INTERNAL OBJECTS AND THEIR VICISSITUDES:  AN EXPLORATION INTO THE PSYCHOANALYSIS OF CULTURE AND RELIGION

Monday, February 12, 2007
7:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

Presenter:  Brian Grant, Ph.D.
Dr. Brian W. Grant is Lois and Dale Bright Professor of Christian Ministries, and Professor of Pastoral Care and Counseling at Christian Theological Seminary, Indianapolis, Indiana, and Executive Director of that institution's Counseling Center.  He maintains a small private practice in pastoral psychotherapy, marriage and family therapy, and supervision.

Seminar Description
Dr. Grant will initiate a conversation linking the following:
1)  The nature and formation of object representations in general.
2)  How objects representations of culture objects - God, nations, race, class - take shape.
3)  How those representations shape or compromise the health of individuals and communities.
4)  What kind of events change our relationship to the representatives and/or change the representations themselves.
5)  What implications does all this have for religious and political leadership and psychotherapeutic practice?
Dr. Grant's presentation will address therapeutic challenges as well as personal challenges presented by our cultural internal objects.

Objectives:
1)  Define the formation of object representations, and give one example.
2)  Define how our internal culture objects of God develop, and give one example.
3)  Name two implications of events changing our relationship to the representation in therapeutic practice.