Meet the Author: Janice S. Lieberman

Brill Library Book Series

Meet the Author: Janice S. Lieberman

Wednesday, January 30, 2019

7:30 – 9:30 p.m.

The Friends of the Brill Library invite you to an evening with Janice Lieberman, the author of Clinical Evolutions on the Superego, Body and Gender in Psychoanalysis  (Routledge, 2018).

The value systems and problematic morality of many of today’s  leaders have affected what is being  heard in the psychoanalyst’s consulting room. These leaders’ blatant disregard for the truth,  their normalization of deception, of “alternative facts”, their greed, have parallels in the thoughts and conduct of certain patients who are in psychoanalytic treatment today. Media idealization of “the body beautiful” and of the acquisition of expensive homes and objects, of what is on the surface, have made the traditional exploration of  the “inner life” a challenge.

This book contains a series of papers Lieberman has written in the past 25 years that include her observations of how changes in values and norms of behavior in ”the world out there” have influenced what is heard in the consulting room. She writes about “a new superego”.  Deception abounds and often goes unpunished. She has observed an increase of greed and envy and an enhanced emphasis on the body and its appearance. Traditional gender roles have been challenged  in fortuitous ways, but a certain amount of chaos and confusion has ensued. Relationships are found and maintained using technology. Many feel lonely, empty. There are parallels for this in several artists’ lives and in their work. She writes about clinical dilemmas and their resolution in working with today’s patients.

Dr. Lieberman will be reading passages from her book, in particular from the chapter “Loss of Integrity in Contemporary Culture and Contemporary Psyche”.  There will be a book signing and books will be sold at a discount.

No CME or CE credits will be offered. 

Janice S. Lieberman, Ph.D. is a Training and Supervising Analyst (Fellow) and Faculty at the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (IPTAR) in New York. She served on the Editorial Board of the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association for many years. She chairs a Discussion Group on Masculinity at the Winter Meetings of the American Psychoanalytic Association and is a Member of the IPA Committee on Sexual and Gender Diversity Studies. She is co-author of “The Many Faces of Deceit: Omissions, Lies and Disguise in Psychotherapy” and the author of “Body Talk: Looking and Being Looked at in Psychotherapy”. She has written numerous papers and reviews on deception, greed and envy, body narcissism and psychoanalysis and art.