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CPD Credits
2.5
Event Type
Live Online Event
Location
Zoom & Recording for 365 days
Time
3:00 pm - 5:30 pm
Standard
£80.00
Trainee/NHS
£68
Friday, May 17, 2024
Forgiveness in Mental Health
Forgiving and Being Forgiven
With Francis Grier & Aleksandra Novakovic
This workshop is inspired by the recently published book Psychoanalytic Approaches to Forgiveness and Mental Health co-edited by Aleksandra Novakovic and Ron Britton. Our speakers include Aleksandra Novakovic and contributor Francis Grier. The focus for this event will be the importance of forgiveness in mental life as well as in couple relationships. Our speakers will offer analytic understandings of the challenges in forgiving and the developmental processes of being able to forgive. Weaving in music from The Marriage of Figaro and Mozart’s Don Giovanni in to their presentations Francis and Aleksandra will offer a visceral and intellectual discussion on the impact of forgiveness.
“The experience of anyone practicing psychotherapy or psychoanalysis is that mental health is seriously affected by feeling unforgiven or being unable to forgive if the people involved are close and important figures in their life. In everyday life in marriage, work, or love, forgiveness is part of the daily traffic of our relationships, if we find that relatively easy we are fortunate. For some it is fraught in general and for some others the particular issues concerned may be very large or emotionally disturbing. To forgive is natural but like many things that are natural, such as childbirth, it can be difficult and it can go wrong.
What the practice of analysis demonstrates is that feeling forgiven and being forgiving is crucial in mental life. Yet little seems to have been written in the analytic literature specifically on forgiveness and how it relates to familiar psychoanalytic concepts such as guilt, reparation, mourning, obsessional-compulsive disorder, or depression.” (Britton, R. & Novakovic, A. (2024). Introduction. In: Psychoanalytic Approaches to Forgiveness and Mental Health. London: Routledge.)
Programme
15.00 (UK) Introductions
15.05 Aleksandra Novakovic
The lost good object regained: conflicting parts of self and the generosity of forgiveness
Two questions are posed: What are the “hurts” that occur in the process of growing up and growing old that can be difficult to forgive? What is it that “allows” a person to forgive and what are the processes involved in forgiveness? Hurts and consequent grievances that can be difficult to work through and forgive coalesce into three domains: early infantile experience, oedipal conflicts in childhood and reverberations of these in later life, such as, the conflicts in the adult couple relationship, and fears, envy and hatred around loss, ageing and death. The paper explores processes of forgiveness that are intrinsically linked to the depressive position: finding the lost good object, coexisting within different parts of self and generosity.
15.45 Q&A with both speakers
16.00 Break
16.15 Francis Grier
Contessa Perdono
The dramatic and musical climax of The Marriage of Figaro, perhaps Mozart’s operatic masterpiece, is famously marked by the unexpected forgiveness of the Count by the Countess, whom the countess has infamously refused to forgive earlier in the opera. This paper will explore the musical and psychological ramifications of forgiveness and the refusal to forgive within couple relationships, not only in this opera but also in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, in which issues around forgiveness are also implicitly central. It will be argued that Mozart’s very differing and contrasting realisations of this core human and couple dynamic through his unique dramatic, verbal and musical talents may partially account for the reputation of these operas for depth and universality.
17.00 Q&A with both speakers
17.30 End
Francis Grier
Francis Grier is Editor-In-Chief of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis, and a Training Analyst and Supervisor of the British Psychoanalytical Society. He is also a couple psychotherapist. He works in private practice in London. He leads a seminar for the psychotherapists in the Fitzjohn’s Unit of the Tavistock Clinic, which specialises in working psychoanalytically with patients who would not normally have access to psychoanalytic treatment. He has written and edited papers, chapters and two books on couple psychotherapy, including Oedipus and the Couple (2005, Karnac), and papers for the IJP on two Verdi operas (Rigoletto and La Traviata), on a gendered approach to Beethoven, on musicality in the consulting room, on the music of the drives and perversions, and on illusory and evanescent qualities in both music and psychoanalysis. Before training psychoanalytically, he was a professional musician. He gave the first ever solo recital at a Royal Albert Hall Proms concert in 1985, and in 2012 was awarded a British Composer Award. In 2023 new compositions have been recorded by the Choir of the Chapel Royal, Hampton Court, and in 2024 a disc of new organ compositions has been released.
Aleksandra Novakovic
Aleksandra Novakovic is Training Analyst and Supervisor of the British Psychoanalytic Association, couple psychoanalytic psychotherapist and a group analyst. She was Joint Head of the Inpatient & Community Psychology Service, Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health Trust. She worked with patients with severe and complex mental health problems and facilitated staff groups for inpatient and community mental health staff teams. She worked at Tavistock Relationships, supervised on couple psychoanalytic psychotherapy training and on the London Institute of Group Analysis Diploma Course in Reflective Practice in Organisations. Currently she teaches for the British Psychoanalytic Association, and is a Consultant Visiting Lecturer at Tavistock Relationships. She co-edited a book on psychotic processes with David Bell (2013, Karnac), edited Couple dynamics (2016, Karnac), co-edited Couple Stories with Marguerite Reid (Routledge, 2018), co-edited Group analysis and organisational consultancy with David Vincent (Routledge, 2019) and co-edited Psychoanalytic Approaches to Forgiveness and Mental health with Ronal Britton (Routledge, 2024).
- Psychotherapists
- Couple and Family Psychotherapists
- Psychoanalysts
- Psychologists
- Clinical Psychologists
- Psychiatrists
- GPs
- Counsellors
- Social workers
- Teachers/Educators
Understand the Significance of Forgiveness in Mental Health: Participants will gain a comprehensive understanding of the impact of forgiveness on mental health, recognizing its crucial role in shaping individuals' psychological well-being.
Analyse Analytic Perspectives on Forgiveness: Attendees will think about psychoanalytic concepts such as guilt, reparation, mourning, obsessional-compulsive disorder, and depression, and how forgiveness intersects with these established psychoanalytic concepts.
Explore Developmental Processes of Forgiveness: Attendees will gain insights into the challenges inherent in forgiving.
Appreciate the Interplay of Music and Emotional Impact in Forgiveness: Attendees will develop an appreciation for the visceral and emotional aspects of forgiveness.
Standard Registration: £80
Group Rates (for 4 or more): Contact makeritafaumui@trtogether.com for customised pricing.
Trainee discount: To qualify for this offer you need to be taking a course which provides core practitioner training in counselling or psychotherapy that is at least 1 year full time or two years part time and recognised by the BACP or UKCP. TR Together reserve the right to ask to see evidence of training being undertaken.
Alumni: If you are a TR Alumni (TRAPC member) please email anitabruz@tavistockrelationships.org for a discount code to add at checkout
Your CPD Certificate will be available to download from your TR Together account 48 hours after the event.