Event
The Northern Ireland Institute of Human Relations Film Club presents a psychoanalytic discussion of the film Mammal (dir. Rebecca Daly, 2016) and erotic transference on 4 December 2020. This online discussion is facilitated by Dr Noreen Giffney, a Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist, Lecturer in Counselling at Ulster University, and author of The Culture-Breast: Cultural Experiences and the Psychoanalytic Clinic (Routledge 2021).
Mammal represents what happens when losses cannot be borne, when experiences cannot be symbolised, when states of mind become concretised and enacted rather than consciously thought or felt. Losses inside become mixed up with losses outside and feelings towards one person become blurred and projected onto someone else. Mammal offers us a resonant portrayal of the psychical operations of erotic transference and how eroticisation as a psychological defence is oftentimes bound up with trauma, anxiety and aggression. The film locates the scene of erotic transference with the mother; the ‘ma’, ‘mam’, ‘mamma’ in its title.
Attendees might wish to read the following clinical article in advance of the event: Alberto Stefana, ‘Erotic Transference’, British Journal of Psychotherapy 33.4 (2017): 505-513.
Everyone is welcome. It will be of particular interest to psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, counsellors, psychologists, psychiatrists, and researchers in psychosocial studies.
Event registration
Friday 4 December 2020, 7.30 – 9pm
Cost: £5
Pre-registration is necessary: Contact mary.cairns19@gmail.com
Contact Noreen Giffney n.giffney@ulster.ac.uk for further details.
