‘Psychoanalysis & You’
The official podcast of the American Pyschoanalysis Association (APsA)

Season 2, Episode 9:
Does Living Through Difficult Times Impact Our Bodies?
Considering a Somatic Perspective, with Jessica Benjamin and Chris Walling
Listen to more at apsa.org/podcast

Our Guests
Jessica Benjamin is best known as the author of The Bonds of Love (1988), which brought a feminist intersubjective perspective into the psychoanalytic field, and of “Beyond Doer and Done To: An Intersubjective View of Thirdness” (2004), the basis for her recent book Beyond Doer and done To: Recognition Theory, Intersubjectivity and the Third (2018). . She has been one of the leaders in the relational movement in psychoanalysis since its inception. She teaches and supervises at the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis as well as at the Stephen Mitchell Relational Studies Center of which she is a co-founder. She co-directed and initiated a project for acknowledgment between Israeli and Palestinian mental health professionals during the period 2003-2011.

Quote:

"This very vexed problem that people have in the face of witnessing injustice and knowing that they're both complicit, but also resisting and protesting it, and I don't just mean politically, externally, I mean internally feeling in some way abraded, if not actually violated by what you're, Witnessing, and then at the same time, knowing that there are all these ways you can help being complicit and participating in the system.

So I think that produces, let's say, stress on your nervous system, right? This is like, there's an ongoing nervous system stress. Knowing. Bad things are happening. I'm not part of it. I am part of it. I'm not part of it. And that whole experience of helplessness parallels individual trauma to a certain degree. Maybe it wasn't removed, but it's still having that same stress on your system. So we could call that perhaps vicarious trauma."


Dr. Chris Walling, PsyD, MBA, FABP is a licensed clinical psychologist, board-certified psychoanalyst, and an active leader in the bio-behavioral sciences. Dr. Walling is Associate Professor in the Department of Research Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies, his clinical interests survey the fields of human sexuality, relational psychoanalysis, somatic psychotherapy, soma-aesthetics, and trauma psychologies. He is a Fellow of the American Board of Psychoanalysis, a Fellow of the International Psychoanalytical Association, and a member of the New Center for Psychoanalysis where he serves as Faculty in the Adult Psychoanalytic Training program and serves as Chair of the Faculty Committee, Dr. Walling also serves on the American Psychoanalytic Association’s Committee on Gender & Sexuality. Dr. Walling is a Clinical Research Fellow at Kinsey Institute for Research on Sex, Gender and Reproduction located at Indiana University Bloomington and serves on their International Advisory Council. Dr. Walling maintains a private practice in Los Angeles, California.

About APsA

Welcome to " Psychoanalysis & You,” the official podcast of the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsA). We explore the intricacies of psychoanalysis under the guidance of our host, Gail Saltz. Founded in 1911, the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsA) is the oldest national psychoanalytic organization in the nation. APsA is committed to being a professional membership organization for psychoanalysts, psychoanalytic psychotherapists, academics, researchers, students, and other interested people – all whose work is profoundly informed by psychoanalytic theory and values, and to supporting their education and continuing professional development.

Official Podcast

Each episode features engaging discussions on key psychoanalytic concepts, such as transference, defense mechanisms, and the role of the unconscious in everyday life. Whether you're a psychology student, a mental health professional, or simply curious about your own psyche, our content is designed to enlighten and inspire.

Our Host

Dr. Gail Saltz is best known for her work as a relationship, family, emotional wellbeing, and mental health contributor in the media where she is a go-to expert for commentary on the mental health aspects of current/breaking issues and news. She is a bestselling author of numerous books. She serves on the public information committee for the American Psychoanalytic Association and for The Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry. Dr. Saltz is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the NY Presbyterian Hospital Weill-Cornell School of medicine, a psychoanalyst with the New York Psychoanalytic Institute.

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