Past Meetings

Summary of our past meetings

Past Meetings

2025

Thursday 27th February 19h30–21h00 on Zoom
  • Presenter: Megan Barber
  • Topic: Context, Race, Power and Culture: The third in a therapeutic dyad, based on her paper presented at IAPSP Online Conference, 2024
  • Reading:
    • Barber, M. (in press). Context, Race, Power and Culture: The third in a therapeutic dyad, Psychoanalysis, Self, and Context (forthcoming)

This was the second of our Two Part Series on Racial Complexity in the Consulting Room in South Africa. This month Megan and Thato Letsatsi will continue their conversation, this time discussing Megan’s fantastic paper Context, Race, Power, and Culture: The third in the therapeutic dyad.

Both Megan Barber and Thato Letsatsi are IAPSP Early Career Professional Scholarship winners, and were invited to present their own papers on racial complexity at IAPSP’s online International Conference in May last year. We are very fortunate to have both of them zoom in live to discuss these papers with us! Megan and Thato have worked closely while writing these papers and are intimately familiar with each other’s work.

Megan received high praise from the international community for this paper and presentation, and has been approached by the journal Psychoanalysis, Self, and Context to publish it!

These meetings will be a treat for anyone interested in the layers of complexity presented by race in our therapy rooms in the South African context.

Thursday 30th January 19h30–21h00 on Zoom
  • Presenter: Thato Letsatsi
  • Topic: The Complexity of My Blackness, based on her paper presented at IAPSP Online Conference, 2024
  • Reading:
    • Letsatsi, T. (in press). The Complexity of My Blackness: Too Black, not Black enough, the invisible elephant in the room – Black, and the itified object for ‘What do we do with what we do not know?’, Psychoanalysis, Self, and Context (forthcoming)

This was the first of a Two Part Series on Racial Complexity in the Consulting Room in South Africa. The linked presentation will be in February.

Two of our members, Thato Letsatsi and Megan Barber (both IAPSP Early Career Professional Scholarship winners), were invited to present their own papers on racial complexity at IAPSP’s online International Conference in May last year. We are very fortunate to have both of them zoom in live to discuss these papers with us! For our first meeting at the end of this month, Megan will facilitate the discussion of Thato’s paper, followed by Thato facilitating the discussion of Megan’s in February. Thato and Megan have worked closely while writing these papers and are intimately familiar with each other’s work.

As mentioned, Thato, who is also an incoming Co-Chair of CTPSPG, was invited to present her paper, The Complexity of My Blackness, at IAPSP’s online International Conference last May. She received high praise from the international community for this paper and presentation, and has been approached by the journal Psychoanalysis, Self, and Context to publish it!

2024

Thursday 28th November  7pm eats & drinks, to start at 7:30pm – 9pm
  • CTPSPG AGM & Mingle
  • Where: Athenaeum, Newlands & Virtual for out-of-towners and members who are unable to come in person (request the link if you need it)
  • Topic: Annual General Meeting, plus a wonderful opportunity for us to see each other, mingle, reflect together, and do a Self Psychology Quiz with great prizes
Thursday 30th October 19h30-21h00 on Zoom

CANCELLED – Amanda hopes to present her paper, and discussion around it, next year.

  • Presenter: Amanda Kottler
  • Topic: Writing Fiction as a Way of Finding Hidden Selves For those interested in how contemporary Self Psychology can be incorporated into fictional and narrative writing to reveal the unexpected. Based on Amanda’s recently (2024) published paper: “Hide and seek: Writing fiction as a way of finding hidden selves”
  • Reading: to follow after the presentation

Thursday 26th September 19h30-21h00 on Zoom

  • Presenters: Dr Thembelihle Dube and Dineo Maboe-Khambule
  • Topic: African Spirituality: Part 2, Part 4 of a four-part series of two linked themes: Decolonising Psychoanalysis and African Spirituality
  • We had a wonderful and informative first meeting on African Spirituality last month by these two clinical psychologists deeply immersed in the material. This time we again heard from Dineo who is herself a Traditional Healer. Thembelihle and Dineo are also currently in their second year of facilitating an African Spirituality and Self Psychology Reading Group within CTPSPG.
  •  Reading:
    • Edwards, S., Makunga, N., Thwala, J., & Mbele, B. (2009). The Role of The Ancestors in Healing, Indilinga African Journal of Indigenous Knowledge Systems

More on our four-part series of two linked themes: Decolonising Psychoanalysis and African Spirituality

Part of the Decolonial Project is the concept of creating a new language or framework of meaning that is different from that of the colonisers. African spirituality, its framework (as different from Western frameworks) and understandings, can be seen as one of the ways of doing this – creating or learning in a new way that is not of the ‘colonisers’ or trying to fit into the colonial or Western framework. This is particularly important in the area of psychology and treatment. In this way, learning about African spirituality and decolonising psychoanalysis can be seen as linked.

Sunday 15th September 8h30-13h00 on Zoom

  • Ethics Workshop
  • Presenter: Judith Ancer, Clinical Psychologist
  • Topic: Ethical challenges when dealing with sexuality, gender and identity
  • Reading:
    • Tomson, A (2018) Gender-affirming care in the context of medical ethics-gatekeeping v. informed consent

Thursday 29th August 19h30-21h00 on Zoom

  • Presenters: Dr Thembelihle Dube and Dineo Maboe-Khambule
  • Topic: African Spirituality, part 1, the third of a four-part series of two linked themes: Decolonising Psychoanalysis and African Spirituality
  • This is the first time African Spirituality will be presented at CTPSPG and it will be done by two clinical psychologists deeply immersed in this material. In addition, we will be reading and hearing from Dineo who is herself a Traditional Healer. Thembelihle and Dineo are also currently in their second year of facilitating an African Spirituality and Self Psychology Reading Group within CTPSPG.
  • Readings:
    • Maboe-Khambule, D. (2022). “Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know”: An Enquiry into the Lived Experiences of Young Black Female Suburban Traditional Healers. Masters Dissertation, University of South Africa (Please focus on Chapter 2: Theory and Literature Review)
    • Baloyi, L. (2014). The African Conception of Death: A Cultural Implication. In L. T.B. Jackson, D. Meiring, F. J. R. Van de Vijver, E. S. Idemoudia, & W. K. Gabrenya Jr. (Eds.), Toward sustainable development through nurturing diversity: Proceedings from the 21st International Congress of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology

More on our four-part series of two linked themes: Decolonising Psychoanalysis, and African Spirituality

Spirituality: Part of the Decolonial Project is the concept of creating a new language or framework of meaning that is different from that of the colonisers. African spirituality, its framework (as different from Western frameworks) and understandings, can be seen as one of the ways of doing this – creating or learning in a new way that is not of the ‘colonisers’ or trying to fit into the colonial or Western framework. This is particularly important in the area of psychology and treatment. In this way, learning about African spirituality and decolonising psychoanalysis can be seen as linked.

Thursday 25th July 19h30-21h00 on Zoom

  • Presenters: Prof Sally Swartz and Prof Wahbie Long
  • Topic: Decolonising Psychoanalysis, part 2, the second of a four-part series of two linked themes: Decolonising Psychoanalysis and African Spirituality
  • One of our Founding Members, Sally Swartz was joined by Prof Wahbie Long, who has published a book exploring the political unconscious in South Africa, and particularly the relational violence that occurs, through a psychoanalytic lens, Nation on the Couch: Inside South Africa’s Mind (2021). Both thinkers discussed the topic of psychoanalysis in South African psychotherapeutic settings, closely linked to the themes that Sally discussed in her talk with us last month.
  • Reading: (none prescribed)

More on our four-part series of two linked themes, Decolonising Psychoanalysis, and African Spirituality:

Part of the Decolonial Project is the concept of creating a new language or framework of meaning that is different from that of the colonisers. African spirituality, its framework (as different from Western frameworks) and understandings, can be seen as one of the ways of doing this – creating or learning in a new way that is not of the ‘colonisers’ or trying to fit into the colonial or Western framework. This is particularly important in the area of psychology and treatment. In this way, learning about African spirituality and decolonising psychoanalysis can be seen as linked.

Thursday 27th June 19h30-21h00 on Zoom
  • Presenter: Prof Sally Swartz
  • Topic: Decolonising Psychoanalysis, part 1, the first of a four-part series of two linked themes: Decolonising Psychoanalysis and African Spirituality
  • Prof Sally Swartz, a leading thinker on decolonising psychoanalysis, discussed the topic of psychoanalysis in South African psychotherapeutic settings.
  • Reading:
    • Swartz, S. (2024). Beyond recognition: Memory, desire and the hellish zone of nonbeing in encounters with otherness, International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies
Thursday 30th May 19h30-21h00 on Zoom
  • Presenter: international colleague, Dr D Bradley Jones
  • Hosted by: Tracy Kruger
  • Topic: Psychoanalytic Substance Use Treatment
  • Dr Bradley has years of experience in addiction and self psychological treatment and a special interest in working with substance use and misuse, and people in the performing arts. He gave us a humorous and lively presentation and discussion.
  • Readings:
    • D. Bradley Jones (2023): Harm reduction and self psychology in tandem: A case of crystal meth addiction; Psychoanalysis, Self and Context
    • Darren Haber (2020) Simulated Selfhood, Authentic Dialogue: An Intersubjective-Systems Look at Treating Addiction; Psychoanalysis, Self and Context 
Thursday 25th April 19h30-21h00 at the Newlands Athenaeum
  • Presenter: Sli Mbatha
  • Topic: Rage, Aggression, Anger and Self Psychology
  • We were pleased to have member Sli Mbatha present to us on how Kohut and contemporary Self Psychology conceptualise rage, aggression and anger. Sli has previously presented on this topic to a group guided by Amanda Kottler, which was extremely informative and well received. The theoretical content is based on the chapter below, and Sli will also be incorporating case material.
  • Reading:
    • chapter 5 in Strozier, C., Pinteris, K., Kelley, K. & Cher, D. (2022). Rage and Aggression. In The New World of Self: Heinz Kohut’s Transformation of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, Oxford University Press: New York
Sunday morning 7th April 8h30-12h45 on Zoom
  • Facilitator: Judith Ancer
  • Topic: Ethics: Truth, Lies and the In Between – ethical considerations and clinical realities in practice
  • Lying and dishonesty are, research tells us, developmental achievements, commonplace in everyday life but also in clinical practice. It is thus essential to explore the implications of truth, lies and the in-between in relation to our ethical and legal regulatory frameworks. This presentation is accredited for 4 Ethics CEUS. In addition attendees can read and answer 15 MCQs on an accredited journal article on lying for an additional general CEU.
  • Reading:
    • Blanchard & Farber (2015). Lying in psychotherapy: Why and what clients don’t tell their therapist about therapy and their relationship

Thursday 28th March 19h30-21h00 at the Newlands Athenaeum

  • Facilitator: Kim de la Harpe
  • Topic: Transforming a Body: Treatment of a Queer Adolescent
  • This paper was presented by Kirsten Long at the International Association for Psychoanalytic Self Psychology (IAPSP) 2023 Annual Conference in Chicago. It focuses on techniques from relational and self psychology, drama therapy, sculpting and family therapy in the treatment of a gender nonbinary teenager. The paper expresses, in an experience-near way, the complexity of family treatment with a queer adolescent.
  • Reading:
    • Long, K. (2024). Transforming a Body: Sculpting in Therapy. Psychoanalysis, Self, and Context

Thursday 25th January 19h30-21h00 at the Athenaeum, Newlands

  • Presenter: Indira Moodley
  • Topic: From Spain to CT: Corruption and the In-Visible Pain of Racial Shame and Trauma 
  • Indira presented her paper in Valencia, Spain at the IARPP Conference last year.  She dives deep in an exploration of corruption in South Africa, including insights from Fanon, Jessica Benjamin, Kohut’s twinship, and attachment theory.

Thursday 29th February 19h30-21h00 via Zoom

  • Presenter: International Speaker, Heather Ferguson, spoke to us live from New York via Zoom
  • Topic: Eating Disorders and Leading/Trailing Edge Perspectives
  • Readings:
    • Ferguson, Heather & Mendelsohn (2011) Full of Your Self – Eating Disorder Symptoms & Relational History
    • JansevanRensburg (2020) COVID19-Harm Reduction Approaches to Eating Disorders
    • Medina, Mia (2011) Physical and Psychic Imprisonment and the Curative Function of Self-Cutting

Thursday 25th January 19h30-21h00 at the Athenaeum, Newlands

  • Presenter: Indira Moodley
  • Topic: From Spain to CT: Corruption and the In-Visible Pain of Racial Shame and Trauma 
  • Indira presented her paper in Valencia, Spain at the IARPP Conference last year.  She dives deep in an exploration of corruption in South Africa, including insights from Fanon, Jessica Benjamin, Kohut’s twinship, and attachment theory.

2023

Thursday 30th November 7pm-9pm, at the Athenaeum, Newlands

  • AGM and A Greet & Meet gathering for us to connect, socialise, have some snacks and quizzes, and reflect on the year and plans for 2024. There were fun and prizes too! 

Sunday 29th October Ethics Workshop cancelled; it will be rescheduled.

  • Details to follow in early 2024

Thursday 28th September 19h30-21h00 at the Athenaeum, Newlands.

  • Presenter: Kim de la Harpe
  • Reading: Gonzalez, F. (2020). Trump Cards and Klein Bottles: On the Collective of the Individual, Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 30, 383-398.
  • This paper was discussed at IARPP’s online colloquium earlier this year and sparked very interesting discussion.

Thursday 31st August 19h30-21h00, via Zoom

  • Presenter: Jill Gardner, Chicago psychoanalyst
  • Topic: Forms and Transformations of Empathy: The Subtleties and Complexities of Empathic Understanding
  • No reading prescribed

From Jill about her talk:

I’ll be talking in a very concrete and experience-near way about the things that I think facilitate effective empathic communication. Everyone knows that we put central emphasis on empathic observation and response. But people don’t always know how to translate this theoretical understanding into effective practice. So I will first be contextualizing our focus on empathy in our theoretical understanding of development and treatment; and then detailing and illustrating several principles that I think enhance the effectiveness of empathic communication and advance the therapeutic process. I’m looking forward to being with your group.

Thursday 27th July 19h30-21h00, Goodwin Room at the Athenaeum, Newlands

  • Theme: Mourning
  • Facilitator: Kim de la Harpe
  • Readings:
    • Yadavalli, S. (2022). Mourning and The Capacity To Be Alone: Cultural and Existential Rituals in Loss, Psychoanalysis, Self, and Context, 17, 243-254.
      • Note: This paper was discussed at IAPSP’s online Colloquium earlier this year. It explores Mourning in relation to Freud, Winnicott, the capacity to be alone, Meditation & Yoga and, connected to these, how the task of mourning can be possible even without a social holding environment. Yadavalli ends with clinical implications.
    • Discussion paper by Michael Reison, which links Yadavalli’s paper to Self Psychology

Thursday 25th May 7:30pm-9pm, Goodwin Room at the Athenaeum, Newlands

  • Theme: Embodiment
  • Facilitator: Kim de la Harpe
  • Reading: Cates, L. (2014). Insidious Emotional Trauma: The Body Remembers. International Journal of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology , 9:1, 35-53

Thursday 25th April 7:30pm-9pm, Goodwin Room at the Athenaeum, Newlands

  • Theme: Embodiment
  • Facilitator: Kim de la Harpe
  • Reading: Nebbiosi & Federici (2022). Miming and Clinical Psychoanalysis: Enhancing our Intersubjective Sensibility. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 42:4, 266-277 

Thursday 30th March 7:30pm-9pm, Goodwin Room at the Athenaeum, Newlands

  • Theme: Embodiment
  • Facilitator: Kim de la Harpe
  • Reading: Brothers, D. & Sletvold, J (2022). Talking Bodies: A New Vision of Psychoanalysis, Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 42:4, 289-302 )  Note: This comes from a recently published Embodiment issue of Psychoanalytic Inquiry and connects with the Embodiment workshop that Doris Brothers and Jon Sletvold held at the International Association for Psychoanalytic Self Psychology (IAPSP) Conference in 2022.

Thursday 23rd February 7:30pm-9pm, Goodwin Room at the Athenaeum, Newlands

  • Postponed to 30th March

2022

Thursday 24th November 7pm-9pm, at the UCT Child Guidance Clinic

  • Two AGMS: Annual General Meeting (AGM) and A Greet and Meet (AG&M)

Sunday 27th October 7:30pm-9pm, Zoom

  • Theme: Climate
  • Presenter: Donna Orange
  • Reading: NA

Sunday 4th September 9am-1pm, Zoom

  • Theme: Ethics Workshop: The Many Faces of Loss : Ethical, Clinical and Practical Considerations in Managing Losses in a Mental Health Practice
  • Presenter: Judith Ancer
  • Reading: Reeves, Andrew (2017). In a search for meaning: challenging the accepted know-how of working with suicide risk, British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 45:5, 606–609 

Thursday 25th August 7:30pm-9pm, Zoom

  • Theme: discussion about race, white privilege, homelessness, and our South African context, while thinking self psychologically about twinship and alter-ego selfobject experience
  • Presenter: Amanda Kottler
  • Readings:
    • Kottler, A. (2021). Can we stay home long enough to confront and dismantle the truth – That all humans are equal, but some are more equal than others, Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 41, 418-425 
    • Adrienne E. Harris (2021) The Pandemic in America: A Crisis for Democracy, Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 41:6, 363-377
    • Alison McGrath Howard (2021) Uncharted Territory: Clinical Practice in the Time of a National Pandemic and Cultural Revolution, Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 41:6, 378-387 

Thursday 28th July 7:30pm-9pm, Zoom

  • Theme: Haunted: Psychoanalysis, Colonialism and the Struggle to Be Free
  • Presenter: Prof Sally Swartz
  • Readings: NA

Thursday 26th May 7:30pm-9pm, Zoom

  • Theme: Symptoms of Long Covid, What is Long Covid, What we know so far, Treatment avenues going forward
  • Presenter: Dr Gert Jaco Laubscher, a Specialist Physician and Researcher based at Stellenbosch Mediclinic, involved in local and international research regarding Long Covid and possible treatments for it. He has given various youtube talks and published regarding the topic.
  • Readings: To help ground us in self psychology, here are two articles dealing with chronic illness and Covid. Importantly, one focuses on what it is like when the therapist is chronically ill.
    • Doren L. Slade (2019) OH NO, NOT AGAIN: CHRONIC ILLNESS IN AN ANALYTIC PRACTICE AND THE CO-CREATION OF ATTACHMENT NARRATIVES, Psychoanalysis, Self and Context, 14:4, 445-460
    • Darren Haber (2021) Reflections in the Fog: Transferential Challenges and COVID-19, Psychoanalysis, Self and Context, 16:3, 253-263

Thursday 28th April 7:30pm-9pm, Zoom

  • Theme: Self Disclosure and Self-Revelation
  • Facilitator: Kim de la Harpe
  • Readings: From author’s note: “This paper was selected to be the Keynote Presentation at the 2017 IAPSP International Conference… The narrative is clinical and personal, an effort to represent my efforts to reach an extraordinary patient and make a difference in his life. Theory of course informed all I did…but this account endeavors to body forth the immediate experience of the work rather than to reflect on the largely self psychological ideas that undergird it…” And briefly, from the abstract: “”This paper describes in narrative form the unusual treatment… A shared passionate interest in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, a trilogy that brought the patient’s deepest selfobject longings into sharp relief, led them to consider traveling to London to see it performed at the National Theater when it was adapted for the stage, which they ultimately did. How the idea of this journey evolved and what occurred during it and in its aftermath is discussed. As is the question of what constitutes therapeutic action.”
    • Stern, J. (2020). The Pilgrim’s Progress: A Therapist and Patient Journey to London, Psychoanalysis, Self, and Context, 15, 117-126 
    • Stern, S. (2020). Discussion of Jeffrey Stern’s “The Pilgrim’s Progress”: Needed Relationships as an Orienting Principle for Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Psychoanalysis, Self, and Context, 15, 127-132 

Thursday 30th March 7:30pm-9pm, Zoom

  • Theme: Self Disclosure and Self-Revelation
  • Facilitator: Kim de la Harpe
  • Reading: This is a paper reflecting on a theatre piece performed by the author and analyst, and the implications regarding self-disclosure with his patients. From the abstract: “In a recent choice to create and perform in a well-publicized musical autobiography entitled Dr. Bradley’s Fabulous Functional Narcissism, I had to consider that my audiences would be partially made up of my patients. What would they make of the tell-all intimate disclosure that made my show so compelling? This paper discusses the surprisingly powerful positive impact my musical autobiography had on their psychotherapy with me.”
    • D. Bradley Jones (2022): Revitalization, Growth, and Fabulous Functional Narcissism, Psychoanalysis, Self and Context

Thursday 24th February 7:30pm-9pm, Zoom

  • Theme: Self Disclosure and Self-Revelation
  • Facilitator: Amanda Kottler, who was invited to speak on this topic on the panel at the IARPP online Colloquium in May 2022
  • Reading: This is a paper reflecting on a theatre piece performed by the author and analyst, and the implications regarding self-disclosure with his patients. From the abstract: “In a recent choice to create and perform in a well-publicized musical autobiography entitled Dr. Bradley’s Fabulous Functional Narcissism, I had to consider that my audiences would be partially made up of my patients. What would they make of the tell-all intimate disclosure that made my show so compelling? This paper discusses the surprisingly powerful positive impact my musical autobiography had on their psychotherapy with me.”
    • Philip Bromberg (2006). “The Analyst’s Self Revelation: Not Just Permissible but Necessary”, Awakening the Dreamer: Clinical Journeys, NJ: The Analytic Press, pp 128-150