Dr Anastasios Gaitanidis
About this Event

In this seminar, Anastasios will revisit Freud's controversial concept of the death drive from the perspective of contemporary relational psychoanalysis. He will argue that the death drive can be productively re-conceptualised through a relational psychoanalytic lens as a destructive force emerging from and impacting human relationships and intersubjectivity. He will explore the relational origins of the death drive in failures of empathic attunement and recognition in early attachments, its defensive functions in warding off vulnerability and mourning, and its enactments within therapeutic dynamics and transference. By situating the death drive relationally as a manifestation of distorted intersubjectivity and disruptions to the recognising systems that constitute psychological life, he intends to demonstrate the enduring clinical relevance of this challenging concept for themes of aggression, trauma, mourning and psychopathology. He will argue that the death drive's insistent repetitions and enactments are framed as paradoxical strivings for interpersonal connection and care in the face of tragic alienation and loss.

Dr Anastasios Gaitanidis is a Relational Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist, Director of Studies, Author, Theory Editor and Supervisor. In addition to his clinical work as a psychoanalyst, Anastasios held appointments as a Senior Lecturer and Director of Studies and provided clinical and research supervision to psychotherapists and counselling psychologists at Regent’s University London, University of Roehampton and Metanoia Training Institute. He currently holds the position of Visiting Professor for the professional doctorate in counselling psychology at Regent’s University London. Anastasios is the Theory Editor of the European Journal of Psychotherapy and Counselling (EJPC) and an author who published a substantial body of academic work including journal articles and edited books over the years, with a recent book publication entitled “The Sublime in Everyday Life”.