Affairs, desire, and the unconscious
Affairs, desire, and the unconscious: A psychoanalytic exploration
With Alain de Botton, Juliet Rosenfeld and Susanna Abse
We welcome you to join us on Zoom, for this enagaging event offering psychotherapists an opportunity to explore the unconscious dimensions of infidelity through a psychoanalytic reading of Juliet Rosenfeld’s Affairs, alongside reflections from Alain de Botton and Susanna Abse. The session will examine the ways in which transgression, repetition compulsion, unconscious phantasy, and the oedipal drama shape the experience of affairs in both the individual and the couple.
Drawing on Rosenfeld's book Affairs, we will consider infidelity as an enactment of unconscious conflict, a working-through of loss, and a resistance to mourning. De Botton’s philosophical reflections will provide a backdrop for thinking about how idealisation and disillusionment structure desire, while Abse’s clinical insights working with couples will guide discussion on the analyst’s position in relation to unconscious phantasy, secrecy, and the analytic frame.
Participants will engage in a discussion of psychoanalytic themes, case discussions, and reflective dialogue from our speakers on countertransference responses when working with clients entangled in affairs. Through this, we will deepen our understanding of how infidelity expresses unresolved internal conflicts and the defensive structures that sustain them.
This event is suitable for psychotherapists seeking to make sense of and support their clinical approach to working with desire, betrayal, and the unconscious forces shaping intimate relationships.
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