Diane Davis Lecture: The Ethics of Omission: “Othering” in Psychodynamic Treatment, Presented by Yudit Jung, Ph.D., LCSW

The Ethics of Omission: “Othering” in psychodynamic treatment This clinical workshop examines Othering (viewing or treating a person or group as intrinsically different from, and therefore inferior to, the social majority) as a source of chronic, cumulative trauma. We will explore how patients’ experiences of social exclusion, discrimination, and violence shape their sense of self, their relational patterns, and their behaviors, and how these experiences emerge in treatment. Our ethical responsibility requires an examination of the conflict around the powerdifferential between analyst and patient who belongs to an excluded, “Other” social group. Avoiding the discussion is an ethical misconduct. Drawing on Contemporary Relational Psychoanalysis, which integrates attention to the patient’s social context, we will focus on how the unconscious of both analyst and patient manifests in the therapeutic, emotion-centered relationship (i.e., the transference), and how the transference can bring us to an awareness of the unconscious bias of both. Because Othering can be unconsciously repeated within the therapeutic relationship itself, this awareness, though potentially unnerving, is essential to helping patients feel and express their deeply traumatizing life experiences. Conceptualizing Othering and working from a trauma-informed perspective, with greater self-awareness, enhances our empathic attunement and clinical effectiveness.

Yudit Jung, Ph.D., LCSW, is a Training and Supervising Psychoanalyst certified by the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsA). She has lived and worked in many different countries and settings while keeping a private practice. Dr. Jung earned her Ph.D. in Social Sciences from Frankfurt University, Germany, in 1976, with “magna cum laude.” After moving to the USA she received her MSW from SUNY, Stony Brook in 1983, followed by a Postdoctoral Certificate in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis in the Department of Psychology from NYU in 1989. She completed a second psychoanalytic training at the Contemporary Freudian Society (CFS) in 1997. In 2009, Dr. Jung joined the faculty of the Emory University Psychoanalytic Institute (EUPI) in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Emory University School of Medicine.

This is a virtual event. Registration is required. Fees are $25.00 for current members and $75.00 for non-members.

Time is 9am-12:30 pm. CE offered: 3 Ethics Hours Registration is required.