"The ‘Cruelty’ of the Psychoanalytic Method and Antonin Artaud’s Theater"

2701 1st Avenue,Seattle WA 98121

15 September, 2021

Description

NOTE: This Meeting will be held in person at NPSI! This meeting is a special event for full members and candidates to celebrate the contributions of NPSI senior TA and faculty member, Oscar Romero, as he prepares to retire his Seattle practice. The meeting will be held in person at the NPSI offices. Of the paper he will present, Oscar notes: I believe that the ability to understand, accept, and welcome terrifying passages in psychoanalysis and in art allows the therapeutic action of psychoanalysis to occur and what makes art impactful. In this presentation I am paying special attention to the non-verbal communications and to the inanimate environment in the analytic encounter. These transformative experiences are essential to all psychoanalytic therapies, especially when working with patients who have suffered severe early trauma. In this presentation I am tracing a parallel between the psychoanalytic method, which facilitates the emergence of painful, transformative, at times terrifying, experiences in the here-and-now relationship between patient and analyst, and "Cruelty" as discussed by Artaud in his First Manifesto of The Theatre of Cruelty initially published in 1932. Antonin Artaud created the term "Cruelty" to refer to the powerful, painful, transformative experience that a genuine theater should provoke in the audience as an acute happening takes place with a temporary blurring of the boundaries between audience and performers. Learning objectives As a result of attending this presentation, as a participant you will be able to: 1. Increase your capacity to understand the value of troublesome but necessary dynamic interactions emerging in the transference and to feel encouraged to remain available during treatment when intense and painful emotions are stimulated in your internal and external reality. 2. Understand and overcome the resistances to deepening the treatment when afraid of the emotional turbulence and suffering that can be elicited in both the patient and in yourself. 3. Be reassured about the value of psychoanalytic therapy when science and art meet assisting your overall understanding and treatment of your patients in the unique environment of the analytic situation. About the Presenter Oscar Romero, MD is a Training and Supervising Analyst, and a faculty member of The Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, The Seattle Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, and The Center for Object Relations. He is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Washington and is in private practice in Seattle. 7:00 - 7:30 pm - Socializing 7:30 - 9:00 pm - Presentation and Discussion 9:00 - 9:30 pm - Champagne toast