12noon–1:30pm

Being and Pathos

Jon Mills, PsyD, PhD, ABPP

For the ancients, to be human is to suffer, to be susceptible to pain, to endure illness, in short, our accruing pathology. Mental illness stems from this basic constituency of mind. This is why we are all ill, whereby the human aspect is saturated with anxiety, anguish, and despair—it’s just a matter degree. Throughout this presentation, the speaker will explore the psychoanalytic premise that internal conflict is intrinsic to the human psyche and social relations, which manifests itself in both individuals and groups. We are all deeply affected by our pathos to the point that what truly differentiates individuals and societies from one another is our level of functionality and adaptation to psychic pain. In other words, human pathology is normative throughout all cultures and all times. Being “normal” is merely another word for pathos.

2:00–3:30pm

AI on the Couch: Staying Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Danielle Knafo, PhD

This paper examines the human relationship to technology, and AI in particular, including the proposition that AI, like all human-built technology, reflects a desire to transcend human limitation. Knafo shows how AI reveals two parallel drives: the drive for omnipotence and the drive toward self-destruction. The paper examines what it means to be human and which of these traits are already or will be replicated by AI. Therapy bots already exist. It is easier to envision AI therapy guided by CBT manuals than psychoanalytic techniques. Yet, a demonstration of how AI can already perform dream analysis reaching beyond a dream’s manifest content is presented. The attendee is left to consider whether these findings demand a new role for psychoanalysis in supporting, sustaining, and reframing our humanity as we create technology that transcends our abilities.

4:00–5:30pm

Unboxed Realities: Existential Psychoanalysis and the Phenomenological Entanglement of Psychosis and Autism

Michael Montgomery, PhD, LICSW

The boundaries between psychosis and autism remain contested, with overlapping features often obscuring accurate recognition and meaningful therapeutic engagement. Viewed through the lens of existential psychoanalysis, rigid diagnostic categories risk pathologizing autistic subjectivity as psychotic process, or conversely, misreading psychotic phenomena through an autistic lens. Psychosis and autism are frequently treated as discrete entities, yet clinical experience shows that their manifestations may be deeply entangled. When this complexity is misunderstood, individuals and families are left confused and unsupported, while misrecognition can lead to exclusion, stigmatization, and even coercive interventions. Existential psychoanalysis enables closer perception of the subtle interplay of these conditions in ways that resist reduction and foster recognition of difference. Case material illustrates how this approach illuminates the complex textures of subjectivity and opens space for meaning, agency, and dignity.

12noon–1:30pm

From Leper-Thing to Another Side of Care: A Reading of Lacan’s Logical Collectivity

Robin McCoy Brooks, MA, LMHC, TEP

The speaker will conceptualize a notion of trans-subjectivity through a close reading of Lacan’s 1945 essay entitled “Logical Time and the Assertion of Anticipated Certainty” whereby Lacan delineates three iterative moments of logical time towards a culminating expression of collective truth, Lacan obliquely referred to as “collective logic.” This concept is related to what Heidegger described as “having become” (or later Augenblick), Gilbert Simondon as “trans-individuation,” and Derik Hook as “trans-subjectivity.” While Lacan used the allegory of the prisoner’s dilemma to illustrate his theses, the author uses a clinical vignette taken from a therapy retreat attended by persons living with AIDS in the early days of the pandemic. Elaborated are the symbolic processes underlying the movement between inter- and trans-subjective logic and the culminating expression of a shared solution to a dilemma posed.

2:00–3:30pm

Reciprocity, Recognition, and the Politics of Diagnosis in R.D. Laing

Daniel Burston, PhD

In The Divided Self, his first book, R.D. Laing put forward a radical critique of mainstream psychiatric theory and practice. According to Laing, standard psychiatric practice invalidated or reified psychotic patients by treating their anomalous experience and behavior as nothing more than the symptoms of neurological defects or deficits, or of unresolved interpersonal conflicts. Laing said that no matter how proficient a psychiatrist is in describing and enumerating behavioral anomalies in the manner of Kraepelin and his followers, in the absence of a real rapport with psychotics, no genuine therapy can take place. However, empathizing deeply with psychotic patients also carries some risk because it requires the therapist to draw on their own “psychotic core.” Laing’s evolving body of work drew on existential and phenomenological thinkers and made a rich contribution to psychotherapy and psychoanalysis.

4:00–5:30pm

What is Healing?

M. Guy Thompson, PhD

One of the most seminal aspects of R. D. Laing’s critique of the human condition was his exploration of how human beings treat each other: specifically, the healing component of our relationships. In this presentation Dr. Thompson will explore the complicated and equally fascinating etymology of the word “heal,” which is cognate with such terms as sane, sound, sanitary, cure, and whole, in order to offer a less medicalized and diagnostically-laden notion of how existential psychoanalysis, and psychotherapy generally, may further a healthy way to live, in the broadest sense of the term. Among the topics he will explore: does healing reduce suffering, or does it further our capacity to embrace it instead?

JON MILLS, PSYD, PhD, ABPP, is a Canadian philosopher, psychoanalyst, and clinical psychologist. He is Honorary Professor, Department of Psychosocial & Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex, UK, on faculty in the Postgraduate Programs in Psychoanalysis & Psychotherapy, Gordon F. Derner School of Psychology, Adelphi University, USA, and on faculty and a Supervising Analyst at the New School for Existential Psychoanalysis, USA. Recipient of numerous awards for his scholarship including 5 Gradiva Awards, he is the author and/or editor of over 35 books in psychoanalysis, philosophy, psychology, and cultural studies including most recently End of the World: Civilization and Its Fate. In 2015 he was given the Otto Weininger Memorial Award for Lifetime Achievement by the Canadian Psychological Association.

DANIELLE KNAFO, PhD is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst. Currently, she is faculty and supervisor at NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy where she teaches a course on psychoanalysis and technology. Dr. Knafo is a popular lecturer, both nationally and internationally. A prolific writer, she has written ten books and dozens of articles. Her areas of expertise are: the psychology of art and creativity, trauma and psychosis, sex and gender, and technology and A.I. Just a few titles demonstrate her range and interdisciplinary approach: Egon Schiele: The Creation of a Self; In Her Own Image: Women’s Self-Representation in Twentieth-Century Art; Living with Terror: Working with Trauma; Dancing with the Unconscious: The Art of Psychoanalysis and the Psychoanalysis of Art; The Age of Perversion: Desire and Technology in Art and Psychoanalysis; The New Sexual Landscape and Contemporary Psychoanalysis. Her most recent book is From Breakdown to Breakthrough: Psychoanalytic Treatment of Psychosis. Dr. Knafo conducts writing groups for psychologists and serves as an independent writing consultant. She maintains a private practice in Manhattan and Great Neck, New York.

MICHAEL R. MONTGOMERY, PhD, LICSW, is an internationally recognized existential psychoanalyst and clinical social worker specializing in extreme states (psychosis, mania), complex trauma (childhood abuse and responders), addiction, and conflict resolution. He serves as faculty and supervising analyst at the New School for Existential Psychoanalysis in California and trained at Regent’s University London, the Tavistock and Portman, and the Anna Freud Centre. He is also a graduate of the New School for Existential Psychoanalysis. Dr. Montgomery has practiced and conducted research in five countries, bringing a global perspective to psychoanalysis and community-based mental health. He is the founder of Peacefire.us, a nonprofit fostering dialogue across divides, and directs Logic23, a portfolio of mission-driven brands dedicated to bold ideas and awakening human potential. His clinical work is rooted in community settings, prioritizing care for those often excluded from traditional mental health systems. A regular contributor to the Society for Existential Analysis, the annual R.D. Laing Symposium, and the ISPS-US Annual Conference. He has published more than 30 peer-reviewed articles, reviews, and book chapters. He is currently developing a book and podcast on psychophobia, exploring cultural fear and misunderstanding of the psyche.

ROBIN McCOY BROOKS, MA, LMHC, TEP is a Jungian Analyst, international educator and consultant in private practice in Seattle/Bellingham, WA. USA. She is the Co-Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Jungian Studies and serves on the Board of Directors of the International Association for Jungian Studies. Robin is an active analyst member of the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts and the International Association for Analytical Psychology and nationally certified Trainer, Educator and Practitioner of Group Psychotherapy, Sociometry and Psychodrama. She is the author of Psychoanalysis Catastrophe & Social Action, which was given a book award by the International Association for Jungian Studies, and co-author of The Healing Power of Community – Mutual Aid, AIDS, and Social Transformation in Psychology.

DANIEL BURSTON, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA and the author of The Wing of Madness: The Life and Work of R.D. Laing (1991); The Crucible of Experience: R.D. Laing and the Crisis of Psychotherapy (2000); Anti-Semitism and Analytical Psychology: Jung, Politics, and Culture (2021); and coeditor of Critical Theory and Psychoanalysis: From the Frankfurt School to Contemporary Critique (2024).

MICHAEL GUY THOMPSON, PhD, received his psychoanalytic training from R.D. Laing and associates at the Philadelphia Association in London, and served as the organization’s administrator from 1973 to1980. He is Personal and Supervising Analyst and Faculty Member, Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California, San Francisco, and Founder and Director of the New School for Existential Psychoanalysis (since 1988). He is the author of more than 100 journal articles, book chapters, and reviews, as well as numerous books, including The Truth About Freud’s Technique (1994), The Ethic of Honesty (2004), The Legacy of R.D. Laing: An Appraisal of His Contemporary Relevance (Ed., 2015), The Death of Desire: An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness (2017, 2nd ed.), as well as his most recent books, Essays in Existential Psychoanalysis: On the Primacy of Authenticity (2024), Existential Psychoanalysis: A Contemporary Introduction (2025), and co-author (with Fritjof Capra and Douglas Kirsner) of R.D. Laing in the 21st Century: Sanity, Therapy, Love (2025), all published by Routledge. Dr. Thompson is also the founder and principal convenor of the annual week-long Symposium (beginning in 2015), R. D. LAING IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, convened at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, to honor the legacy of R. D. Laing. He is a popular speaker and has lectured extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Great Britain, Spain, and Australia over the past forty years. He lives in Berkeley, California. www.michaelguythompson.com