Join us for the 2023 Sue Fairbanks Lecture

In an era of managed care, how can psychoanalytic principles be woven into a community mental health system? By exploring hateful countertransference reactions – both his own and those of members of the community in which he practices – Brian Ngo-Smith will examine professional tensions that arise in working with an unhoused client. What do such reactions tell us about the complexities of working psychoanalytically in public practice settings? Through this lens we can begin to understand what a homeless client may represent to her city, as well as to her therapist. This lecture and discussion will consider how psychoanalytic thinking can challenge current “best practices” in community mental health by focusing on long-term stability, while also expanding these ideas into macro practice with larger systems that resist change.

At the end of this event, participants will be able to:

• Identify how hate in the countertransference can manifest as a way to eschew social and treatment responsibilities.
• Respond to critics of psychoanalytical practice who cite inaccessibility of prohibit cost by demonstrating cost savings when working analytically in a community setting
• Describe ways to apply psychoanalytical interventions to communities that resist change