Psychoanalysis and Altruistic Living Kidney Donation: Toward a Psychodynamic Understanding of Donor Motivation

Ethics Workshop Presented by Prof. Dr. med. Lutz Goetzmann

Event Price: Fees include CEs. This is a free event for HP/CPC students and candidates, $60 for CPC/HP members and nonmember students, and $90 for nonmembers who are not students.

Continued Education (CEU/CME): 3.0 Ethics Credits

Attendance: Virtual event via Zoom Meeting

Altruism itself is underexplored in psychoanalysis. The topic's importance for learners is its investigation into a peculiar form of altruism. Living kidney donors are unusual, extreme cases in which the acceptable costs to the benefactor far exceed an acceptable threshold for most people. There are many instances of helping a stranger in need, but few would undergo major abdominal surgery with the attendant increased risk of kidney failure themselves. These extreme cases, then, reveal unique features that are otherwise absent, highlight key factors less salient, and offer new opportunities for hypothesis building in typical cases of altruism in psychoanalytic practice.

Learning Objectives: 

1. Learners will review and articulate ideas of the psychoanalytic interpretations of altruism and rescue fantasies

2. Learners will identify and explain psychodynamic features correlated with the wish to donate a kidney to a stranger.

CE information will be sent to all attendees the week after the event.

Refunds are available only with pre-event cancellation.

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 the Cleveland Psychoanalytic Center. 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 3.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.  

The Cleveland Psychoanalytic Center is approved by the Ohio Psychological Association-MCE Program to offer continuing education for psychologists.  The Cleveland Psychoanalytic Center, as Approved Provider 18PO-341019020, maintains responsibility for the program.  This event provides 3.0 CE to psychologists. The State of Ohio Counselor, Social Worker, and Marriage & Family Therapist Board accepts this approval for licensees. This event provides 3.0 CE to counselors and social workers only. 

IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE INFORMATION FOR ALL LEARNERS: The APsA CE Committee has reviewed the materials for accredited continuing education and has determined that this activity is not related to the product line of ineligible companies and, therefore, the activity meets the exception outlined in Standard 3: ACCME's identification, mitigation and disclosure of relevant financial relationship. This activity does not have any known commercial support.