Upcoming Events

Presenter: Slindile Mbatha, CTPSPG member
Topic: A journey to impossible places of bipolar mood disorder via a psychoanalytic lens
Date: Thursday evening 20th August
Time: 19h30 – 21h10
Where: Zoom

Free to CTPSPG Members

Presentation Abstract:
The presentation will detail a 4-year-long journey in the treatment of a patient with Bipolar Mood disorder. What started as a treatment to manage the most debilitating aspects of his illness unfolded into a process about identity, overcoming rejection and finding recognition. This process has highlighted the power of mirroring, especially in overcoming my own fears through an idealised transference. It has also become one of the most significant processes that crystallised my various learnings on Twinship.

Biography
Slindile completed her Master’s training at UCT in 2016 and went on to work at the South African National Defence Force, in the Military Health Service for 4 years. She was part of the specialist neurodevelopmental team, where her focus was on child and adolescent mental health and family mental health. She is now a clinical psychologist working in private practice in Cape Town. Her areas of special interest are mood disorders, anxiety and trauma, and she has worked with adults, adolescents and families.

Slindile has also worked as a guest lecturer at UCT since 2024, teaching Psychopathology and Psychotherapies modules in the 1st- and 2nd-year. In 2025, she was selected as an ECP scholar for IAPSP, and she will be presenting a paper at this year’s pre-conference programme in Canada alongside Thato Letsatsi.

Reading:

• • Stefana, A., Fusar-Poli, P., D’Imperio, D., Choplin, E., Dakanalis, A., & Vieta, E. (2023). Mapping the psychoanalytic literature on bipolar disorder: A scoping review of journal articles. Brazilian Journal of Psychiatry.