2019 International Psychoanalytic Scholar Lecture: Fanaticism in Social Groups and in the Analytic Field
March 5, 2019 8pm
Roosevelt Cassorla MD, PhD • Presenter
Brazil
Brazilian analyst Dr. Roosevelt Cassorla discusses fanaticism both as a social phenomenon and as a phenomenon that may arise in the analytic field. Several hypotheses about fanatic aspects of the analytic field are put forward. Aspects of early symbiosis which are remobilized primarily in adolescence are examined, as are container/contained relationships in early childhood which are experienced as fraudulent. Defensive narcissistic organizations which are mobilized in relation to these early experiences are shown to lead to fantasies that manifest themselves as fanatic adherence to various social systems, including religions and political ideologies.
Roosevelt Cassorla is a widely published authority on Psychoanalytic Field Theory. A training analyst at the Brazilian Psychoanalytic Society of São Paulo and the Campinas Psychoanalytic Study Group, and member of editorial board of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis, his present research centers on adolescence, symbolization processes, enactment and analytic technique with patients difficult to reach. His most recent book, The Psychoanalyst, the Theater of Dreams and the Clinic of Enactment, was published by Routledge. He received the Sigourney Award in 2017.
