PSYCHOANALYTIC VIEWS 6: ‘Gender, Sexual Identity and Sexuality’ (2012)

This year, the 6th annual Psychoanalytic Views Symposium will explore a subject that has been crucial to the century long development and practice of psychoanalytic theory and is still being debated and enriched with new perspectives today.

In one of his letters to Fliess, Freud writes “Most recently I have been busy with the delineation of sexual acts, and in the process discovered the pleasure pump (not the air pump) and several other curiosa, but for the time being shall not talk about them…” Yet Freud continues to be fascinated, and to think and talk about not only sexual activity, but also gender, child sexuality, psychic representations of sexuality and sexual identity. Thus psychoanalysis, which relies on the unity of psychic and sexual development, is grounded in this inquiry. Freud’s theory of childhood sexuality was revolutionary. Through this theory we had the opportunity to scrutinize the inner world of human beings through psychosexual development periods.

We are not born as men and women; masculinity and femininity develop over time both in relation to and independent of out biological fate. Anatomy is what is given to us; all of us determine our psychological, social, and emotional life and object choices with the meanings we attribute to what has been given to us.
At the outset, psychoanalysts mostly analyzed women patients. However, the theory was most constructed over the psychosexual development of men. According to some, this was unfair to women. In time many counter views and new perspectives emerged. Today, according to the contemporary perspective, gender as a complex concept is influenced by many frames of reference. Each individual’s masculinity and/or femininity is unique and distinct. Sexual identity is constructed socially, politically and psychologically.

In this symposium, we aim to introduce how the approach to gender, sexual identity and sexuality has evolved from the beginning of psychosexual theory to the present, and discuss diverse approaches and perspectives. We hope to you can join us for a lucrative discussion…

PSYCHOANALYTIC VIEWS 6
http://www.psikanalitikbakislar.org
“Gender, Sexual Identity and Sexuality”
8-9 December 2012
Bosphorus University Cultural Center
Albert Long Hall
(South Campus)

Scientific Committee
Mine Özgüroğlu (Chair)
Gülgün Alptekin
Refhan Balkan
Berrak Ciğeroğlu
Pınar Limnili Özeren

Guest Speakers
Chris Johannidis
Itamar Levy
Jacqueline Schaeffer
Lynne Segal

Organizing Committee
Nilgün Taşkıntuna (Chair)
Yavuz Erten
Işın Sayın
Ümit Eren Yurtsever