No Human is Illegal: Dislocation and Exclusion of Otherness in Working with Trauma on the Couch and in the World 

February 5, 2019 8pm

Richard Ledes • Documentary Film Director
Luca Flabbi, PhD, Gabriella Pediconi, PhD, Glauco Genga, MD • Discussants 

Since the beginning of 2014, 1,112,332 refugees crossed the borders of Greece. The documentary No Human is Illegal will be presented, illustrating the drama of the refugee as s/he arrives ‘spit out’ by the sea on the coast of the Greek island of Lesvos. An international group of three analysts, Pediconi, Genga and Flabbi, will discuss with the film director, Richard Ledes, the theme of hate and the surge of nationalism in the world as a social phenomenon of our days. Next, Anna Christopoulos, drawing from her clinical experience with several of her colleagues within the group “Doctors of the World,” will present a qualitative research study seeking to understand the internal experiences of refugees. She will review the findings from this study to date and then present two interviews which illustrate intra-psychic processes involved in coping, as well as inner changes that can come about in the refugee experience. This panel aims to intertwine the social and the clinical starting with the worldwide surge of nationalism, continuing with working with trauma clinically as it relates to transgenerational transmission of disassociated hate.

Richard Ledes is an American filmmaker and writer based in New York City, best known for his 2012 feature film drama Fred Won’t Move Out about Alzheimer’s disease starring Elliott Gould and Fred Melamed. He holds a doctorate in comparative literature from NYU, where he wrote a dissertation on the cultural significance of the rise of mental healthcare in the U.S. based on treating veterans after WWII.
Maria Gabriella Pediconi is researcher and professor of dynamic psychology at university of Urbino, and a psychoanalyst of Società Amici del Pensiero “Sigmund Freud” of Milan, Italy.
Glauco Maria Genga, MD, is a psychiatrist, consultant to the Italian Air Force and senior psychoanalyst, member of Società Amici del Pensiero ‘Sigmund Freud’, Milan, Italy.
Luca Flabbi, PhD is an Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and a regular member of the board of the psychoanalytic society Società Amici del Pensiero – Sigmund Freud (SAP), based in Milan, Italy.
Anna Christopoulos, PhD is an associate professor of Community-Clinical Psychology and director of the Graduate Program at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greece) and the director of Psychological Counseling Services at the National and Kapodistrian University. She is a psychoanalyst, member of the Hellenic Psychoanalytical Society, European Psychoanalytical Federation, and International Psychoanalytical Association.

Educational Objectives:
After attending this activity, participants should be able to:
1. Describe varying psychoanalytic perspectives of the refugee experience and place those perspectives in the context of contemporary social phenomena, such as the surge of nationalism.
2. Describe the refugee experience in order to gain a deeper appreciation of transgenerational transmission of disassociated hate and the resistance to working with trauma.