Getting to Grips - Primitive anxieties and idealisation - implications for self-harm and violence in adolescence

Getting to Grips with Kleinian Concepts: Primitive anxieties and idealisation - implications for self-harm and violence in adolescence 

This event continues our exploration of Kleinian thinking with a focus on different aspects of child psychoanalysis. 
Catalina Bronstein will examine violence in adolescence – whether directed toward the self or toward others – as a response to intolerable feelings and persecutory phantasies. 

Drawing on Klein’s theories of primitive unconscious phantasy, the maternal body, and the early superego, Catalina will explore how these internal pressures shape the adolescent's experience of bodily change. 

Particular attention will be given to the formation of the ego ideal and the way idealised body-images become tyrannical standards. In this context, the mirror – and increasingly digital self-representations such as selfies – can transform into persecutory objects, evoking shame, hatred, and violent repudiation of the embodied self. These dynamics are further exacerbated by social media, whose amplifying power intensifies exposure, comparison, and the potential for public humiliation.

Joshua Durban will be the discussant and the event will be chaired by Christine English. 

All registered attendees will receive a link to the recording following the live event once it has been edited which will be valid for two weeks following the event. These events will be in English

Catalina Bronstein is a Fellow and training analyst of the British Psychoanalytical Society and an adult, child and adolescent psychoanalyst. She is a Visiting Professor at the Psychoanalysis Unit, University College London, and a former President of the British Psychoanalytical Society.
Catalina works at the Brent Adolescent Centre in London and in private practice with adults and adolescents. She has written and published many book chapters and papers. She also has edited a number of books, among them Kleinian Theory. A Contemporary Perspective which has been translated into many languages. She co-edited with Edna O'Shaughnessy Attacks on Linking Revisited, and also co-edited On Freud's Neurosis and Psychosis, The New Klein-Lacan Dialogues and On Freud’s The Uncanny, and, with Sara Flanders, Child and Adolescent Psychoanalysis in a Changing World.

Joshua Durban is training and supervising child and adult psychoanalyst at the Israeli Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, Jerusalem (IPA) . He is a member and a research analyst at the Psychoanalytic Center of California, Los Angeles and the clinical director of VAC- Vista Del Mar Autism Center , LA, which provides psychoanalytic treatment for infants children, adolescents ,young adults and their families.

We are a charity, and we rely upon income from events like these to continue our work. However, we do not want the price of entry to be a barrier to anyone keen to attend our online events. If the ticket price is prohibitively high for you at the current time, please email the MKT Administrator at contact@melaniekleintrust.org.uk, who has a number of free places available for each event.

How we use your data: please note that by registering for this event you are giving consent for us to add your details to the Melanie Klein Trust mailing list. We use Mailchimp to store subscribers' details, which we use to send occasional emails about news and events that may be of interest. We don't pass on subscribers' details to anyone else and you can unsubscribe at any time. For more details see our privacy policy