Louis Rothschild, Ph.D.
“Exploring Breakdowns and Recoveries In and Between Fathers and Sons:
Implications for Treatment”
Sunday, November 5, 2023
In Person AND by Zoom
at
Notre Dame University of Maryland
We will send the log-on link and password no later than the Friday before the conference.
Conference 10AM-1PM
BSPS November 5, 2023 Conference Registration Form
Program Description:
Based on his recently published book about fathers and sons, Louis Rothschild takes a psychoanalytic lens to fatherhood. Through reflections and refractions in encounters with clinical material, myths, literature, and personal reveries, Dr Rothschild addresses the role of the father and masculine identification with an eye toward professionals working with individuals, couples and families. Developmental issues and concern about therapeutic action will guide our discussion of topics such as resolution of enactments and crunches in order to show that nurturing capacities often demonstrated in fatherhood are central to a nurturing model of masculinity.
To that end, this seminar will illuminate fatherhood as a time of potentiality and active development for both parents and children. From a historical viewpoint, fathers receive a rather cold conception in Freud’s work, and their role has often been neglected in a matricentric psychoanalytic theory. Here is a feminist consideration of masculinity where fathers may become increasingly attuned to relational mutuality and intimacy as a source of flourishing without sacrificing strength.
Additionally, the concept of ‘Rapprochement’ will be explored to situate the idea of father as another attachment figure who is best when able to be present as a good enough container. Rapprochement is understood in its well-known definition as a sub-phase of child development marked by a dramatic expression of conflict, and also as an expressive ambivalence regarding conflicts between autonomy and dependency found across the lifespan. With material that includes the grief of failed reunion, particular stories are mediated through thinking alongside philosophy and psychoanalytic theory in order to depict the difficulty of integrating nurturing capacities into conceptions of masculinity. As a critique of gendered rigidity, a case is made for a social surround that declares mutual vulnerability to exist in a state of permanent inquiry and relational curiosity.
Such openness can function to aid parents, clinicians, and respective community members. By extension, a good-enough father is one who recognizes breakdown, a need for refueling, and possesses and practices a willingness to encounter uneven rhythms in human dimensions.
About the Speaker:
Louis Rothschild, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist practicing in the greater Baltimore, Maryland area. Specializing in psychoanalytic psychotherapy, his publications have ranged from qualitative to quantitative, and clinical to philosophical. After receiving his Ph.D. from the New School for Social Research where he published on the relationship between essentialist beliefs and prejudice, he completed a fellowship at Brown University’s Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior. While at Brown his categorical interest turned from the social to psychiatric taxonomy, focusing on the relationships between personality and chronic depression. Once in private practice, Dr Rothschild’s writing returned to the intersections between critical theory, psychoanalysis, gender theory and pop culture that had piqued his interest as an undergraduate in San Francisco. Those varied interests have culminated in his first book: “Rapprochement Between Fathers and Sons: Breakdowns, Reunions, Potentialities” that is published by Phoenix in November 2023. Dr Rothschild is also co-editor of another volume: Precarities of 21st Century Childhoods: Critical Explorations of Time(s), Place(s), and Identities.
Dr Rothschild is Past -President of the Rhode Island local chapter of the Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology (Division 39) of the American Psychological Association. He served as a member of the steering committee for the 38th annual Spring meeting of the Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology, which took place in New Orleans (Dr Rothschild’s birthplace). There, he was able to feature one of his paintings entitled “Ghosts and Guardians,” and also helped to plan and deliver a featured panel on the impact of slavery in the United States. His website is: www.louisrothschildphd.com.
Learning Objectives:
At the end of this program, participants will be able to:
- discuss changing conceptions of gender identity within psychoanalysis.
- differentiate hegemonic masculinity from relational models of masculinity in order to frame ego-syntonic aggression as a presenting problem.
- discuss the concept of rapprochement as a childhood developmental marker and as an aspect of normal adult development.
- identify the value of cross-disciplinary study in regard to the conceptualization and management of tranference-countertransference enactments.
- describe and identify one’s own internalized sexism so as to consider how this may impact therapeutic alliance formation and maintenance.
Who should attend? Mental health professionals: psychiatrists, psychologists, clinical social workers, licensed professional counselors, pastoral counselors, as well as persons with an interest in psycho-dynamic and psychoanalytic thinking and application. The instructional level of this activity is advanced.
CE Credits: CE credits are granted to participants with documented attendance and completed evaluation forms. Attendance is monitored. Credits will not be granted to registrants who arrive late or depart early. Credits will be granted to participants who submit a completed evaluation form at the end of the session. It is the responsibility of participants to comply with these requirements. Upon completion of this program and the evaluation form—sent electronically--participants will be given 3 CE credits.
The Baltimore Society for Psychoanalytic Studies (BSPS) is a local chapter of Division 39 of the American Psychological Association. Division 39 is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Division 39 maintains responsibility for this program and its content. BSPS is also recognized by the Maryland State Board of Social Work Examiners as a sponsor of continuing education programs.
Registration: Make checks payable to “BSPS” and mail to: BSPS, PO Box 20910, Baltimore, MD 21209-0910.
Please print and fill out the Registration form and, if you chose it, the Membership form sent to your email, and also on our website, and return with your check.
We will send the log on link and password the week prior to the conference to all registrants who sign up for Zoom.
Evaluation forms will be sent to all participants via email when the conference has ended. CEU certificates will be sent after the evaluation forms have been collected.
Deadline for this conference is October 27, 2023. If you cannot ensure your check will arrive in time, contact us before that date (contactbsps@BSPSmaryland.org).
Important disclosure information: None of the planners and presenters of this CE program have any relevant financial relationships to disclose.
Contact: For additional information, please contact BSPS by email: contactbsps@BSPSmaryland.org
Pre-registration fees:
- $50 BSPS members
- $70 Non-members
- $20 Full-time student members or recent graduate members *
- $30 Full-time student or recent graduate* non-members
* Recent graduates are those who received their professional degrees within the last year.
BSPS November 5, 2023 Conference Registration Form
BSPS Membership plus 4 Conferences Registration Form 2023-24
