APRIL 2024
The Prejudices, Discrimination, and Racism (PDR) Committee
The Prejudices, Discrimination, and Racism (PDR) Committee is a committee of the IPA that finds a balance between reflection and action regarding malignant othering, including racism and genocide. The Committee aims to make recommendations to address malignant prejudices and discrimination within the IPA and suggest psychoanalytic interventions appropriate for the wider world. The Committee's purpose is to:
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Develop a set of interventions based on psychoanalytic thinking that address prejudices and discrimination from a psychoanalytic perspective.
- Liaise with other IPA committees on issues related to prejudices and discrimination.
- Act as a resource across all regions to address psychoanalytically their specific issues of prejudices and discrimination.
- Establish and build upon existing dedicated workgroups that focus on specific aspects of malignant prejudices and discrimination and advise on outreach to IPA members and the public.
The IPA Committee on Prejudice, Discrimination, and Racism has been very productive during the last year. It is comprised of Abel Fainstein, Chair (Buenos Aires), and members Paula Kliger (New York), Rosine Perelberg (London), Leonie Sullivan (Sydney), and Raya Zonana (Sao Paulo). The photos are left to right, top-down.
They have accomplished many regional activities (below) and have been participating with other committees, such as COWAP, Health, Communications, Sex and Gender Diversity, and various subregional federations and societies. Many cross-committee activities are being planned.
In Europe:
There have been activities to address the question of antisemitism, including a blog that contains 29 texts and has been viewed by 1,500 people. There are more activities planned to continue to address issues associated with prejudice and antisemitism.
In Asia:
- Contact has been made with colleagues in China, India, and Taiwan to consider forming an interest group in the region. Plans are to discuss this further at the IPA meeting in Sydney in May 2024.
- Meetings with Indian, Japanese, and Korean societies have also been held via a panel discussion on the use of technology and the Mind of the Analyst to help promote a better understanding of our work.
- A proposal to moderate a panel of authors from Kazakhstan, Thailand, and the US titled "Women as the subject- the object of eros and the subject- the object of Thanatos stories from Kazakhstan and Thailand" has been offered.
- Work addressing the aftermath of the events of October 7th in hospitals and local institutes, as well as work with refugees in Australia, continues.
- A national workshop on better using the relationship in health care delivery with indigenous and other marginalised populations and colleagues from the Australian and New Zealand Balint society occurred.
In Latin America:
- March, 2023
Heribert Blass in APA: "The rise of transgender desires and the psychoanalytic balance between diversity and uniformity."
- April, 2023 5º Portuguese Language Psychoanalysis. Salvador, Bahia, Brazil: "Slavery and Freedom: Body and soul traverses" Raya Zonana: History revisited. Abel Fainstein: Opening Message as Chair PDRC.
APA video: Prejuicio, Discriminación y Racismo. El poder del lenguaje en los fenómenos sociales (Language's power in social phenomena). Jorge Bruce, Raya Zonana, Mirta Goldstein and Abel Fainstein. +774 views on YouTube
- June, 2023 APA centre in Junin, 200 km southwest of Buenos Aires. Opening message from Abel Fainstein as PDRC Chair. "Brown skin discrimination" Speaker Analía Wald
- September, 2023 Brazilian Society of Psychoanalysis of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Cycle of Studies on Racism and Psychoanalysis of Associate Members of SBPSP. Opening Message as Chair PDRC by Abel Fainstein.
- COWAP meeting "Women, Psychoanalysis and Gender." Abel Fainstein lecture on "Women's Discrimination" and message from the PDRC
- October, 2023 APA Children and Adolescents Psychoanalysis Department Annual Meeting. Lecture by Abel Fainstein. "Girl’s discrimination" and message from PDRC
- APA Abel Fainstein and Raya Zonana, as PDRC members, were invited as discussants of Analía Wald's paper on "Discrimination." Message from PDRC
- IPA Podcast by Harvey Schwartz interviewing Abel Fainstein as Chair of PDRC
- November, 2023 Cordoba Psychoanalytical Association (Argentina) Opening Conversation on Prejudice, Discrimination, and Racism. Decolonising. Ignacio Paim (SBPPA), Raya Zonana and Abel Fainstein
- Calibán Tour: Lisbon ( FEPAL Journal) “Racism in clinical key” by Raya Zonana and Elsa Couchinho
- FEBRAPSI (Brazilian Federation ) Meeting on Antisemitism. Heloisa Zimermann, Ana Rosa Chait Trachtenberg. Message by PDRC.
- March, 2024 Brazilian Society of Psychoanalysis of Porto Alegre. Abel Fainstein was invited to the opening lecture of a new study group on prejudices sponsored by our Committee. Raya Zonana also participated.
North America
1. As NA/PDR, the PIC continues actively engaging and collaborating with individuals/institutes to develop the interdisciplinary model of "Bridging Psychoanalysis and the Community." This model begins with community psychoanalysis discussion groups that bring members of the psychoanalytic community, including candidates and faculty, and community-based clinicians together to study and learn with and from each other, and leads up to an 8-session course in which members of the analytic community and clinicians from community-based organisations serve together as co-instructors and co-facilitators. Colleagues at PINC are carrying out this kind of community-based outreach initiative (Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California), HFI (Harlem Family Institute), WBPC (Washington Baltimore Psychoanalytic Centre), and OPC (Oregon Psychoanalytic Centre), and with new members from MIP (Massachusetts Institute of Psychoanalysis) and Columbia University Centre for Psychoanalytic Training and Research.
2. A major highlight of 2023 was APSA DPE's Section: The Psychoanalyst in the Community ([PIC] participation and presentations at the 53rd IPA Congress held in Cartagena, Colombia. PIC members, including Lizbeth Moses, Lee Slome, and Paula Christian Kliger, helped plan and implement the Pre-Congress entitled: "Collaborations for Working Under Fire: A Community Psychoanalysis International Working Group." The other US and international collaborators/presenters included Paola Contreraz and Jany Keat from BPSI, Francisco Gonzales from PINC, and Camila Guiterrez Cardoso, Silvia Rivera, and Maria Cecilia Sanchez from IPA's Colombian Psychoanalytic Society.
3. The APSA Mentor Fellowship Programme, which supports Candidates and Institutes in Community-based Psychoanalytic projects, was continued. Two Candidates and four Institutes received the Mentor Fellowship Awards.
4. CLOS The Council for Leadership & Organisational Studies: DPE's Associate Head, James Barron, and Paula Kliger planned and have implemented the first CLOS 8-week course, including an intensive didactic and self-study experiential focus, entitled Linking Field Theory and Systems Psychodynamics to Enhance Leadership: Perspectives on Racism, Discrimination, and Othering. While this first course has been aimed at encouraging psychoanalytic candidates to participate, several senior analysts have also joined the course. The CLOS course also included Candidate Faculty: Himanshu Agrawal, MD; Guest Faculty: Beverly Stoute, MD; Anton Hart, PhD; Mira Erlich-Ginor, MA & Shmuel Erlich, PhD, ABPP.
5. We continue developing a multifaceted "Bridging" Outreach Initiative comprising courses and seminar/discussion groups. We are also supporting Harlem Family Services, a new nonprofit organisation, a subsidiary of HFI, which will provide psychodynamic education and consultation to community-based clinician partners, teachers, parents, and advocates.
6. We are cultivating relationships and an international network with psychoanalysts and psychodynamically oriented clinicians who are engaged actively in community-based initiatives around the globe as a result of the 53rd IPA Pre-Congress: "Collaborations for Working Under Fire…"
7. We are in the final steps of developing a conference on "Bridging Community and Psychoanalysis" with participants and prominent speakers from around the US and the world. The conference will be interdisciplinary. Plenary presentations and workshops will focus on clinical/ community, art-informed experiential, and research-focused activities/interventions. For example, the title and presenters of the conference are:
8. The Unseen. Breaking Barriers Building Bridges in Community Psychoanalysis.
Keynote Features/Speakers
US Congress Representative. J Raskin, JD
Keynotes: K Leary, F Gonzalez, D Gaztambide
Film & Producer/Presenter: PC Kliger, "We Are Human First."
Abel Fainstein
IPA PDR Committee, Chair