Meet the Author: The Subversive Edge of Psychoanalysis
November 8, 2025, 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
All times listed are in Pacific Time (PT) unless otherwise noted.
PLEASE MAKE NOTE OF THIS IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
- This program is being presented in person only at NCP.
- Registration Closes at 4:30 pm a day before the event.
- Pre-registration is required. You will receive confirmation and details by email.
- Contact Byrd at byrdb@n-c-p.org if you have questions.
NCP PRESENT:
MEET THE AUTHOR: THE SUBVERSIVE EDGE OF PSYCHOANALYSIS
Psychoanalysis has always had a subversive and non-conformist edge to its method, theory, and practice. The health of psychoanalysis may be contingent on how much of mainstream psychoanalysis permits and tolerates its subversive tendencies. This celebration of Jimmy Fisher’s new book, The Subversive Edge of Psychoanalysis, will focus on radical and iconoclastic experiments in the history of psychoanalysis and in contemporary psychoanalysis. The meeting will be framed as a scintillating conversation with Elena Bezzubova, a distinguished colleague. It will highlight some specific themes:
Robert Stoller’s appreciation and use of erotic countertransference in the case study of Belle in his book Sexual Excitement.
Jean-Paul Sartre’s movie script, The Freud Scenario, in which Sartre audaciously constructs an intersubjective Freud.
The Psychoanalytic Free Clinic movement in Europe in the period between the wars, where psychoanalysis significantly moved into the socio-economic realm by offering free and low fee analysis to poor people, unemployed, artists, intellectuals, and a population priced out of individual treatment.
In exploring the character structure and transferences of the artistic movie, A Dangerous Method, there will be an appreciation of the creative and innovative work of Sabina Spielrein, who positioned herself between Jung and Freud, and who was forgotten for many decades in the history of psychoanalysis.
In the essay “Trump As Symptom,” we will discuss Trump’s rhetoric and policies, while providing an empathic understanding of his followers and MAGA base, examining psychoanalytically the politics of hatred, grievance, and resentment.
The subjective essay “A Psychoanalyst Serves on a Jury,” Fisher’s thought experiment of combining simultaneously legal methods and the rule of law with psychoanalytic insights, providing a high level of complexity about the trial, as well as a shattering picture of how jurors may experience secondary trauma.
Goals of the meeting:
- To illustrate aspects of subversiveness and non-conformity in the history of psychoanalysis and contemporary psychoanalysis
- To distinguish subversiveness from mainstream psychoanalysis and demonstrate how the mainstream absorbed or opposed the dissidents, regarding their work as “deviations.”
- To understand how the current state of health of psychoanalysis is contingent on the presence and toleration of subversiveness within the ranks.
Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the meeting.
PRESENTERS:
David James Fisher, PhD specializes in the history of psychoanalysis, the convergence of cultural history and critical theory with psychoanalysis, and psychoanalytic applications to politics, movies, literature, and works of art. He has been practicing psychoanalysis and psychotherapy for 46 years. This is his fourth book. He is a Senior Faculty member and on the Board of Directors at NCP and a Training and Supervising Analyst at ICP.
Elena Bezzubova, PhD maintains a private psychoanalytic practice in Newport Beach, teaches at UCI and NCP, and serves as a Training and Supervising Analyst at ICP. She is a published scholar and a frequent presenter at international conferences.
FEES:
General Registration is Free!
Recording:
This event will not be recorded.
Format:
This event will be in person only.