An exploration of relationships, gay and lesbian parenting, HIV/AIDS and loss, and other questions in the therapeutic setting
Presented by the Chicago Psychoanalytic Society in association with the Institute for Psychoanalysis
MARCH 18 & 19, 2000
The Knickerbocker Hotel
163 E. Walton
Chicago, Illinois
Because psychotherapy works to help people live comfortably in society, psychotherapy must keep pace with the changes in society. Today, many of those changes revolve around sexual issues, particularly issues of sexual identity and orientation. Some of the biggest questions are how gay and lesbian patients are treated when they seek therapy and what kind of care do they receive in a psychotherapeutic setting?
This conference will explore clinical questions surrounding gay and lesbian patients–the ways and means of counseling gays and lesbians and the issues they bring to the therapist's office. It will explore problems that are unique to these patients as well as larger questions relating to the sexual experience.
The major presentations at the conference will explore the cultural, psychiatric, and social aspects of homosexuality. Martha Nussbaum, the University of Chicago law, philosophy and classics professor, will focus on sexual practices in fourth and fifth century B.C. Athens, to show how sexuality at that time was shaped by society and did not flow from some kind of "natural" source. This has strong implications for us today, when we tend to see sexual orientation as something that is purely primal and natural.
Dr. Ralph Roughton, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Emory University in Atlanta, and one of the leading thinkers on issues pertaining to the treatment of gay and lesbian patients, will present a "virtual" analysis of a man he treated 20 years ago and will examine how the treatment would be approached differently today.
Elisabeth Young-Bruehl, Ph.D., a Philadelphia-based analyst and teacher, will explore lesbian parenting and its implications for parents, children and society. Moving between matters of the socio-cultural moment and psychoanalytic concerns, she will consider lesbian families in relation to their families, the types of families and modes of having children, and what "two mothers" (and the absent father) can mean for the mothers and their children.
The conference, sponsored by the Chicago Psychoanalytic Society and the Institute for Psychoanalysis, will also tap into the knowledge and resources of a wide range of gay and lesbian organizations and health institutions including, Horizons, Pride Institute, PFLAG, and the Loyola University AIDS Clinic.