Tuesday Seminar - The Drive in Psychoanalytic Theory and Practice: Inexorable to Normativization - With Eve Watson, PhD and Dan Collins, PhD, MSW
Freud’s concept of drive (Trieb) was fundamental to his specifically psychoanalytic approach to human subjectivity. His drive theory went through several evolutions over the course of his work, culminating in the (in)famous life and death drives. Freud went so far as to propose that the drive was so essential to psychoanalysis that psychoanalysis itself stood or fell with the concept. Lacan also made it central and took it up as one of his “four fundamental concepts,” elaborating the drive along more linguistic lines and in conjunction with his concepts of “object a” and “jouissance” and as part of his project to re-invigorate the work of Freud in a post-Freudian era. Yet in spite of being a “fundamental” concept and the fact that Freud and Lacan devoted great attention to it, the drive has remained underdeveloped in psychoanalytic theory and underutilized as a clinical concept. It is often considered to be boring and not clinically relevant! This seminar series takes this up and evaluates the theoretical, clinical, and cultural significance of the drive with a view to re-asserting its significance in approaching subjectivity, acts, affects, and symptoms. The drive as an endless circuit of satisfaction is not reducible to inscription or representation and emanates as something that radically undermines seeing, being seen, speaking, hearing, being heard, eating, producing, excreting, thinking, and speaking. The clinical relevancies of these speak for themselves but we won’t settle for that— we will debate and discuss them together.
We eagerly invite participants to engage with, discuss, and debate these concepts and assist us in re-situating the drive in light of contemporary theory and practice.
The seminars will combine a presentation for approximately half of the time and the remainder will be given over to Q&A and discussion of the weekly readings.
Eve Watson and Dan Collins are the co-editors of a forthcoming book collection on the drive, Critical Essays on the Drive: Lacanian Theory and Practice (Routledge, 2022).
Target Audience
______ Introductory ___X___ Intermediate ___X___ Advanced
Learning Objectives
- Identify and explore psychoanalytic drive theory including the evolution of Freud’s conceptualization of three different variations of the drives.
- Compare and contrast Freud’s approach with Lacan’s and consider what those differences mean. This includes considering the drive as linguistically based and in speech and how it is distinguished from the unconscious in so far as the accent is put on the real and jouissance which are of necessity excluded.
- Describe how the drive emanates in clinical practice and its potential impact on the patient’s speech and symptom.
- Identify the “gaze’ and “voice” as having a special status in drive conceptualisation and how this bears out in the clinical setting, in art, and in culture.
- Discuss the significance of shame as a drive affect. This includes distinguishing shame from guilt and considering what cultural and clinical uses, if any, of shame today.
Eve Watson lives and works in Dublin, Ireland. She has a psychoanalytic practice in Dublin’s city centre and is an academic and writer. Her book (w/Dr. Noreen Giffney) is Clinical Encounters in Sexuality: Psychoanalytic Practice and Queer Theory (Punctum Books, 2017). She has book chapters forthcoming on the voice, melancholia, shame, and the impact of the small screen on clinical practice, and has published on children and transgenderism (PSC, 2022), female sexuality (Routledge, 2018), group psychology (Routledge 2022), and film (2022). She is editing two book collections, one on the drive and the other on Freud’s case studies in contemporary contexts, and her own book on psychoanalysis and film is due in 2023. She is the course director of the Freud Lacan institute, Dublin. In Spring-Summer 2022, she was the Erikson Scholar-in-Residence at the Austen-Riggs Centre in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
Dan Collins is an English Professor at English at Nichols School, Buffalo, NY. Courses taught: Foundations of Literature, AP English Literature, Psychoanalysis and Literature, Literature and Philosophy, Linguistics, Introduction to the Study of Shakespeare, Modernism, On Editing, African-American Literature, Theory of Poetry, AP Psychology
Austen Riggs Center Inc. confirms that Eve Watson, PhD and Dan Collins, PhD, MSW, nor anyone involved in the planning of the CME event, has disclosed a potential conflict of interest.
The views and opinions expressed in this presentation are those of the presenter(s) and do not necessarily represent the official policy or position of the Austen Riggs Center.
General CME/CE Information
Accommodations - The Austen Riggs Center follows all state and federal laws and regulations, including the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). In accordance with the ADA, the Austen Riggs Center is committed to accessibility. If you need accommodations for your online course, please contact [email protected].
Accreditation
(Physicians, Psychologists, Social Work and Nursing)
The Austen Riggs Center designates this live interactive webinar for a maximum of (see specific event) AMA PRA Category1 Credit(s) ™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
The Austen Riggs Center Inc. is accredited by the Massachusetts Medical Society to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
The Austen Riggs Center’s policy on disclosure, in keeping with requirements of the Massachusetts Medical Society, requires continuing education planners and speakers to disclose any relevant financial interest or other relationship with commercial entities that could pose a potential conflict of interest in the presentation of this educational activity. The Austen Riggs Center Continuing Medical Education Committee has established policies for identifying and resolving all conflicts of interest prior to this educational activity. The Austen Riggs Center accepts no commercial support of any kind to support our CME/CE activity.
The Austen Riggs Center Inc. also designates this live interactive webinar for (see specific event) continuing education credit(s) (CE) for psychology.
Austen Riggs Center, Inc. is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0115.
The Austen Riggs Center Inc. is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The Austen Riggs Center maintains responsibility for the program and its content. For additional information about this program, please call the Erikson Institute Education Coordinator, at 413.931.5230.
The Austen Riggs Center Inc., #1344, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. Austen Riggs Center maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider Approval Period: 02/02/2020-2/2/2023. Social workers completing this Live interactive webinar will receive (see specific event) continuing education credits.
For a listing of jurisdictions that accept ACE, please visit www.aswb.org/ace/ace-jurisdiction-map/.
Attention NY and NJ Social Workers
The Austen Riggs Center Inc. is approved as a provider for social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) www.aswb.org, through the Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. As of January 2021, ACE is accepted in 48 jurisdictions. This does not include the states of New York and New Jersey. Check your state licensing board for further information. For a listing of jurisdictions that accept ACE, please visit www.aswb.org/ace/ace-jurisdiction-map/ or check with your state guild and licensing entities.
Available Credit
- 9.00 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™
ACCME - As a Jointly Accredited Organization, The Austen Riggs Center, Inc. designates this learning activity for a maximum of 9.00 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
- 9.00 APA
As a Jointly Accredited Organization, The Austen Riggs Center, Inc. designates this learning activity for 9.00 continuing education credit(s) (CE) for psychology. Continuing Education (CE) credits for psychologists are provided through the co-sponsorship of the American Psychological Association (APA) Office of Continuing Education in Psychology (CEP). The APA CEP Office maintains responsibility for the content of the programs.
Austen Riggs Center, Inc. is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0115.
- 9.00 ASWB-ACE
As a Jointly Accredited Organization, The Austen Riggs Center is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organization, not individual courses, are approved under this program. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. Austen Riggs Center maintains responsibility for this. Social workers completing this Online live course will receive 9.00 continuing education credit(s).
- 9.00 Contact Hours/ ParticipationA certificate of attendance for all Learners.