The Other as a Potential Enemy
Speaker: Luigi ZOJA
Luigi ZOJA
Luigi ZOJA, Ph.D., is an Italian psychoanalyst and writer.
Ph.D. Former Training Analyst of C.G. Jung Institut - Zurich and past President of CIPA (Centro Italiano di Psicologia Analitica). Former President of IAAP (International Association of Analytical Psychology). Former teaching activity at the School of Psychiatry of the Faculty of Medicine, State University of Palermo, at the University of Insubria (Italy). Visiting Professor of the Beijing Normal University and at the University of Macao (China). Clinical practice in Zurich, then private practice in Milan, in New York and, at present, again in Milan. Diploma in Analytical Psychology of the C.G. Jung Institut, Zurich. Lecturer in Italy and abroad. Author of papers and books, published in Italian, English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, Russian, Polish, Czech, Romanian, Lithuanian, Slovenian, Chinese and Korean.
More information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Zoja
Position: Ph.D. - Psychoanalyst and writer Country: Italy
Even the most normal thought is constantly infiltrated by paranoia. According to the statistics, as a form of mental disorder it is relatively insignificant. Whereas other forms of mental pathology exclude the individual from society, paranoia can assist in the gaining of great power, by providing the public with a scapegoat. The classic twentieth-century examples are Hitler and Stalin. Ever since the mass media have existed, they have had the great responsibility of combating this distortion, which is a cause of the worst evils, or of going along with it. In the digital world, theoretically the chances of achieving complete, objective information have increased enormously: in practice, however, the main thing that has increased has been confusion in the average citizen. It seems that knowing the other personally remains the best defence against indiscriminate hatred.
Book List
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The Face and Body of the Other
Speaker: Garry COCKBURN
Position: IIBA CBT - BSW (Hons), MNZAP (APC) Country: New Zealand
When an infant sees herself in the eyes of her loving mother, she knows that the “I” inside herself, is reflected in a “me” out there in the world. It is safe “to go on being”, as Winnicott would say. This is the real beginning of human consciousness and the start of an unfolding mystery of transcendent encounters with experience. Love, mythology, religion, art, poetry, and psychotherapy at its best, help to fully disclose this. The opposite is emptiness or hatred of self, a narcissistic absorption in the self, and fear and paranoia about the other. Alexander Lowen knew this in his body, as his first experience was of eyes in the face and body of his terrifying mother. He dedicated his life to creating a form of somatic psychotherapy that would restore the “deepest feeling of the heart” and transcend “the fetters of unconscious fears”. We have inherited his vision and the challenge to recognize ourselves, our me, even in the face and body of those who hate or are self-absorbed. This is still the major challenge of our times.
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