Wishing You the Worst: Addressing Collegial Enactments and Disavowal in the Psychoanalytic Community

Description What happens when political conflict ruptures the container of collegial psychoanalytic community — and what does that rupture reveal about class, money, and the unconscious life of our profession?

This DLE takes up that question directly. Drawing on Muriel Dimen’s work on money and psychoanalysis, Barbara Ehrenreich’s analysis of the professional-managerial class, and Bion’s theory of attacks on linking, participants will be invited to examine their own collegial networks, referral practices, and class positions as sites of enactment, disavowal, and unconscious power dynamics. The discussion is grounded in two clinical narratives: a personal account of a referral rejection rooted in perceived political views about Israel and Gaza, and a clinical vignette involving a Palestinian-American patient.

Together, these create a space for clinicians to do what our profession rarely makes room for — speaking honestly about money, class anxiety, and political allegiance, and how these shape who gets referred to whom, who gets shut out, and who gets silenced.

Presenter Mike Langlois, LICSW Mike received his BA from Connecticut College in 1991, and his MSW from Smith College School for Social Work in 1994. He has 30 years of experience counseling adults and families. He started out working in public school and clinical settings to advance the access of students with differing abilities and learning challenges. Mike identified the crucial role of emerging technologies for equity and health. His work includes treating patients who use video games from a gamer-affirmative stance, and his theoretical background combines psychodynamic theory, contemporary cognitive and learning theory with emerging technologies. He is currently a Teaching Associate in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, where he supervises interns and clinicians. He also served on the Massachusetts Commission for LGBTQ Youth. He was appointed to the Massachusetts Commission for GLBT Youth, & serves in an advisory capacity to the NASW on issues including youth suicide prevention. Currently Mike serves as a resource on digital literacy & social justice issues such as dismantling racism, LGBTQIA awareness & safety, disability awareness, & cultural awareness. Mike is licensed in CA, CT, DC, IL, MA, ME, NY, OR, RI, & VT.

Mike is the author of Reset: Video Games & Psychotherapy.