Formation
I came to psychoanalysis through literary studies, where I discovered the power of Lacanian ideas in literary interpretation and sociopolitical analysis. I pursued these questions through a PhD in Lacanian psychoanalysis, whiteness and literary theory from the University of Melbourne (Ashworth Program in Social Theory), a Master of Arts on the ethics of difference (Murdoch) and a Masters of Social Work (RMIT).
During my doctoral studies, I formed a desire to pursue psychoanalysis as a practice, and then undertook clinical and theoretical studies through the Australian Centre for Psychoanalysis and then through the Freudian School of Melbourne. Over the last few years I have been following the work and attending seminars of the New Lacanian School, one of the schools of the World Association of Psychoanalysis, where the emphasis on Lacan's late teaching opens up in new ways a practice of difference.
The work of building and sustaining my practice has occurred in the intersection of psychoanalysis and other related fields of thought. Those crucial in my formation are feminist and queer theory, critical race theory and postcolonialism, and post-structuralist and literary theory. Living in a culture whose difficulty with difference is devastating on so many levels, I have found it important as an analyst aiming for ‘absolute difference’ to engage with all these fields. To aim at ‘the desire for difference’ as a position from which to practise analysis means, for me, a continued investigation of the barriers in our culture(s) to honouring difference.
I pursue my continued passion for Lacanian psychoanalysis by offering seminars and supervision, as well as in my work as a psychoanalyst in the clinic.
