of energy in our psychological system and that all the things we are doing take energy. Defending ourselves takes energy, and therefore the less energy going into defense can be freed up and put into mor...
Sep 02, 2021•48 min•Ep. 9
In this lecture, Neil talks about the psychoanalytic theory of Self Psychology, which was developed by Heinz Kohut.
Aug 22, 2021•59 min•Ep. 8
No review today, for two reasons. First reason - because everything that we’ve covered before now, at this point you know it. And if you don’t know by now, then you’re probably just not gonna know it. The second reason - all of the podcast lectures before this one or one unit, the first unit, the foundational unit. Today’s podcast lecture, which is going to be over **ego psychology**, is the first in a series of lectures that will be the second unit of the class. Along with ego psychology, some ...
Aug 21, 2021•53 min•Ep. 7
Intro: In this Podcast lecture, I do a more extensive review of the concepts of transference & the ego. After that, I try to explain how both of these are stories that we tell, filled with errors, and how it is impossible to have no errors in these stories. I also try to explain how the process of psychotherapy might be one way to help people come to realize the errors in their stories and then make different choices. Review: Transference - A story we tell ourselves about someone else (the o...
Aug 07, 2021•27 min•Ep. 6
In this lecture, I talk about Pleasure & Instinct v. Enjoyment & Drive, the shift from the topographical model of the unconscious, pre-conscious, conscious to the structural model of id, ego, and superego. I also do a short bit on the economic model of the mind. Review 1. The unconscious is a part of you with a mind of its own. 2. Traumatic stuff can’t be erased, but it can be defensively put into the unconscious, this is called **repression**. 3. When **repression** happened the traumat...
Aug 05, 2021•49 min•Ep. 5
Review: Psychoanalysis is more interested in things (behaviors, patterns, desires, etc.) that don't work and less interested in things that do. Things like the unconscious, the return of the repressed, and drive objects. The Unconscious is a part of you that has a mind of its own. That mind is comprised of repressed desires, memories, affects (emotions), and other traumatic things. When something is repressed, we are not aware of it, we don't know it is there, but it keeps on popping up in our l...
Jul 29, 2021•20 min•Ep. 4
The opening paragraphs of the chapter for this week speaks to how much we (and by "we" I mean social workers and others who work in mental health ) like things that make sense, we enjoy being able to explain stuff. For this reason, we are, by and large, drawn to theories and systems that help us in our attempts to "make sense" out of stuff. Even the term "make sense" is revealing: We make sense, which is to say that we produce sense, we create sense. Sense being synonymous with an explanation or...
Jul 29, 2021•43 min•Ep. 3
Content: Review -- The unconscious is a part of you with a mind & desires of its own. Sometimes what the unconscious desires/plans is not what you consciously desire/plan. The unconscious is like a ghost haunting our day-to-day lives. The unconscious ghost (desire) is trying to tell us something, if we hear what it has to say it will stop haunting us. Repression is a reaction to trauma. Repression always starts as a solution to a problem, then later on it becomes a problem when it returns. R...
Jul 23, 2021•27 min•Ep. 2
Different kinds of theories & the unconscious Hi, Welcome to The Introductory Podcast Lectures on Psychodynamic Praxis , produced in association with the Aurora University school of social work. I’m you’re host Neil Gorman. Let’s get started: In this podcast lecture, I want to do two things. First, I want to describe different kinds of theories and tell you what sort of theory I think psychodynamic theory falls into. And second, I want to dive into the most fundamental concept of psychodynam...
Jul 20, 2021•21 min•Ep. 1
