Intersubjective Self Psychology in Action
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January 20, 2023 - 6pm-8pm Eastern Time on Zoom
The Only Fag Around: Twinship Needs in Gay Childhood
Sam Guzzardi
Aviva Rohde, Discussant
In 2017, a popular article circulated in gay communities entitled “The Epidemic of Gay Loneliness.” This presentation will take a look at the idea “gay loneliness” through the lens of self psychology, particularly as a manifestation of developmental deficits in the twinship domain. Through the presentation of an extended case vignette of a patient who describes his childhood as one marked by being “the only fag around,” the presentation will consider the transformational power of a self psychological analysis in addressing the suffering attendant with such profound loneliness. The presentation describes the patient’s escalation when the analyst misattuned to manifestations of twinship longings in the transference, and details the pathway to repair which, in this case, involved a deep descent into the intersubjective. As such, the essential role of the analyst’s self-reflection in the process of rupture and repair is discussed.
Sam Guzzardi, LCSW, is a psychoanalyst trained at the Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity (IPSS) in New York City. Prior to his analytic training, Sam studied at the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College and at the Yale Child Study Center. He maintains a practice in New York City where he focuses on issues of gender, sexuality, identity, trauma and grief. Sam is the winner of the 2019 Ralph Roughton Award of the American Psychoanalytic Association for his paper “The Only Fag Around: Twinship Needs in Gay Childhood,” published in the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association (JAPA) in 2022. His first analytic publication, entitled “Nicki, Nicholas, Nicole: Play as Relational Therapeutic Action on the Transgender Edge,” was published in Psychoanalytic Dialogues in 2022.
Aviva Rohde, PhD, LP, is a graduate of TRISP where she is a senior faculty member. She is in private practice in New York City where she sees adults, adolescents, and couples. She is a supervisor at TRISP and NIP. In addition she is a co-author of Intersubjective Self Psychology: A Primer (Routledge, 2019).
Two Continuing Education Credits for
Social Workers, Psychoanalysts, Psychologists, and LMHCs |