"Psychoanalysis, Race and Class in an Urban ER:

Writing as Remembering, Repeating and Working Through"

with Michael Slevin, MSW

Program Description

While in the private practice of psychoanalytic psychotherapy, Michael Slevin, MSW, worked three-quarter time evaluating people in psychiatric crisis in an urban emergency room. Despite differences of race and class, and despite being in uncharted seas, he found his training and his personal analysis flexible and applicable to the demands of the work and the needs of his patients.

Applying the analytic framework challenges us to continually sample and make sense of our inner world--our biases, memories, fantasies, and personal traumas--and then employ what we can learn from them for the benefit of someone in pain. The circumstances of being a White clinician in an urban ER is at once one of the most challenging applications of psychoanalytic ideas and techniques and an exemplar of the fundamental relationship.

Michael Slevin presents vignettes from his paper, recently published in The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, and discusses the five-year trajectory, from inception through composition to publications, of his essay, "On Being and Becoming: Psychoanalysis, Race and Class in an Urban ER." There will be time for Q&As.

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About the Presenter:  Michael Slevin, MSW, a psychoanalytically trained psychotherapist in private practice, is a member of the Washington Baltimore Center for Psychoanalysis. While in private practice, he formerly worked evaluating people in psychiatric crisis in the emergency room of an urban ER. He graduated first as a Scholar from the psychoanalytic training program of the Baltimore Washington Institute for Psychoanalysis while pursuing a PhD in literature. After receiving an MSW from the Smith College School for Social Work, he returned to the Institute as a clinician and graduated from their Adult Psychotherapy Training Program.

Mr. Slevin was co-editor with Beverly Stoute, MD, of a special section of The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child in Spring 2021 entitled, "African American Children in the World of Structural Racism: Psychoanalytic Perspectives." Mr. Slevin and Dr. Stoute have co-edited a volume, The Trauma of Racism: Lessons from the Therapeutic Encounter, forthcoming from Routledge in the Spring of 2022.

Mr. Slevin has served on the North American Editorial Board of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis and as a peer reviewer for the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association. He revitalized The American Psychoanalyst (TAP) as editor in chief, followed by many years' service as their Special Projects Editor. Until recently, he was a member of the APsaA Advocacy Department and co-chair of the APsaA Task Force on Income Inequality and Class.  

(The presenter of this Scientific Program has signed a Financial Disclosure Form, and has no commercial support that represents a conflict of interest.)

Leaning Objectives: By the end of the session, learners should be able to:

1. Describe how psychoanalytic writing can be understood through Freud's seminal work, "Remembering, Repeating and Working Through."
2. Describe the applicability of the psychoanalytic framework to evaluating people in psychiatric crisis in the emergency room of an urban hospital.

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The Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

The Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 6518. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. The Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas is solely responsible for all aspects of the program.

Social worker receive a letter of attendance documenting 2  hours of continuing education, which may not be accepted by all states to document continuing education credits.

This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of the American Psychoanalytic Association and Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas. The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

The American Psychoanalytic Association designates this Live Activity for a maximum of 2 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)^TM. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE INFORMATION FOR ALL LEARNERS: None of the planners and presenters for this educational activity have relevant financial relationship(s)* to disclose with ineligible companies* whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.

*Financial relationships are relevant if the educational content an individual can control is related to the business lines or products of the ineligible company. -Updated July 2021-

If you have special needs or want information about our cancellation policy, please contact the Programs Manager at [email protected], or leave message at 919-490-3212.