Developing Tools for Radical Openness and Creating a Sense of Belonging with Kathy Pogue White, PhD

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About the seminar

This seminar series aims to raise awareness of unconscious states of mind related to race in clinical work, utilizing a variation of the Balint method. This method utilizes group engagement with small clinical vignettes presented by community members. These narratives describe a significant racial issue that arises during analytic work with a person of color, whether as the analyst or as a supervisor. For example, the analyst or supervisor may have felt stuck around a particular racial enactment, be puzzled by a racialized countertransference, or be curious about excessive positive or negative feelings towards the analysand or supervisee. Additionally, if both parties in the dyad identify as white, the analyst or supervisor may become aware of a gap or absence of material relating to race.

In response to the case vignette, the group will make their associative life available to Anna as a way to connect with and open up Anna's associative life. The Balint hypothesis posits that unconscious resonances between group participants can facilitate access to new feelings and perspectives.

Our process

Each session will consist of an opening group plenary, during which a senior member will present a vignette describing Anna's work with a Person of Color analysand or with a training case involving a Person of Color supervisee. The focus is on collective deep listening to and clarifying Anna's working experiences and thoughts on racial difference.

Working in smaller breakout groups, participants use their associative lives to frame a response to Anna's posed question. The goal is to learn and gain insight into what race means in the context of clinical work.

About the faculty

Kathleen Pogue White, Ph.D., Educator and Reflective Practitioner, is a Clinical Psychologist, Psychoanalyst, and Principal of Pogue White Consultancy, LLC. Kathleen is a Supervising Analyst at the NYU Postdoctoral Program; Consultant to the Holmes Commission, APsaA; a Distinguished Member of the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations; Founding Member of the WAWI Organization Program; Founding Member of Black Psychoanalysts Speak; Founder and Co-Director of The Chocolate Salon, a platform for black dinicians to connect and reflect. Kathleen authored "Surviving Hating and Being Hated,..." (2001)