The Ethics of Community Life
in Psychoanalytic Institutes

Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023
9:30am–12:30pm
Presented on Zoom
2.5 CEU/CME/CE

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Speakers: Jane Burka and Angela Sowa (Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California)
Discussant: David Brooks (Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute, Psychoanalytic Center of California, and Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California)
Moderator: Linda Gelda (Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis)

The presenters address ethics not as guidelines for behavior, but rather as the essence of who we are and how we exist with others. From different angles, both will assert the study of ethics in all its fluid complexities as a component, perhaps even a purpose, for an institute’s existence. They point to ways in which an institute’s failure to prioritize ethics contributes to ethical failures and their resolutions.

In her presentation, "Personal and Community Ethics: A Mobius Strip," Dr. Sowa proposes that the meaning of ethics has been dislocated in psychoanalysis through its all too close association to violations and unethical behavior. She examines the study of ethics as a continuous and reflective ‘being and becoming’. She comments on the disruptive but often necessary collisions involving one’s personal ethic and the group ethic.

In her paper, "An Ethical Violation of One Becomes a Violation of Many," Dr. Burka describes how their institute responded to two separate ethical investigations of senior analysts. Voluntary confidential de-briefing interviews revealed the extent of trauma and confusion that radiates far beyond the victim-perpetrator dyad, infiltrating the whole institute community. She will highlight the dilemma of reaching consensus on “the right thing to do.”

Dr. David Brooks will be the Discussant. There will be time for breakout groups and group discussion.

Learning Objectives:

After participating in Angela Sowa's lecture, attendees should be able to:

1. Identify areas where the personal ethic and the group ethic intersect.
2. Define ethics as an evolving process of being and becoming.
3. List reasons why the study of ethics is necessary to healthy institutional life.

After participating in Jane Burka's lecture, attendees should be able to:

1. Recognize institutional components that might contribute to unethical behavior.
2. Define the differences between confidentiality, privacy, and secrecy.
3. Identify benefits of breaking the silence around ethical misconduct in a psychoanalytic organization. 

References:

For Angela Sowa's lecture:

1. Chetrit-Vatine, V. (2014). The ethical seduction of the analytic situation: The feminine-maternal origins of responsibility for the other. London: Karnac.
2. Harris, A. (2016). The primal scene in and about psychoanalytic institutions.  Studies in Gender and Sexuality 17: 228–233.
3. Rhodes, C. (2023). The ethics of organizational ethics. Organizational Studies, 44(3). 497-514.
4. Scarfone, D. (2017). On “That is not psychoanalysis”: Ethics as the main tool for psychoanalytic knowledge and discussion.” Psychoanalytic Dialogues 27: 392–400.

For Jane Burka's lecture:

1. Burka, J. and Sowa, A. et al. (2019). From the talking cure to a disease of silence: Effects of ethical violations in a psychoanalytic institute. The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 100 (2), 247-271.
2. Gentile, K.  (2018). Assembling justice: Reviving nonhuman subjectivities to examine institutional betrayal around sexual misconduct.  Journal of the American  Psychoanalytic  Association, 66 (4), 647-678
3. Hopper, E. (2013) Traumatic experience in the unconscious life of groups: The fourth basic assumption: Incohesion/massification or (ba) I:A/M. London and New York: Jessica Kingsley.
4. Smith, C. and Freyd, J. (2014). Institutional betrayal. American Psychologist, 69 (6), 575-587.

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Angela Sowa, Psy.D. Personal/Supervising analyst and Faculty at the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California. Dr. Sowa steered the incorporation of group relations training for analytic candidates as Group Faculty chair (2005-2016). She has published papers on ethics, infancy, and extreme prematurity. She serves on the Institutional Issues Committee, International Psychoanalytic Association. She is part of a small group of analysts and group consultants who have organized the first two international group relations conferences for analysts and candidates (2021, 2023). Dr. Sowa is in private practice, Palo Alto, California.

Jane Burka, Ph.D. Personal/Supervising Analyst and Faculty at the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California. She and Dr. Sowa are co-authors of Burka and Sowa et al., (2019) From the talking cure to a disease of silence: Effects of ethical violations in a psychoanalytic institute, The International Journal of Psychoanalysis. Previous publications related to ethical issues: (2008) Psychic fallout from breach of confidentiality, Contemporary Psychoanalysis; and (2014) A chorus of difference: Evolving from moral outrage to complexity and pluralism. In R. Deutsch, Ed. Abandonment and Betrayal in the Analytic Relationship. Private practice for psychoanalysis and supervision, Oakland, CA.

David M. Brooks, Ph.D., Psy.D., FIPA is currently President and a Training Analyst of the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute and a former Dean of the Psychoanalytic Center of California; a PA/SA of PINC; and Clinical Associate of the Neuropsychoanalysis Association.  He maintains a full analytic practice for adults in Chicago, where he specializes in chronic depression, bipolar, schizoid and borderline men, and has published on difficult- to- reach patients with regard to clinical impasse.  Dr. Brooks is a member of the A.K. Rice Institute and uses systems-psychodynamic thinking in his management and leadership role as President of the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute.

Linda Gelda is a Psychoanalyst/Supervisor/Faculty member and Past President of The Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis (MIP).  She is a consulting candidate in Group Relations and is a member of The Center for the Study of Groups and Social Systems, an affiliate of the A.K. Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems. She has served for many years on the Ethics Committee at MIP, on the MIP Board and more recently, was a member of the Racial Equity Task Force and is currently a member of the planning group for MIP’s Town Halls. She maintains a private practice in Newton, Ma. with individuals and couples and is an organizational consultant, using systems psychodynamic thinking in the group relations tradition.