Self and other in mind and brain: some implications of an empirical study for analytic practice
The event will be held in a hybrid format – both in person at the SAP library and online. As space in the library is limited, we encourage early booking once registration opens in the coming days.
In previous papers I described the analytically informed approach based on Ron Britton’s thinking which I developed for patients with severe narcissistic disorders attending NHS services. Later in my paper self and alien self in psyche and soma I described my ideas about how the experience of self and other are represented in the mind and brain and how both are adjusted in narcissistic defences. The results of my recent PhD study have led me to update my ideas and clinical analytic practice. In this lecture I will talk about those findings and the new understanding I have arrived at of somatic symptoms in patients who rely on projective identification to manage their unconscious anxieties. I will illustrate the implications for analytic practice with extracts for the analysis of a patient
Biography:
Dr Susan Mizen is a Jungian Analyst and a retired Consultant Psychiatrist in Psychotherapy first at Charing Cross Hospital in Fulham and then in Exeter. She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists where she chaired the Psychotherapy Faculty Executive between 2014 and 2018. She is currently chair of the Talking Therapies Task Force making the case for investment in psychotherapeutic pathways for hospitalised patients with Personality Disorder and presented the findings of their health economic research in Parliament in April 2025.
She developed a psychotherapeutic day and outpatient programme in Exeter as an alternative to locked placements for patients with severe Personality Disorder. Her Relational Affective Model is an analytic, neuro-scientific approach to therapeutic work with this patient group. She investigated the model in a neuroscience PhD at The University of Exeter. She also works in private practice in Exeter as an Analytical Psychologist.
Respondent: Dr William Badenhorst
Dr William Badenhorst is a Consultant Psychiatrist, Psychoanalyst and Deputy Medical Director of Grespi, a provider of occupational mental health services. He is a General Medical Council (GMC) registered specialist in general psychiatry and psychotherapy. He is a Fellow of the British Psychoanalytical Society and of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and an International Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. Alongside his work in the private sector, until 2020 he also held an NHS consultant psychiatrist post as Clinical Lead for Psychotherapy in Westminster.
Chair : Jay Barlow
Annual Lecture Programme
10h00 – 11h30 Annual Lecture paper
11h30 – 12h00 Tea/coffee break
12h00 – 12h30 Respondent
12h30 – 13h00 Q & A and discussion
Bookings
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