Scientific Meeting: Why We Don’t Learn from the Past: Memory, Identity and Blame
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September 17, 2022
10:00 am - 12:00 pm
- Buy your ticket at nypsi.org. PLEASE NOTE: Ticket Registration is NOT the same as ZOOM registration.
- One day prior: Complete ZOOM registration for webinar which you will receive by email from Sharon Weller. This step involves entering your name and email address. If you do not complete this, you will NOT receive link to webinar. PLEASE CHECK ALL EMAIL FOLDERS IN CASE IT GOES INTO SPAM OR OTHER. YOU MUST COMPLETE BOTH NYPSI WEBSITE REGISTRATION AND ZOOM REGISTRATION.
- Click on email from Lois Oppenheim (host) which contains ZOOM link to “enter” the webinar.
- Evaluation survey and CME/CE documentation will be emailed the day after the event.
The 1058th Scientific Program Meeting:
“Scientific Meeting: Why We Don’t Learn from the Past: Memory, Identity and Blame”
(Note: Registration closes 9/16 at 4PM.)
Saturday, September 17, 2022
10: 00 am – 12:00 pm (EST)
Presenter: Coline Covington, Ph.D.
Every large group or nation has its own historical myth or narrative based on “chosen traumas” and “chosen glories”[1] that defines its identity. When the group’s existence is threatened, its chosen trauma is reactivated as a warning of danger and to instill aggression against the foreign enemy. Although the “chosen trauma” serves to strengthen group identity in times of crisis, it may have destructive consequences if it is used to reframe and distort history for political purposes. For example, in attempting to deny involvement in atrocities, groups may defend themselves by adopting the narrative that they were the real victims, either of an invading force or of prior historical conflicts. They shift the blame to someone else. When the aggressors are attacked, they become the wounded innocent and guilt is projected on to the other. The “chosen trauma” signifies the group as victim, not as aggressor, and absolves the group of wrongdoing. “Chosen traumas” and “chosen glories” are fundamental to group identity as they create a narrative of purity. While we advocate the importance of learning from history, it is the very dynamics of group identity, as distinct from individual identity, that prevent us from learning from our past. This view questions the relevance of applying traditional models of psychoanalytic development to large group behaviour and highlights a confusion between psychoanalytic conceptions of group and individual psychology.
[1] Terms coined by Prof. Vamik Volkan, the founder of political psychology.
Coline Covington, Ph.D. is a Training Analyst of the Society of Analytical Psychology and the British Psychotherapy Foundation and former Chair of the British Psychoanalytic Council. For many years, she has combined her background in political science and criminology with her psychoanalytic practice and thinking. From 2011-2013, Dr. Covington was Senior Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars, Washington, D.C. and Visiting Research Fellow in International Politics and Development at the Open University. Since 2013, she has been a Fellow of International Dialogue Initiative (IDI), a group formed by Dr. Vamik Volkan, Lord Alderdice, and Dr. Robi Friedman to apply psychoanalytic concepts in understanding political conflict and the effects of trauma on political behavior. Dr. Covington has written a trilogy on political morality and the unconscious. The first book of the trilogy is Everyday Evils: A Psychoanalytic View of Evil and Morality (Routledge, 2017). The second For Goodness Sake: Bravery, Patriotism and Identity (Phoenix Publishing House, 2020). The third, Who’s to Blame? Collective Guilt on Trial is to be published by Berghahn Books in 2023.
Marie Rudden, M.D. is Assistant Clinical Professor in Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical Center. She has been a geographic-rule training and supervising analyst for APsaA and training and supervising analyst for the Berkshire Psychoanalytic Institute. Dr. Rudden has written more than thirty scholarly articles on panic disorder, depression, mentalization, change processes in psychoanalytic and cognitive-behavioral psychotherapies, cocoon states, leadership, small and large group regressions, and on transference and the psychoanalytic relationship. She has co-authored two books, Psychodynamic Treatment of Depression (now in its second edition) and From the Ground Up: How Frontline Staff Can Save America’s Healthcare. Dr. Rudden is an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies and on the North American editorial board of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis.
Educational Objectives: Upon completion of this activity, participants should be able to:
- explain the importance of group purity and righteousness in group identity.
- describe the differences between individual and group identity and why they prevent groups from learning from the past.
The American Psychoanalytic Association designates this Live Activity for a maximum of [2] AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE INFORMATION FOR ALL LEARNERS: None of the planners and presenters for this educational activity have relevant financial relationship(s)* to disclose with ineligible companies whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients. *Financial relationships are relevant if the educational content an individual can control is related to the business lines or products of the ineligible company.
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