Scientific Program featuring Dwarakanath G. Rao, MD

Saturday, June 1, 2024
10:00 am to 12:00 pm
Hybrid via Zoom or In-Person at 9003 Weston Pkwy

Discovering Ideals and Identity: Culture as Character in the Consulting Room

Presented by Dwarakanath G. Rao, MD

Join us In-Person or via Zoom
 
Registration Fee: $50*

*Free admission and CE/CME credits for PCC members, LDC staff and board, full-time students with ID, and trainees in the Departments of Social Work, Psychology, Psychiatry, and Mental Health Counseling.


Tumultuous events have shaken our world in recent times. As one response, psychoanalysis has reached deeply into the social origins of one’s identity to understand the influence of the world on the individual. Yet, it is not clear how our conceptual and technical strategies should evolve. The paradoxical experience of the mind as individual and collective continues to inspire passionate and partisan debate. Using case examples, this presentation will enter this debate by exploring the traumatic origins of ideals and identity formation and how culture shapes and is shaped in the process. The effects of parental immigration, and generational pressures to conform and to individuate will be explored as they emerge in the work of analysis. Some differences between sociological observations and analytic concepts will be highlighted. Audience participation is encouraged.


About the Speaker

Dr. Dwarakanath Rao completed his medical training in Bengaluru, India and his residency and fellowship at the University of Virginia Medical School and at the University of Michigan Medical School. He is a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute and former President. Dr. Rao is President of the American Association for Psychoanalytic Education. He has written about the psychology of Indian classical music, the caste system, and on analytic perspectives of the Indian pantheon of gods. He has also written about the psychic Wolf in the consulting room and about the neglected affect state of envy. He has served as editorial reader and book reviewer for several analytic journals. He has been the recipient of “Teacher of the Year” several times in psychiatric residency programs and is a sought-after supervisor. Most recently, he presented a paper on an APsA panel entitled “Psychoanalysis of Culture: Culture as Character in the Consulting Room.” He practices in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

After this presentation, participants will be able to:

1. Describe the interplay between cultural psyche and individual psyche.  
2. Apply the notion of traumatic origins of identity and ego-ideal formation in the clinical encounter.
3. Compare the effects of immigration and class on pressures to conform and to individuate.
 

This program is intended for psychologists, psychiatrists, clinical social workers, licensed professional counselors, and other clinicians or interested academics who want to explore the traumatic origins of ideals and identity formation, and how culture shapes and is shaped in the process.

Confidentiality Statement: All case material will be carefully disguised. We ask that participants agree to hold all material presented with the utmost care, following ethical and professional guidelines.

Accommodation Statement: To request an accommodation for this program, please email  Kayla Schilke, PCC Training and Education Program Manager, at least two weeks before the start date.

1.     Rao, D. G. (2021). [Review of the book Caste: The origins of our discontents, by I. Wilkerson]. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 69(1), 412-421.
2.     Ehrlich, R. (2020). [Review of the book The psychoanalytic ear and the sociological eye: Toward an American independent tradition, by Nancy J. Chodorow]. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 89, 645-659.
3.     Shah, D. (2022). When racialized ghosts refuse to become ancestors: Tasting Loewald’s “blood of recognition” in racial melancholia and mixed-race identities. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 32, 584-597.