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Date: October 3, 2013
We welcomed Dr. Jeremy Safran, a Professor and Co-Chair of the Psychology Department as well as the former Director of Clinical Training at The New School, and multi-published author (see Steinfeld, 2014). In her introduction of Dr. Safran, Dr. Giselle Galdi, Chair of the AIP Scientific Meetings Committee, spoke about the rich historical connection between The New School and The American Institute for Psychoanalysis of The Karen Horney Psychoanalytic Center. Galdi shared that Horney, shortly after her move to New York City from Chicago, where she helped Franz Alexander establish the first psychoanalytic institute in the United States, started to teach in 1934 at The New School for Social Research, and her first books grew out of her New School lectures.
In his richly nuanced paper, “Agency, Surrender and Grace,” Dr. Safran spoke about a historically neglected concept in psychoanalytic discourse, “the will,” and the “dialectic between will and surrender in life and in psychoanalysis.” Safran presented vivid clinical vignettes that highlighted this concept of “will,” and how vital it is to the person's well-being. Without a sense of personal agency, and the ability to make active decisions on one's own behalf, a person risks becoming depressed and alienated; an impotent and passive observer of life. It is not surprising therefore that as analysts we encourage our patients to strengthen and exercise their individual will. However, Safran noted that while it is important to feel connected to our wishes and desires and be able to act in accordance with them, an exaggerated sense of agency can be harmful.
According to Dr. Safran, the cultivation of conscious will and the assumption of personal responsibility are imbedded in our concept of change in psychoanalysis. Change is thought to come about, to a large degree, by making the unconscious conscious; thus, by discovering and understanding the unconscious forces governing our problematic and pathologica