This event begins at 10am PST.

This program, when participated in its entirety, is available for 3 continuing education credits.  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. This presentation also meets the requirements of WAC 246-809-620 (definition of recognized categories of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors, marriage and family therapists and social workers).

Psychoanalyst and Professor Gila Ashtor will present on the innovative ideas of Laplanche on sexuality and why queer theory matters for psychoanalysis in conversation with Writer and Professor of Literature and Critical Theory Grace Lavery, who will present on queer theory, trans and queer culture and psychoanalysis as it relates to the fields of literature and theory of aesthetics and interpretation.

Presenters: Gila Ashtor, PhD, LP is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychoanalysis at Columbia University as well as a faculty member of the Columbia Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. She is on the faculty at New York University’s Postdoctoral Program in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, and at IPTAR. She is the author of three books, Homo Psyche: On Queer Theory annd Erotophoia (Fordham UP, 2021), Exigent Psychoanalysis: The Interventions of Jean Lapalance (Routledge, 2021) and Aural History (Punctum, 2020). Her primary areas of academic and clinical expertise include identity, trauma, and sexuality. She is in private practice in New York City.

Grace Lavery, PhD is a writer, editor, and academic living in Brooklyn, NY. As an Associate Professor of English, Critical Theory, and Gender & Women’s Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, her research explores the history and theory of aesthetics and interpretation, with particular interests in psychoanalysis, literary realism, and queer and trans cultures. Her speculative memoir, Please Miss, was published by Seal Press in 2022.

Her first book, Quaint, Exquisite: Victorian Aesthetics and the Idea of Japan, was published by Princeton University Press in 2019, and her scholarly essays have been published in Critical Inquiry, Differences, Social Text Online, Transgender Studies Quarterly, and elsewhere. She is a General Editor of Transgender Studies Quarterly. She writes for non-specialist readerships on queer/trans culture and politics, and has published work in Autostraddle, The Guardian, Gay Magazine, them, and Catapult, where she has an occasional film column entitled “Lurid Speculations.”

Learning Objective:

1. Participants will be able to define “queer theory,” “aesthetics,” “relationality” and “enlarged sexuality” in context of the field of psychoanalysis.
2. Participants will be able to recognize Laplanche’s innovative contributions to contemporary understanding and debate about sexuality and relationality.
3. Participants will be able to describe how literature and critical theory challenges the bounds of psychoanalytic scholarship in order to further both theory and pragmatic political concerns for sexuality and gender freedom.
4. Participants will be able to identify how increased awareness of the theory of expanded sexuality improves competence in working with the cultural imagination of LGBTQIA populations in clinical practice

Participants: This event is designed for graduate level students in mental health and all mental health professionals from introductory to advanced levels. 

Cost: Ticket Sales will open in January 2025.  $165 for Alliance members/$215 for non-Alliance members/$95 for early career professionals: 3 years of practice of less (including Candidates) 

Refund Policy: Refunds less a $35 handling fee will be given up until three weeks before the presentation. 

This program, when participated in its entirety, is available for 3.0 continuing education credits.  Division 39 is committed to accessibility and non-discrimination in its continuing education activities.  Division 39 is also committed to conducting all activities in conformity with the American Psychological Association's Ethical Principles for Psychologists.  Participants are asked to be aware of the need for privacy and confidentiality throughout the program.  If program content becomes stressful, participants are encouraged to process these feelings during discussion periods. If participants have special needs, we will attempt to accommodate them. Please address questions, concerns and any complaints to Ryan Miller at ryan@rmmpsychotherapy.com.  There is no commercial support for this program nor are there any relationships between the CE Sponsor, presenting organization, presenter, program content, research, grants or other funding that could reasonably be construed as conflicts of interest.  Participants will be informed of the utility/validity of the content/approach discussed (including the basis for the statements about validity/utility), as well as the limitations of the approach and most common (and severe) risks, if any, associated with the program's content.