Film projection and projective identification: trauma, splitting and therapeutic interventions

Using a particular film, Morvern Caller, (Dir. Lynne Ramsey, 2002) to reflect on the impact of the counter-transference, I suggest that film, with its capacity to communicate intense emotional and pre-verbal states, can make sense of certain key psychoanalytical concepts via a direct emotional experience.

The discussion will outline the way a psychological mechanism vital in normal development may then be used when at a later stage someone is confronted with situations of trauma and loss. 

The speaker

Dr Judith Edwards is a retired consultant child and adolescent psychotherapist who has taught and supervised on various courses at the Tavistock Clinic, where she worked in various capacities since the 1980s. Since retirement she has worked there as a visiting lecturer and also at Roehampton University.

Her book of selected papers Love the Wild Swan was published in Routledge's World Mental Health series in 2016. A past editor of the Journal of Child Psychotherapy, she has published her work in papers and academic books internationally. Apart from her clinical experience over the years, one of her principal interests has been in the links between psychoanalysis, culture and the arts.

Entry is free and open to all, please register online