Child Colloquium Series

In this paper I shall present and examine in detail clinical vignettes when the erotic field has been intense. I refer to my concept of open-bodiedness (2022) in relation to the need for the perception of the bodily states of both the analyst and the analysand.  The trajectory from the analyst’s wish to silence sexual transference and countertransference in the consulting toom, followed by the analyst’s initial reluctance to discuss the hot feelings with colleagues, and then the impact of publication anxiety when writing through  (2022) the experiences and revising my papers are described. I shall show how somatic countertransference, reverie, and projective identification are harnessed creatively in the service of transformation.  The concept of analytic neutrality is revisited. The importance of the third to help provide an analytic space for thought and meaning, rather than enactment and impasse, is discussed. I shall outline more recent aspects of my explorations, journey and thinking in what has been called goldmine and minefield.

Jennifer Davids, Ph.D., Fellow of the British Psychoanalytical Society and IPA member, is a chartered clinical psychologist; a child, adolescent and adult psychoanalyst; and a clinician researcher, trained at the Anna Freud Centre and then at the British Psychoanalytical Society. She is a supervising analyst for child and adolescent psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. She lives and works in London, UK. Jennifer has worked in the public and private sector. She was the chief Clinical Psychologist at the Anna Freud Centre and, after qualification in child and adolescent analysis (where she twice won the Anna Freud centre prize for her clinical papers), a clinical and teaching staff member for 20 years. Jennifer worked in the National Health service as a Consultant Psychotherapist leading a multidisciplinary team. Jennifer has taught on the faculty of the BPaS, the Tavistock Clinic, University College and Birkbeck College London, and at the Maudsley Hospital. She is serving her second term on the IPA in Health Committee. Jennifer teaches internationally and has published widely. She is completing her second book, tentatively titled “Initial encounters with children, adolescents and their families: Contemporary perspectives”, to be published by Routledge. Her first book, “The nursery age child”, was published by Karnac in 2010. Jennifer is a member of the editorial board of the British Journal of Psychotherapy and is a peer reviewer for the IJP and the Journal of Child Psychotherapy. She is on the faculty of the Harlem Family Institute and is a community member of the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California.

Charles Dithrich, Ph.D., is a faculty member and personal and supervising analyst at the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California. His writing, teaching, and consulting draws extensively on Bion and Winnicott, especially with regard to early states of being. His interests include the intersections of mysticism and psychoanalysis. He has written on psychoanalysis and music, dreams, imagination, creativity, and the interpersonal relational field. His interests include the healing potential of psychedelics within therapeutic settings.  He works with adults, couples, and children in Oakland, CA.