Braving the Erotic Field in the Treatment of Adolescents presented by Dr. Mary Brady, PhD.
Despite the centrality of the developing sexual body/mind in adolescence, the psychoanalytic literature on erotic transference and countertransference related to this period is notably sparse. Erotic feelings in the consulting room with adolescents can feel taboo, causing the analyst to avoid the immediacy of these feelings. Excessive timidity on the part of the analyst can limit the growth of the capacity for containment of sexual feelings and yield what Dr. Brady terms "erotic insufficiency.” Dr. Brady will offer clinical material from a period of erotic transference and countertransference with a 12-year-old boy to consider these ideas. She suggests that the very terms ‘erotic transference’ and ‘erotic countertransference’ can feel defensively remote and antiseptic, and that ‘erotic field’ better captures the subtle, nuanced interplay of feelings.
Learning Objectives:
1. Participants will be able to discuss the term ‘erotic insufficiency’ in our psychoanalytic treatments.
2. Participants will be able to describe the value of conceptualizing sensitive experiences in a treatment using the concept of the ‘erotic field.’
3. Participants will be able to discuss the issues particular to the erotic transference in the treatment of adolescents.
Dr. Mary Brady, PhD., is an adult and child psychoanalyst in private practice in San Francisco. She is on the Faculties of the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis and the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California. She is Editor of Braving the Erotic Field in the Treatment of Children and Adolescents, published by Routledge in 2022. Her books, Analytic Engagements with Adolescents and The Body in Adolescence were published by Routledge in 2018 and 2016 respectively. She is North American Co-Chair for the Committee on Child Analysis (COCAP) of the IPA. She co-leads a Psychoanalysis and Film group.
Drew Tillotson, PsyD, FIPA, BCPsa is a board-certified psychoanalyst in private practice in San Francisco, California. He is a Personal and Supervising Analyst, faculty member and Past President of the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California (PINC) and Past Vice-President of the North American Psychoanalytic Confederation (NAPsaC). He has published on aging, masculinity, book reviews for the International Journal of Psychoanalysis and Fort Da and is co-editor and chapter author for Routledge’s “Body as Psychoanalytic Object: Clinical Applications from Winnicott to Bion and Beyond” (2021), a winner of the 2022 Gradiva Award for Best Edited Book. Most recently he was a chapter author for Routledge’s “Braving the Erotic Field in the Treatment of Adolescents and Children,” (2022) edited by Mary T. Brady, PhD.
