The Primal Father on the Parental Field (Zoom)

"I set out to explore how we theorize fathers – notably, what I term the primal father - and how psychoanalytic theorizing helps to construct men’s engagement with children and childcare..."

This field is required.
This field is required.

Please join us on Saturday, January 9, 2027

10:00 am-12:45 pm EDT

Registration is required for this program.
This event will be held in-person at BPSI and via Zoom.
 
The Primal Father on the Parental Field 
 

BPSI is honored to welcome dialogue with Ken Corbett around his groundbreaking paper. Ken writes: "I set out to explore how we theorize fathers – notably, what I term the primal father - and how psychoanalytic theorizing helps to construct men’s engagement with children and childcare.  I hold that we are left to bring the primal father into sight.  To see him engaged in childcare, soma-to-psyche.  To see his provision and preoccupation inflected by the ordinary eros of daily caregiving.   

I explore the primacy that characterized my work with my first patient, a three-year-old boy. I ask, could I be primal and be someone other than a mother?  I link this question with our insufficient psychoanalytic theorizing of fathering and childcare.  The luxury of the paternal embrace, the potential of the paternal “yes,” the paternal body as a site of sustaining growth is not represented within the psychoanalytic discourse on parenting.   

At the same time, we are also left to bring the primal paternal analyst into sight.  To see him offer the kind of metabolizing and containing kinetic flow that establishes the analytic object. At present there are two modes of erotic transference:  the maternal and the Oedipal.  I set out to introduce a third mode: the primal paternal."

Speaker

     

Ken Corbett, PhD is a Professor at the New York University Program in Psychoanalysis & Psychotherapy and serves on the faculty of the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California. He is the author of Boyhoods: Rethinking Masculinities and A Murder Over a Girl: Justice, Gender, Junior High.

Discussants

     

Cecil Webster, MD is a child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, and founder of Webster Clinic in Boston, a group practice offering psychodynamically informed, culturally responsive care to children, adults, and families. He is a lecturer in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and McLean Hospital. His writing and teaching on identity development, LGBTQ+ family systems, and the reach of policy into the consulting room include chapters on pediatric gender identity and invited presentations to the Biden White House. He is Secretary of the Board of BPSI and serves on the Board of Editors of The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child.”

Moderator

     

Cary Friedman, MD is President of BPSI, where he serves on the faculty and is a Training and Supervising Analyst. He is a past Lecturer, Part-Time at Harvard Medical School and maintains a private practice in psychiatry and psychoanalysis in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

 

Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of this program participants will be able to: 

  1. Describe one way that psychoanalytic theorizing helps to construct men’s engagement with children and childcare. 
  2. Discuss the concept of the paternal body as a site of sustaining growth within psychoanalytic discourse. 
  3. Explain two modes of erotic transference: the maternal and the Oedipal contrasted with a third mode: the primal paternal.
 

Schedule

9:45am Coffee
10:00am Moderator Welcome and Framing Comments
10:15am Ken Corbett, Speaker
11:15am Break
11:30am Cecil Webster, Discussant
12:00pm Q&A Dialogue with Audience
12:45pm Program Ends

 
The target audience for this program is mental health clinicians at all levels of training and members of the community.
 
Registration Fee
$130* Program Fee
 
We are committed to accessibility for all of our programs. BPSI offers an Equity Rate, and we invite you to pay what you are able for this event.
 
*The fee is waived for Early Career Clinicians (within 5 years of licensure), BPSI Members & Partners.

 

Recording

This event will be recorded. The video may also be used for educational purposes or made available for purchase. If you do not wish to be recorded, please turn your camera off. By registering for this event, you grant permission to BPSI to the rights of your images, in video or still, and of the likeness and sound of your voice as recorded on audio or video. 

Continuing Education

In support of improving patient care, this activity has been planned and implemented by the American Psychoanalytic Association and the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute (BPSI). The American Psychoanalytic Association is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.

Credits Available:

  • Physicians: 2.5 Credits
  • Psychologists: 2.5 Credits
  • Social Workers: 2.5 Credits
  • Nurses & NPs: 2.5 Nursing Contact Hours 

Other Profession Types

Other profession types will receive a certificate of attendance upon completion of the activity and online evaluation confirming their participation. Participants may claim credit for recertification; however, their professional organization/institute hold the final say on which accredited activities they accept.

Disclosure Statement

None of the planners and presenters for this educational activity have relevant financial relationship(s)* to disclose with ineligible companies* whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients. There is no commercial support for this activity. APsA verifies that all materials generated by AI are accurate, including cited publications and posttests.

*Financial relationships are relevant if the educational content an individual can control is related to the business lines or products of the ineligible company. — Updated December 2022

Licensed Mental Health Clinicians: The Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute (BPSI) has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 6913. BPSI is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. This program offers 2.5 NBCC Clock Hours.
 
 

Event Cancellation Policies & Procedures
Any program participant requesting their individual program registration be canceled must submit their request in writing via email to BPSI Office at team@bpsi.org. For fee-based events, a request for cancellation (and refund using the original form of payment) must be received no later than 48 hours in advance of the event. Requests received later than 48 hours prior to the event will not be processed or accepted. All approved refunds are subject to a $10.00 administrative fee. If BPSI cancels an event, all registrants will receive a full refund of fees paid (no administration charge) no later than two business days following the scheduled date of the event, using the original form of payment.

Grievance Policy
Please address any questions or concerns about your experience at this or any program or event you have attended at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute to the Program Chair, via the Administrative Team, BPSI,141 Herrick Road, Newton Centre, MA 02459; team@bpsi.org; 617.266.0953.

The Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, Inc.,141 Herrick Road, Newton Centre, MA 02459, does not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, sex, age, sexual orientation, national origin or handicap in the admissions, administration of its educational programs, scholarship programs or employment.