In our new webcast series “Voice of Experience”, Dan Jacobs asks Malkah Notman about women in psychoanalysis. Malkah T. Notman, MD, is a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute and a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. This conversation was recorded on February 10, 2017, in the BPSI Library. A more detailed interview of Dr. Notman had been produced earlier by the...
“2+2=5”: Reason and Empathy in a Post-Factual Era
Today marks exactly two months since the Women’s March on Washington, one of the largest protests the capitol and the country have ever witnessed. We asked BPSI member and Social Awareness Chair Dr. Deborah Choate for her thoughts on how our new political reality affects human relationships, both in the realm of psychoanalysis and in the “real” world. Deborah Choate, MD “Alternative facts.” The...
“Alms for Oblivion” : Memory, Desire and Mortality in 20TH CENTURY WOMEN
On January 17th, 2017, BPSI screened 20th Century Women at the Coolidge Corner Theatre. The film went on to receive the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. The following essay is adapted from remarks delivered after the screening. Harold J. Bursztajn, M.D. Mike Mills’s semi-autobiographical film, 20th Century Women, is about more than the gender and time period suggested by the title. It tells the story of a teenage boy being raised...
Book Review: War and Turpentine
by Simona O. Grabel, PhD A book which begins with a quote from All Quiet on the Western Front gives us fair warning of the cataclysm which is to follow. In War and Turpentine, the Flemish author Stefan Hertmans offers us a fictionalized account of his beloved grandfather’s memoirs, whose life spanned two centuries. Perhaps in atonement for the heirloom watch the author dropped and shattered, Hertman’s account of his grandfather’s life...
Dreaming Together and Apart in LA LA LAND
On Tuesday December 20th, BPSI screened LA LA LAND at the Coolidge Corner Theater, as part of it’s monthly Off the Couch series. The following was adapted from remarks delivered following the screening. Benjamin Herbstman, MD, MHS Thank you for joining us tonight for this achingly beautiful film, and thanks for sticking around for the discussion. I’d like to take about 10 minutes to talk about how film,...
The Election and Family Values
By: Alexandra Murray Harrison, M.D. Important Note: The image in this post and in all the previous ones are not images of the children discussed in the posting. They are simply children whose photos I have collected throughout my travels. After the election, I was moved to write a blog post to parents and other child caregivers to support them in talking to their children about the election. Many parents at the preschool where I consult were...