Mother of George, highlights the interaction between infertility, internalized cultural dictates, and self-identity issues. A young Nigerian couple recently married and living in Brooklyn is both happy and passionate but find themselves dealing with infertility issues. Months pass and there’s no pregnancy to report (they hope for a boy, who will be named George after a deceased relative).  Both husband, Ayodele and wife, Adenike seem to assume that the problem must lie with Adenike.  Adenike endures the blame for not conceiving in the face of her husband’s disavowed infertility.  A situation that was denied and projected onto her by gender role tradition, individual dynamics and extended family attitudes.  The film also highlights the influence of culturally based directives of a meddling mother-in-law who upon accepting that Adenike is not the problem, suggests that since the “blood is the same”, that her daughter-in-law, secretly become pregnant by her husband’s brother; all as a way of protecting her son’s self-esteem in secrecy.

In this light, our workshop on “Mother of George” gives space to consider the general issue of the struggle between internalized cultural dictates on gender roles and the drive to become a “self with a mind of one’s own”.  The pliability of parental authority in differing ecological contexts – which can either promote or disrupt a developing couple’s relationship will also be discussed in terms of the process of identity formation of individuals and the couple they become.

_{Workshop : Cultural influences on Identity and Relationships}

Screening and discussion of

“Mother of George”

(Sundance Festival award for best cinematography, 2013)

 Saturday, October 22, 2016
Training Institute for Mental Health
115 West 27th Street, 4th Fl.
New York, NY 10001
11:00 AM – 3:00 PM

 Presented by the Couple Therapy Program, Training Institute for Mental Health with the Collaboration of Section I, Division of Psychoanalysis, American Psychological Association 

A very special aspect of our Workshop is that it features presenters originally from Nigeria, andworking professionally in the USA and Psychoanalysts with International experience from Section I,Div. 39, APA along with TI faculty who will elucidate their perspectives on the cultural, clinical andpsychodynamic issues illustrated by the film.

Registration:
$40 without CEU credit
$80  includes three hours of CEU credit for Social Workers
$30 Students/Candidates with ID

To register and pay by PayPal, please visit: http://timh.org/calendar.html
To pay by phone, please call (212) 627-8181 or register at the door if space available.
For information, contact Albert Brok, PhD, Program Chair at drajbrok@gmail.com or (212) 580-3086

11:00 AM: Welcome & Introduction
by Albert J. Brok, PhD, CGP & Ellen Gussaroff, PhD, LCSW
11:30 AM: Film screening
1:00 PM: Break Refreshments
1:20 PM – 3:00 PM: Presentations and Discussion

Presenters/Discussants:
Joel Idowu , MD
Adaobi Iheduru, PsyD
Jude Aguwa, PhD

Additional commentary:
Delverlon Hall, PhD, LCSW, Assistant Director, Couple Therapy Training, TIMH
Alcia Jackson Peterkin LMSW, 4th Year Psychoanalytic Candidate, TIMH

After attending this workshop, participants will be able to:

1. Recognize differences and better deal with clinical implications between internalized cultural structures and conflictual developmental dynamics.
2. Define five kinds of identity states: Diffuse, Achieved. Foreclosed, Moratorium (James Marcia, 1993) and Reworked (Brok, 2016).
3. Clarify the clinical distinction between identity states underlying a capacity of “having a mind of one’s own” and internalized cultural normative structures blocking autonomous self-development.
4. Distinguish between the dynamics of “Privacy” and “Secrecy” in couple relations.

 

Jude Aguwa, PhD: Dr Aguwa is an Associate Professor, Division of Civic and Cultural Studies, Mercy College. He is the author of two books and many articles. His research interests include, religion and African cultures, religion and social values, religion and modernity.

Albert Brok, PhD, CGP: Dr. Brok is the Director of Group and Couple Therapy training at TIMH and is on the Board of the Division of Psychoanalysis of the American Psychological Association. He is is the past President of Section I, Division of Psychoanalysis, APA. Dr Brok has co-authored four books and published numerous articles including on the unconscious and culture.  His most recent publication is on Psychodynamic Couple Counseling in Reiter and Chanile (eds), Behavioral, Humanistic-Existential, and Psychodynamic Approaches to Couples Counseling, Routledge, 2017 (in press).  His work on cultural issues includes “ Surprises and mutual learning when teaching Psychoanalysis across geographical, language and cultural borders”, IPA, Boston 2015.

Ellen Gussaroff, PhD, LCSW: Dr Gussaroff is Co-Director, Couple Training Program TIMH, and is former co-Director of the two-year Psychotherapy Program at Postgraduate Center for Mental Health and former Adjunct Professor of Social Work at Fordham University.  She has presented internationally in Norway, Madrid, Prague and Buenos Aires. She is a member of Section I, International Committee, Division of Psychoanalysis, American Psychological Association. Her most recent work has been On “the Silent Mother”, IPA, Prague, Czech Republic, 2013 and on the implications for intimacy in modern technological times, exemplified by the Film “HER” which she presented at the IIPA, Boston, Ma. 2015.

Adaobi Iheduru PsyD: Dr Iheduru Is a Clinical Psychologist at the Center for Victims of Torture, Atlanta, Georgia.  She has wide ranging experience in acculturation issues and trauma, and has led seminars on multicultural competency and dealing with stereotypes that can impact clinical work. Dr Iheduru is Co-author of, Preparing tomorrow’s leaders for a world of diversity : Mentorship through involvement, in the  African American Women in Professional Psychology. Published in the Association of Black Psychologists, Psych Discourse. She is bilingual in English and Igbo (a Nigerian language).

Joel Idowu, MD: Dr. Idowu graduated from the University of Lagos, College of Medicine, Lagos, Nigeria. He is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, NY Medical College, Valhalla, NY, and is Director, Psychiatry Residency Training Program, Richmond University Medical Center, and Staten Island, NY.  He has wide-ranging interests in film, culture, adolescent psychiatry, and issues of placebo effects.

Screening and discussion of

Notes on a Scandal

115 West 27th Street 4th Floor, New York, NY 10001
Friday May 15, 2015, 6:00 – 9:00 PM

The problem of ‘Recognition’ in relationships.

In this film Workshop we explore the dynamics of a predator and issues of Envy, jealousy and the relentless pursuit of a fantasied object as they apply to and interfere with all intimate relationships. We shall also discuss how The need for manipulation, idealization. and how the impact of relentless transference impulses can overcome a sense wisdom and empathy in relationship. The triad of Compulsive, Transitional and Transformational relationships (Brok, 2014) will be considered in terms of their relevance to recognition and mutuality in interpersonal experience, couples therapy and meaningful friendships and family relations.

This program is part of a Special film series on Developmental level of Object/Subject Relations and Issues of Intimacy via using examples from film portrayals. It is in Collaboration between Section I, Division 39, APA, and the Training Institute for Mental Health.

Presenters:
Albert Brok, PhD, CGP
is Director of Couple and Group Therapy, TIMH.  Board of Directors, International Committee and Past President, Section I. Division of Psychoanalysis, APA. North American Member Grupo Cineanalises, Argentine Psychoanalytic Association, Buenos Aires. Guest presenter, Madrid Psychoanalytic  Association, (Couple Therapy Division). Author of Montage in Cinema and the Analytic Session (2014)  Dr Brok has authored numerous articles on Couple Therapy focusing on  “Intervention Techniques” “Attachment versus Involvement”,  and “the Significance of Witnessing”. He is Co-author of Una Travesía por la Fabrica de Sueños: intersección entre cine y psicoanálises, Letra Viva, Buenos Aires (2012). Dr. Brok is  private practice, where he works with individual, group, and couples in NYC.

K. William Fried, PhD,
is Fellow International Psychoanalytic Association, Member IPTAR and Past President, Section  I, Division of Psychoanalysis, APA, He is a frequent guest presenter and discussant on films depicting relationship issues in the TIMH Couple Therapy program. Editor of Reminiscence Feature, DIVISION/Review,  Dr. Fried is also in private practice in NYC.

Ellen Gussaroff, LCSW, PhD
is Associate Director, Couple Therapy Training, Senior Faculty and Training Analyst, TIMH. Author of numerous  psychoanalytic articles on Issues of Identity and Identification, Enactments, Couple therapy, and most recently on the “Silent Mother” IPA, Prague, 2013.   She is in private practice working with individuals and a couples.

Bonnie Kaufman, MD
is a Member of the Association for Psychoanalytic Medicine, Columbia Psychoanalytic Center. Author of Cinematic Techniques and Psychic Mechanisms – Psychoanalysis and Film, International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies #8 (2011), and, Power Sublime and  Dangerous: Self analysis in the Filmcraft of the Last Emperor (1998). Dr. Kaufman has a private practice in NYC.

For information: Contact Dr. Albert Brok, 212 580 3086  Drajbrok@gmail.com