MONDAY NIGHT SEMINAR - October 16th, 2023

 on Zoom

The Unsettling Dis-ease of Late Modern Life:  A Psychosocial Perspective on (Corona Virus) Boredom

with Jenny Huberman, PhD

This talk explores how boredom emerged as a central threat to Americans’ sense of well-being in the early days of the Covid 19 pandemic.  Drawing upon media coverage from a range of sources, I ask, what do responses to the Covid 19 pandemic reveal more generally about the way boredom has emerged as one of the central dis-eases of modern life? Why has free time become something that increasingly generates intolerable anxiety? In what ways can studying responses to the Covid lockdown help us trace larger transformations in the social construction and subjective experience of time?  I argue that while many Americans experienced boredom as a form of social death engendered by the deroutinizing aspects of lockdown life, responses to the Covid 19 pandemic also reveal the way boredom has emerged as a form of psychic alienation permeating the very core of American Society. Drawing upon insights from psychoanalytic theory, I will ultimately propose that our dis-ease with free time may be linked to a growing incapacity to fantasize as more and more of our mental lives are colonized by the digital infrastructures and extractive imperatives of our 24/7 society (Crary 2014).

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LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

After attending this session, participants should be able to:

1. Explain the role societal forces play in inhibiting our capacity to fantasize.
2. Explain the way boredom is generated by intrapsychic conflict.
3. Explain how integrating traditional methods and practitioners within a given community may facilitate integration of newer clinical methods and create opportunity for healing of historical traumas.
4. Describe how boredom comes to be experienced as a form of social death.
5. Describe how boredom is generated not only by forms of social marginalization but by the mandates of an extractive capitalist economy.
6. Explain how anthropological and psychoanalytic perspectives on boredom can be used to better understand the way patients experience and grapple with boredom.

Monday, October 16th, 2023

7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Central Time

This seminar is free and open to the public.

The Zoom link will be emailed to registrants on October 13th.

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1.5 CMEs/CEUs are available for this seminar.

Certificates of attendance are FREE for Center members,

$30 for non-Center members.

(Details about how to receive CMEs/CEUs will be provided during the seminar.)

Helpful Information to Access and Participate in the Center Seminar

·     We strongly recommend that you use your PC or Mac for this meeting rather than phone or tablet, as the reception and functionality is much better.

·     When you enter the meeting, you will be on mute. You are free to unmute yourself during the event during discussion.

·     Make sure you have labeled your name in the box with your video picture. If you have not done so, or if you want to change your name, place your mouse on your video image. In the right corner, you will see three dots (…). Click the dots, then click “rename” and insert your name as you want it to read.

Continuing Medical Education Credits

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 American Psychoanalytic Association and Greater Kansas City-Topeka 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 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE INFORMATION FOR ALL LEARNERS: 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.

*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 July 2021-

About the Center

The Greater Kansas City-Topeka Psychoanalytic Center is a nonprofit organization which provides a forum for discussion of theoretical, cultural, and clinical ideas regarding psychoanalysis, as well as networking opportunities for professionals, through community forums, professional workshops and annual film series. Membership is open to any person with a serious interest in psychoanalysis. The Center is the parent organization of the Greater Kansas City Psychoanalytic Institute, which provides post graduate training in the theory and practice of psychoanalysis. More information about the Greater Kansas City-Topeka Psychoanalytic Center is available at www.gkcpsa.org.