Scientific Meeting: My Country, My Self: Separation, Identity and Dissonance

1. Buy your ticket at nypsi.org. Making payment/signing up is only step 1.
2. 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.
3. Click on email from Lois Oppenheim (host) which contains ZOOM link and password to “enter” the webinar.
4. Evaluation survey and CME/CE documentation will be emailed the day after the event.

The 1048th Scientific Program Meeting:

“My Country, My Self: Separation, Identity and Dissonance”

Saturday, May 22, 2021

10:00 am – 12:00 pm (EST)

Presenter: Coline Covington, Ph.D.

Discussants:  Anna Balas, M.D. and Gilda Sherwin, M.D.

In this presentation, Dr. Covington will explore our primary attachment to our country and the profound implications this has on how we understand our identity.

Only when there is a break in one’s life does the question of identity and belonging arise. At these moments, we are faced with choice – not only between past and present, between membership in one group or another, between geographically staying and leaving – but a more fundamental choice that concerns our identity; who we see ourselves as being and what it is that we believe in. The implicit defining relation between place, belief system and identity is suddenly laid bare. This caesura creates a mental space within which we become acutely aware of how much our identity is linked to a complex network of loyalties, beliefs, and communities and the traumatic impact of losing these ties which leaves us in a state of diaspora.

This presentation will draw on clinical material and various accounts of this experience of rupture with one’s country, whether actual or ideological, to deepen our understanding of what it means to be “at home” within one’s country, within one’s self, and in our relations with others.

2 Contact Hours. 2 CME/CE hours offered. See details below.

Coline Covington, Ph.D. is a Training Analyst and Supervisor of the Society of Analytical Psychology and the British Psychotherapy Foundation. She is a Fellow of International Dialogue Initiative (IDI), a think tank formed by Prof. Dr. Vamik Volkan, Lord Alderdice, and Dr. Robi Friedman to apply psychoanalytic concepts in understanding political conflict and the effects of trauma on political behaviour.

Coline has been writing a trilogy on morality and the unconscious. Her first book in the trilogy, Everyday Evils: A Psychoanalytic View of Evil and Morality, was published in 2017 with Routledge. Her second book, For Goodness Sake: Bravery, Patriotism and Identity, was launched 2020 with Phoenix Publishing House. And her forthcoming book, Who’s to Blame: The Political Morality of Collective Guilt, will be published by Phoenix Publishing House in 2022.

Anna Balas, M.D. is a child and adolescent psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Training and Supervising Analyst at NYPSI and Associate Professor at Payne Whitney. Together with Dr. Sherwin, Dr. Balas cofounded a study group on Trauma and Transmission of Trauma at NYPSI in 2002 and teaches a course on Psychic Trauma. She gave a presentation on “Traumatizing Societies and Resilient Children: Personal Reflections, The Impact of 9/11 Through the Lens of the Child Psychoanalyst,” and talks on applied psychoanalysis and trauma. Healthy and pathological narcissism is a related area of interest, as well as the psychological impact of adoption and assisted reproductive technologies on children and their families. She is in private practice in Manhattan.

Educational Objectives: Upon completion of this activity, participants should be able to:

1. explain the profound importance geographical attachment and dislocation have on individual identity;
2. identify and work in the consulting room with the transferential relationships patients hold towards their country of origin.

Physicians: This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of American Psychoanalytic Association and New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute. The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

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 of this CME program have any relevant financial relationships to disclose.

Psychologists: New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY – 0073. (as of 4/23/21)

New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute is approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to sponsor continuing education programs for psychologists.  New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute maintains responsibility for these programs and their content.

DISCLOSURE: None of the planners and presenters of this CE program have any relevant financial relationships to disclose.

Social Workers: New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0317.