Maudsley Lectures in Psychoanalysis | The Fears & Tyranny Cycle: Mental Pain and Exclusion - Gerard Drennan and Muzaffar Husain

Maudsley Lectures in Psychoanalysis | Autumn 2024

Violence in Mind: Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Forensic Work

The Fears & Tyranny Cycle: Mental Pain and Exclusion

Speaker Gerard Drennan and Discussant Muzaffar Husain

Monday 21st October 2024

7:30pm - 9:00pm (BST)

Hybrid

In-person at 10 Windsor Walk and Online via Zoom.

This talk will take a paper entitled 'Fears and tyranny: Observations on the tyrannical child' (Barcai & Rosenthal, 1974) as a fulcrum for thinking about the emergence of violent states of mind in forensic patients. Clinical applications of the concept of the fears and tyranny cycle, in forensic settings and more widely, will draw attention to different types of mental pain that can lead to violent states of mind.  This will also consider how clinicians, clinical teams and institutions might defend against contact with the mental pain of people who need, sometimes desperately and provocatively, not to be excluded from our minds or our social spaces. 

Dr Gerard Drennan is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist in independent practice, who holds the post of Lead Psychologist in the Forensic Mental Health Services of South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.  Gerard's service development and research priorities over the years have been to promote recovery-oriented practice and restorative justice practice in forensic services regionally and nationally.  Gerard's talk will draw on his experience of providing therapeutic interventions to service users in forensic and criminal justice settings and staff support through supervision and reflective practice groups. 

Acts of violence have long been a source of fascination and bewilderment, not least because the shock of their impact invites a particular type of thinking, or non-thinking. When confronted with unthinkable, or apparently mindless, acts, we are all vulnerable to locating the source of violence in the 'offender', and not seeing the links with the violence, both interpersonal and structural, in our families, communities and societies. This lecture series will offer participants an opportunity to engage with a range of contemporary psychoanalytic perspectives on understanding and thinking about different types of violence, in minds and deeds. There will be a combination of theory and clinical presentations. This series has relevance for those who are experienced and those who are new to this area. 

REFUND POLICY: Tickets are fully refundable until 14 days before the lecture, after which time no refunds will be issued.

Concession tickets are available, for students, BPAS candidates and NHS trainees and nurses. Please email outreach@iopa.org.uk if you are unsure if you qualify for a concession ticket.

Views and opinions expressed by speakers are their own and do not represent the views or opinions of the Institute, event organisers or other speakers. We expect delegates to respect the confidentiality of clinical material discussed in our events. The content must not be recorded, conveyed or disseminated in any format and participants must not share access to the event with non-registered participants.