TICP Scientific Meetings

With Mehr-Afarin Kohan, MD, FRCPC Social action has been observed to be a remedy against invisibility and despair. It helps individuals to join in, take on roles, become members of something larger than them, which is an antidote to losing hope and a way of bridging different self-states. (Shapiro & Carr, 2017) In coining their concept of “Relational Citizenship”, Hassinger & Pivnick (2022) discuss how participation and collaboration in groups built on “tolerating differences with empathy, mutuality and accountability” (pg. 124), where members are beneficiaries as well as contributors to a common cause, provide an opportunity for members to regain hope and vitality by experiencing themselves as part of something larger. It is in the act of joining in, of becoming a citizen of a group that the individual finds an opportunity to reclaim/reinvent/rediscover self-states while maintaining their integrity. (Shapiro & Carr, 2017)

With Brent Willock Ph.D., C.Psych. Through careful analysis of rich clinical material, this article explores the proposition that at least some, perhaps many, transgender identities may be formed to manage (defend against) prior developmental relational challenges and trauma. Adverse experience during the stage of differentiation out of the dual unity that Winnicott, Mahler, and others emphasized may prompt some boys to retreat to the security provided by earlier, undifferentiated, primary identification with their mothers. The diagnostic and treatment value of considering this possibility and perspective is underscored. Two children’s profound wish to understand their difficult developmental trajectories is examined, along with their astonishing ability to utilize art to tackle their questions about their developmental identity histories (who they are, where they came from, and where they are going). Without thorough understanding of these early developmental processes and defenses, it may be difficult or impossible to provide optimal assessment and treatment for these individuals.

With Hilary Offman, MD FRCPC This presentation explores how gaps, silences, and contradictions in family stories—the “narrative holes” such as unexplained family estrangements, sudden changes in behaviour, or unspoken tragedies—serve as vital entry points into understanding transgenerational trauma. Drawing on clinical material and contemporary analytic theory, Dr. Hilary Offman examines how both personal and collective histories of transgenerational trauma and existential anxiety may be obscured or disavowed yet continue to shape patients’ lives in profound ways. By attending to the moments when narratives do not add up, clinicians can make use of their countertransferential responses to approach the dissociated, unspoken aspects of trauma. This session will delve into strategies for working with confusion and affective disorientation in the clinical setting, with special attention to how sociopolitical context and cultural identity influence the telescoping of traumatic experience across generations. Colleagues interested in relational psychoanalysis, trauma theory, and the complexities of inherited suffering will find this session relevant to their practice and thinking.

TICP Workshops

Co-Sponsored

Clinical Signatures: The Analyst behind the Theory

Current and Upcoming Events

TICP Scientific Meetings

Upcoming Events

Upcoming Events

Upcoming Events

TICP Workshops

Upcoming Events

Co-Sponsored

Upcoming Events

Clinical Signatures: The Analyst behind the Theory

Upcoming Events

TICP Members Only

Upcoming Events