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… I am excited to envision a place in which the field of psychoanalysis, and its acceptance of the disorganized human mind, can kiss the thoughtful reasoning of philosophy, the wonderment of religion and perhaps even the concrete usefulness of architecture. Kissing, as Lavin writes, is “a union of bedazzling convergence and identification during which separation is inconceivable yet inevitable” https://www.amazon.com/Ethical-Turn-Subjectivity-Contemporary-Psychoanalysis/dp/1138813281 Read More

"But alongside my admiration, and slight envy of Zaha Hadid, I hear a small ugly voice whispering in my head. This voice says, “she was too big for life and so she died.” It is true, I admit, that she defied so many social norms, being ambitious, creative and successful, and choosing not to marry or have children. This, the ‎Trump-like-misogynist voice in my head says, was too much; the universe could not maintain this kind of female presence." The Shadow of Zaha Hadid Read More

As we think about how to strengthen the link between Jewish homes, Jewish community and Jewish history, we might also wonder how to protect this Jewish home as a private space, one in which individuals have the freedom to create new social structures and to test societal norms. Could this Jewish home challenge the conventions around us and create a space for personal values? Could this home reshape gender roles, resist consumerism, foster environmental consciousness, support economic equality, and do all this while maintaining, and affirming, its connection to Jewish history, ritual and community? Read More

Esther Sperber will explore the concept of home using both her architectural experience of designing homes and theoretical psychoanalytic ideas about memory, internal space and interpersonal relationships.She will draw upon the seminal text The Poetic of Space by Gaston Bachelard. Navah Steiner, a Licences Creative Arts Therapist at SVA's Student Health and Counseling Service, will also contribute insights on the concept of home from the perspective of her psychodynamic work.

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Gaston Bachelard’s Poetics of Space explores the effect of attention on our sense of space and of place’s qualities on our attention. Bachelard writes that the house shelters daydreaming and protects dreamers, therefore contemplating home should help us understand an important intersection between our patients’ embodied psyches and their cultural experience. This presentation will reflect on the meaning of home as habitat, person, place, memory, play, projection, and sometimes prison. Home and the Poetics of Space Read More

We live in a fast world. We eat fast, travel fast, read fragments of stories with great rapidity. And then we realize that in this haste we have lost something valuable. The slow movement, which started with slow food in the mid-eighties, expanded to slow reading (read every word), slow travel (notice the beauty of the wild flower field) and slow schooling (respond to each child). These slow movements share an appreciation of the pleasure and connoisseurship that come with slowing down. We can now add Slow Therapy to the slow movement, a new branding for psychoanalysis. Read More

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Psychoanalysis is Slow Therapy Manifesto Fest: With Robert Berezin, Jill Gentile, Lynne Layton, Tracy Morgan, Peter Shabad, Lara SheehiOctober 10, 2015, 3:30PM Others to Ourselves Steven Kuchuck, Galit Atlas, Hillary GrillRespondent Malcolm Owen SlavinModerator: Esther SperberOctober 10, 2015, 5:15PM

"The synagogue’s primary function is what happens in its sanctuary, the space in which the congregation prays together. But there is a basic contradiction between sincere, personal prayer and the communal, synagogue setting. In prayer, we strive to connect to our most personal feelings of longing, hope, regret and gratitude. For some, this is a transcendent conversation with a divine God, while others may use prayer as a tool for personal introspection and reflection." The Paradox Of Communal Prayer Read More

"If you listen to psychotherapists when they talk to one another, you will often hear them speak of something called the “therapeutic frame.” This term, coined by the psychoanalyst Marion Milner, refers to the set of conventions and ground rules that structure the therapeutic experience. Just as the frame of a painting defines the borders of a work of art, the therapeutic frame is the “container” in which the therapy takes place." "Architecture is a meditation on entering and exiting." The Architecture of Psychotherapy Read More

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