Cultural Encounters: Reflecting Psychoanalytically

Organised by:

British Psychotherapy Foundation

Description

We are fed at the breast of culture, not wholly but to differing degrees. What happens to us when we listen to a song, watch a film, encounter an art object or read a piece of literature? Dr Noreen Giffney introduced the culture-breast, a new clinical psychoanalytic concept in her book, ‘The Culture-Breast in Psychoanalysis: Cultural Experiences and the Clinic’ (Routledge 2021). She developed this concept to help psychoanalysts and psychotherapists to think about the formative and enduring unconscious impact of the arts and cultural experiences on our developing subjectivities and throughout our lives. The culture-breast foregrounds the particularity of our emotional and unconscious experiences with cultural objects (e.g., film, art, literature, music); how they become interwoven with the psychological textures of our personality. While we might be aware of the short-term impact of a cultural object – how it makes us think or feel in the moment – we are usually unaware of how the ephemeral aspect of this experience stays with us and becomes part of us; the unconscious aspect of the experience, in other words.

This event invites us to talk about our experiences with cultural objects, both recent and from earlier points in our lives. We will reflect together as a group on what our encounters with, attachments to, and psychological uses of cultural objects might tell us about ourselves, and how that knowledge might inform our clinical work. The event will feature a private screening of ‘Cultural Encounters’, a new animated short film about the emotional and psychological nourishment provided by our experiences with the arts and culture. The film is underpinned by psychoanalytic thinking and is directed by Noreen Giffney, a psychoanalytic psychotherapist and writer, and Allen Fatimaharan, an illustrator and animator. Noreen and Allen will be joined by Nicole Murray, a chartered psychologist and the editor and co-producer of the film. A panel of clinical practitioners and writers will also share an important cultural experience from their own lives and reflect on its importance from psychoanalytic perspectives: Maxine Dennis (psychoanalyst and consultant clinical psychologist), Helen Morgan (Jungian analyst), Dr Poul Rohleder (clinical psychologist and psychoanalytic psychotherapist), Emmanuelle Smith (psychodynamic psychotherapist) and Professor Emerita Candida Yates (psychoanalytic and psychosocial theorist).

‘Cultural Encounters’ (2026, 5 mins 10 secs, English language) [animated short film]. Directed by Noreen Giffney and Allen Fatimaharan. Written, produced, and voiceover by Noreen Giffney. Illustrated and animated by Allen Fatimaharan. Music and sound design by Lauren Doss. Edited and produced by Nicole Murray received from Ulster University.

Schedule:
5.30 pm – 6.00 pm: Registration
6.00 pm – 6.15 pm: Welcome & opening remarks
6.15 pm – 7.30 pm: Brief informal reflections from invited panel of speakers & small-group conversations about our cultural experiences
7.30 pm – 8.00 pm: Tea & coffee break
8.00 pm – 9.00 pm: Screening & discussion of Cultural Encounters
9.00 pm: Thanks & closing remarks

Book tickets