The 2023 Sue Fairbanks Lecture in Psychoanalytic Knowledge Presents:
The 2023 Sue Fairbanks Lecture in Psychoanalytic Knowledge Presents:
This Couch Has Bed Bugs: On the Psychoanalysis of Homelessness and the Homelessness of Psychoanalysis
Join us for the 2023 Sue Fairbanks Lecture
In an era of managed care, how can psychoanalytic principles be woven into a community mental health system? By exploring hateful countertransference reactions - both his own and those of members of the community in which he practices - Brian Ngo-Smith will examine professional tensions that arise in working with an unhoused client. What do such reactions tell us about the complexities of working psychoanalytically in public practice settings? Through this lens we can begin to understand what a homeless client may represent to her city, as well as to her therapist. This lecture and discussion will consider how psychoanalytic thinking can challenge current "best practices" in community mental health by focusing on long-term stability, while also expanding these ideas into macro practice with larger systems that resist change.
At the end of this event, participants will be able to:
Identify how hate in the countertransference can manifest as a way to eschew social and treatment responsibilities
Respond to critics of psychoanalytical practice who cite inaccessibility of prohibit cost by demonstrating cost savings when working analytically in a community setting
Describe ways to apply psychoanalytical interventions to communities that resist change
Presented by Brian Ngo-Smith, LCSW, BCD-P, FABP
Brian Ngo-Smith, LCSW, BCD-P, FABP, is a psychoanalyst and clinical social worker in Denver, CO. He received his MSW from the University of Iowa and has worked in the mental health field for 20 years, first in residential and hospital settings and later in community mental health before moving into private practice in 2018. Brian completed post-grad training at the Denver Institute for Psychoanalysis, where he is now on faculty, and he also teaches at the Sue Fairbanks Academy through the Steve Hicks School of Social Work at the University of Texas at Austin. Brian is the current President of the American Association for Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work.
This event will take place at the Utopia Theater at the Steve Hicks School of Social Work,
1925 San Jacinto Blvd. Austin, TX 78703
Parking can be found at Manor and Trinity garages
Manor garage
Trinity garage
If you have any questions, please contact ceu-ssw@austin.utexas.edu
The Sue Fairbanks Lecture Series is made possible by the Sue Fairbanks Endowment for Excellence in the Application of Psychoanalytic Knowledge in Social Work. Established in 2009, this permanent endowment is dedicated to educational programs in psychoanalytic knowledge and to promoting excellence in clinical practice.