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SCIENTIFIC MEETING – Parasitic Language

SCIENTIFIC MEETING - Parasitic Language

Presenter: Dana Amir, PhD

Saturday, April 23, 2022: 10:00 am – 12:00 pm

TPS Scientific Meeting: Open to Members, Affiliates/Guests, TIP Candidates, and ATPPP Trainees Only

** Preregistration is required ** DISTANCE PARTICIPATION ONLY ** – This course will be conducted online. Email psychoanalyst@bellnet.ca to rsvp. Registration deadline is one week prior to the meeting.

The paper presents initial thoughts about the phenomenon of parasitic language. This is a language which clings to the other’s linguistic patterns and in doing so produces a double manifestation of omnipotence and impotence; a language that forges a linguistic “prosthesis”, and while allowing for a false manifestation of language and thinking – constitutes thoughts as foreign objects that are mechanically and artificially “stuck” to the speaking subject. The early roots of this language, as illustrated in a detailed analytical case description, inhere in the infiltration of language by multi-generational traumatic traces. This turns language itself into a scene of simultaneous repetition of the act of salvation and the act of annihilation.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of this presentation participants will be able to:

  1. Learn about the connection between intergenerational trauma and the impairment of psychic language.
  2. Will learn about the phenomenon of parasitic language and the ways in which it is manifested in the transference and countertransference.
  3. Will learn to recognize the danger associated with the encounter of the analyst’s language and the patient’s language and deal with the question of creating an analytic space in conditions of overlap between manifestations of life forces and destructive forces.
Dana Amir, PhD

Dana Amir, PhD. is a clinical psychologist, supervising and training analyst at the Israel Psychoanalytic Society, full professor, vice dean for research and head of the interdisciplinary doctoral program in psychoanalysis at Haifa University, editor of Maarag – the Israel Annual of Psychoanalysis (the Hebrew University), poetess and literature researcher. She is the author of eight literary books and four psychoanalytic books: Cleft Tongue (Karnac, 2014), On the Lyricism of the Mind (Routledge, 2016), Bearing Witness to the Witness (Routledge, 2018) and Psychoanalysis on the Verge of Language: Clinical Cases on the Edge (Routledge, in print). She is the winner of many prizes, including four international psychoanalytic awards: The Frances Tustin International Memorial Prize (2011), the IPA Sacerdoti Prize (2013), the IPA Hayman Prize (2017) and the IFPE (International Forum of Psychoanalytic Education) Distinguished Psychoanalytic Educators Award (2017). In 2020, she won the outstanding Senior Researcher Award of the University of Halifax.

This event is eligible for Section 1 CME credits (0.5 credits/hour). This event is an accredited group learning activity (section 1) as defined by the Maintenance of Certificate Program of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, approved by the Canadian Psychiatric Association (CPA). The specific opinions and content of this event are not necessarily those of the CPA, and are the responsibility of the organizer(s) alone. As per the Royal College standard, each presentation provides a minimum of 25% interactive learning.

For more information about and for registration in the tps&i Extension Programs, Scientific Meetings, Training Programs, Study and Supervision groups and Special Presentations, please visit our website: torontopsychoanalysis.com or email info@torontopsychoanalysis.com

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