Series: Connections and Conversation
Connections and Conversation is a free monthly Zoom meeting, cultivating creativity and freedom of thought and feeling. We invite you to engage with our presenters and community as they share their interests and passions in conversation on current topics in psychoanalysis.
This free event that alternates times. The meeting often begins with a 45 minute presentation followed by 45 minutes of conversation. When an event is recorded you can access the recording at the vault.
This series is open to all.
In case of questions please contact: [email protected]
Hunger Artists: Enigmatic Strivings in Disordered Eating
April 26, 2026 @ 9:00 am - 11:00 am PDT
Kafka’s short story “A Hunger Artist” evocatively illustrates how the symptoms of anorexia can represent acts of self-negation while serving as a bid for recognition and self-determination. In two clinical reports, Mendelsohn and Ferguson explore how disordered eating offers a transient solution, regulating unbearable affects while expressing nascent selfhood. How do we balance our therapeutic goal of protecting our patients from self-endangerment while registering and honoring their striving for self-cohesion and self-hood? Taking a phenomenological clinical approach, patients’ eating disorder presentations become an object of analytic curiosity and a character in the patient’s story.
Presenter
Sarah Mendelsohn, LCSW
Sarah Mendelsohn, LCSW, is a training analyst and supervisor on faculty at the Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity (IPSS), The Manhattan Institute for Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy (MIP)and the National Institute for the Psychotherapies (NIP) in New York. She has published and presented at international organizations on enactive clinical action and the analyst’s subjectivity. She is an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology: Psychanalysis, Self and Context and she is a psychoanalyst and clinical supervisor in private practice in New York City.
Presenter
Heather Ferguson, LCSW
Heather Ferguson, LCSW, is a faculty member and supervisor at the Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity, the National Institute for Psychotherapies, and faculty at the Wilhelm Reich Center for the Study of Embodiment. She has written about eating disorder treatment, the role of intergenerational transmission of trauma, and the use of embodied techniques to deepen psychotherapeutic engagement. She is a certified hypnotherapist and practitioner of EMDR and has an office in the West Village. She is an associate editor for Psychoanalysis, Self, and Context.
Series: Connections and Conversation
Connections and Conversation is a free monthly Zoom meeting, cultivating creativity and freedom of thought and feeling. We invite you to engage with our presenters and community as they share their interests and passions in conversation on current topics in psychoanalysis.
This free event that alternates times. The meeting often begins with a 45 minute presentation followed by 45 minutes of conversation. When an event is recorded you can access the recording at the vault.
This series is open to all.
In case of questions please contact: [email protected]
Hunger Artists: Enigmatic Strivings in Disordered Eating
April 26, 2026 @ 9:00 am - 11:00 am PDT
Kafka’s short story “A Hunger Artist” evocatively illustrates how the symptoms of anorexia can represent acts of self-negation while serving as a bid for recognition and self-determination. In two clinical reports, Mendelsohn and Ferguson explore how disordered eating offers a transient solution, regulating unbearable affects while expressing nascent selfhood. How do we balance our therapeutic goal of protecting our patients from self-endangerment while registering and honoring their striving for self-cohesion and self-hood? Taking a phenomenological clinical approach, patients’ eating disorder presentations become an object of analytic curiosity and a character in the patient’s story.
Presenter
Sarah Mendelsohn, LCSW
Sarah Mendelsohn, LCSW, is a training analyst and supervisor on faculty at the Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity (IPSS), The Manhattan Institute for Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy (MIP)and the National Institute for the Psychotherapies (NIP) in New York. She has published and presented at international organizations on enactive clinical action and the analyst’s subjectivity. She is an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology: Psychanalysis, Self and Context and she is a psychoanalyst and clinical supervisor in private practice in New York City.
Presenter
Heather Ferguson, LCSW
Heather Ferguson, LCSW, is a faculty member and supervisor at the Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity, the National Institute for Psychotherapies, and faculty at the Wilhelm Reich Center for the Study of Embodiment. She has written about eating disorder treatment, the role of intergenerational transmission of trauma, and the use of embodied techniques to deepen psychotherapeutic engagement. She is a certified hypnotherapist and practitioner of EMDR and has an office in the West Village. She is an associate editor for Psychoanalysis, Self, and Context.
Presentation Vault
Watch recordings and download papers and slides from past Connections and Conversations and Decentralized Learning Experiences.
