The Social Unconscious in our Theories and Praxis: The Case of Wilfred Bion

A Half-Day Conference hosted by the Department of Clinical Psychology. 

Conference Overview

The conception of a Social Unconscious appeared at the very inception of the field of psychoanalysis. In fact, the term was coined by the first formally trained psychoanalyst and the first president of the American Psychoanalytic Association. It was intensely resisted and eventually erased from analytic literature and curricula. It continues to be misunderstood and resisted despite its necessity and utility. Considering the ways culture, ideology and collective structure the unconscious expands our field of inquiry and deepens our contact with ourselves and our patients. 

Reserve Your Spot

Registration is now open to all interested people through Brown Paper Tickets:

In-Person Tickets

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What to Expect

The workshop will begin with a lecture on the origins of the social unconscious in analytic theory. The Social unconscious is a mental structure that exists in all people and not something that is relegated to minority or marginalized groups only. It organizes our perceptions and shapes our thinking. In fact, its contents are reproduced in our thinking, perception and comportment. To illustrate the point, in an attempt to expand our models of mind to include the social and transcendent dimensions of our experience, the conception of a social unconscious will be applied to the work of Wilfred Bion. Wilfred Bion was born in Mathura India. His primary care-taker during the first nine years of his life was an Indian Ayah (nanny). The arc of his theoretical contributions clearly reproduce conceptions and sensibilities that are discontinuous from the rest of psychoanalysis. The discontinuity, I suggest, is best understood as the re-emergence of eastern cultural dispositions that he must have acquired during his childhood in India.

The lecture will be followed by a discussion between Dr. Dajani and Dr. Cushman and a Q&A period. This will be followed by a case presentation and discussion about the clinical application of these ideas. Lastly, we will apply conceptions from the social unconscious and from Bion's theory of alpha function and 'attacks on linking' to better understand our experience in a rapidly changing society and culture. 

Our Presenters

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Dr. Karim G. Dajani, Psy.D., is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst with a specialization in working with issues related to cultural dislocation and displacement. His research and writing include publications on the links between cultural systems and the unconscious of individuals and groups. He sits on the editorial board of the International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies. His recent works include a special issue dedicated to the social unconscious and an upcoming chapter on race and ethnicity in contemporary psychoanalytic theories and praxis that will appear in the next edition of the textbook on Psychoanalysis.

Dr. David Cushman is a licensed clinical psychologist. He is a core faculty member of the Clinical Psychology (PsyD) Department at the California Institute of Integral Studies. He came into the field of psychology with an interest in thinking about both individuals and systems, and locating the individual within larger socio-cultural-political structures that produce marginalization, trauma, and widespread disenfranchisement. He has written and published on community mental health from a psychoanalytic perspective and on whiteness in the clinical encounter. His involvement in psychoanalytic organizations has centered on integrating psychoanalytic thinking with community mental health. Dr. Cushman trained and worked for several years at RAMS Inc., a community mental health clinic in San Francisco, where he was a clinician, supervisor, and program manager. He has a private practice in Oakland, where he sees children, teens, adults, and couples.

Related Academic Program

Clinical Psychology Department