We are born, with our genetically and epigenetically determined bodies, into a world of culture. We are surrounded by symbols, verbal or not, that structure our brains in specific, lasting and pervasive ways that establish how we experience our physical, emotional and social selves. It installs the ways we perceive and understand our universe, that unique viewpoint we each embody, and believe to be unequivocally true and right.
As psychoanalysis works with the patients' unconscious, it inevitably addresses areas that relate to this early imprinting, and the analyst must know about this in order to comprehend the full meaning of unconscious material. And as importantly, the relationship the patient has with the analyst is bound by the cultures of both parties, awareness of which falls to the analyst both to avoid mis-comprehensions and counter-transferences, as well as to adapt to the patients' expectations so as to facilitate the alliance.
We will look at the descriptions of various anthropologies, amongst which the Maori, Hindu India, the Southeast Asian Hmong and Cambodian people, hunter-gatherer tribes of Africa, Europe north and south, the Dineh and Hopi folks of the US Southwest, and more. We also will portray sociological/ideological cultures, such as Confucian, Protestant, Libertarian and others.
Our presentations will aim to understand each of these cultures in terms of how they deal with basic human needs: the seven affective circuits, the quest for meaning and the gestalting of experience, the handling of Oedipus, ie family structure and parentage, and the positioning of the individual within the society. And how do they provide individuals with a Sinthome, the psychic glue that keeps us from disintegrating under the pressures of inner and outer demands and impingements, as well as of the distorting effects of the memories of childhood trauma. Also, what is the role of the (big) Other in a culture, and how does the Imaginary influence a culture as opposed to the Symbolic.