Salon Description: According to Jan Abram, psychoanalyst and Winnicottian scholar, “Winnicott proposed that the core problem for the human being is not primarily psychosexuality, as Freud held… rather it is the ‘fact of dependency’. This observation shifted the focus in psychoanalysis to the early psychic primary relationship. Subjectivity, in this paradigm, is inscribed with the mother’s primary maternal preoccupation (or not).” (Abram & Hinshelwood, p. 93). This salon will introduce elements of Winnicott’s work and thought – particularly his focus on maternal holding and human dependency – and will explore these ideas in dialogue with a Catholic vision of the human being. Two pieces of his writing will be offered to read and discuss.
Margaret Laracy, Psy.D., is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst in private practice in the Chicago area. Her prior clinical experience includes work in community-based, hospital, and group practice settings. She completed her PsyD at the Institute for the Psychological Sciences (now Divine Mercy University) and psychoanalytic training through the Contemporary Freudian Society. She has taught at the graduate level at the Institute for the Psychological Sciences, the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, and Mount St. Mary's Seminary.