What Do We Want? Desire, Longing, Pleasure, and the Unconscious with psychoanalyst and sex therapist Juliane Maxwald

What Do We Want? Desire, Longing, Pleasure, and the Unconscious

A theoretically oriented exploration of desire that draws on selected ideas from psychoanalytic thinkers such as Freud, Lacan, Winnicott, Jessica Benjamin, and Stephen Mitchell, alongside contemporary approaches to sexual desire and arousal. Rather than examining each theorist in depth, the workshop uses their ideas to explore broader questions about the unconscious dimensions of wanting, including why longing can sometimes be more compelling than satisfaction, how pleasure and suffering become intertwined, and the ways desire is shaped by fantasy, repetition, and relational experience. Clinical vignettes will illustrate how these perspectives deepen our understanding of sexuality, relationships, and the complexities of human desire.

We will meet online Thursday, February 18th at 1PM NYC (10AM Los Angeles | 6PM London | 19:00 Stockholm | 20:00 Beirut) for 2 hours. There will be time for questions and discussion.

Juliane Maxwald is a licensed psychoanalyst, AASECT-certified sex therapist, author, and educator with more than 20 years of clinical experience. She teaches and supervises across a variety of psychoanalytic and sex therapy institutes and training programs. Her clinical and teaching work integrates relational psychoanalysis, sex therapy, and trauma-informed approaches, with a particular interest in the unconscious meanings of sexuality, desire, shame, and relational experience. She is the author of Psychoanalytic Sex Therapy: Exploring the Unconscious Life of Sexuality (Routledge, 2026) and maintains a private practice in New York City working with individuals and couples.

This event is hosted by Rendering Unconscious Center for Psychoanalysis.

Image: Stills from Mulholland Drive, directed by David Lynch.