“Future Shock 2023 & the Anticipation of the Future in the Clinical Situation” Presented by Dr. Janice Lieberman, Ph.D.

Those in psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy are asked to consider their past as it affects their present conflicts and problems. This is in hope that the “future” will work out better for them. It has been a hidden assumption that the future will be bright for a well-analyzed individual. However, it has become increasingly difficult to imagine the “future”. Patients and analysts alike are caught in a dizzying reality of CHANGE, more extreme than that described by Alvin Toffler in his ( 1970 ) book “Future Shock”. Toffler described the “shattering stress and disorientation that we induce in individuals by subjecting them too much change in too short a time”

These days, each decade has brought with it enormous changes in technology, social values,and more, to be described in this paper. The recent “plagues” we have experienced, political and medical, Trump and Covid19, have altered our sense of what is right vs. wrong, have altered our sense of safety in this world, of trust in our leaders to do what is right and to keep us safe. It has greatly altered the ways in which we conduct therapy and the rules we set for maintaining the frame. It has altered the means by which we communicate with each other and with colleagues, friends and relatives. It has greatly altered the ability on the part of the patient and analyst to predict positive outcomes of future endeavors. Attendees will be asked to participate by bringing in their own personal anecdotes and clinical vignettes.

Janice S. Lieberman, Ph.D. is a Training and Supervising Analyst and Faculty Member of IPTAR, where she serves on the Board of Directors. She was for many years on the Editorial Board of JAPA and has written and presented numerous papers on topics,e.g. gender, body image, deception, psychoanalysis and art. She is the author of three books: “The Many Faces of Deceit: Omissions, Lies and Disguise in Psychotherapy” (with H. Gediman);” Body Talk: Looking and Being Looked at in Psychotherapy”, and “Clinical Evolutions on the Superego, Body and Gender in Psychoanalysis”. She maintains a private practice on the Upper East Side.