Tribalism and Discrimination
An Anthropological and Evolutionary Perspective
NYPSI’s 1044th Scientific Meeting
Henry Nunberg, M.D. (moderator), Mark Solms, Ph.D., Robert Paul, Ph.D., and Chief Vincent Mann of the Ramapough-Lenape Nation
$30 – General Admission
$20 – Student Admission
No charge for NYPSI members and students
Register HERE, visit nypsi.org or call 212.879.6900
THIS MEETING IS VIRTUAL; READ INSTRUCTIONS TO ENSURE SUCCESSFUL REGISTRATION:
1. Buy your ticket at nypsi.org
2. One day prior: Complete ZOOM registration for webinar which you will receive by email from Sharon Weller
3. Click on email from Lois Oppenheim (host) which contains ZOOM
meeting link and password to “enter” the meeting
From prehistoric times, humans appear to have a propensity for joining in collectives that we know as “tribes,” collectives that are probably genetically related. The focus of this panel will be adherence to the group and the results such adherence may implicate. Among the questions to be explored by the panelists is whether, in the animal kingdom, humans have a tendency toward aggression (conceivably matched only by chimpanzees) that is neither for the purpose of mating nor the preservation of territory. Nearly a century ago, Sigmund Freud, predominantly in Civilization
2 CME/CE credits offered.
References of Interest
1. Mark W. Allen et al. (2016). Resource Scarcity Drives Lethal Aggression among Prehistoric Hunter-gatherers in Central California. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 113(42): 12120 – 12125.
2. Richerson, P., Baldini, R., Bell, A. V., Demps, K., Frost, K., Hillis, V., Mathew, S., Newton, E. K., Naar, N., Newson, L., Ross, C., Smaldino, P. E., Waring, T. M., & Zefferman, M. (2016). Cultural group selection plays an essential role in explaining human cooperation: A sketch of the evidence. Behavioral and Brain Sciences,39, E30. doi:10.1017/S0140525X1400106X
3. Burton Voorhees et al. (2020). Identity, Kinship, and the Evolution of Cooperation. Current Anthropology, 21(2): 194 – 218.
Panelists
Henry Nunberg, M.D. (moderator) is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard University Law School and the Albert Einstein School of Medicine. He is a member of and on the faculty of the New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute. Dr. Nunberg, formerly on the voluntary faculty of Weill Cornell Medical College, has a particular interest in neuropsychoanalysis and is a member of the Neuropsychoanalysis Society. He is Professional Director of the Psychoanalytic Research and Development Fund, Inc. Dr. Nunberg’s publications have most recently focused on trauma not emanating from childhood.
Mark Solms, Ph.D. Professor Mark Solms holds the Chair of Neuropsychology at the Neuroscience Institute of the University of Cape Town and Groote Schuur Hospital. His rating by the National Research Foundation is ‘A1’ and he is a Member of the Academy of Science of South Africa. He has received numerous prizes and honours, such as the Sigourney Prize, the IPA’s Outstanding Scientific Achievement Award and Honorary Fellowship of the American College of Psychiatrists. He is Training Director of the South African Psychoanalytical Association, Director of the Science Dept. of the American Psychoanalytic Association, and Research Chair of the International Psychoanalytical Association. Prof. Solms has published 350 articles in both neuroscientific and psychoanalytic journals, and he has authored eight books. The Brain and the Inner World was translated into 13 languages. His collected papers were published recently as The Feeling Brain. Prof. Solms’ next book, The Hidden Spring, will appear in early 2021. He is the editor and translator of the forthcoming Revised Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (24 vols) and Complete Neuroscientific Works of Sigmund Freud (4 vols).
Robert A. Paul, Ph.D. is Charles Howard Candler Professor of Anthropology and Interdisciplinary Studies at Emory University, where he is also Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. He is a training and supervising analyst on the faculty of the Emory University Psychoanalytic Institute and was its director from 2015 to 2019. Dr. Paul’s publications include The Tibetan Symbolic World: Psychoanalytic Explorations (University of Chicago Press, 1982); Moses and Civilization: The Meaning Behind Freud’s Myth (Yale University Press, 1996); Mixed Messages: Cultural and Genetic Inheritance in the Constitution of Human Society (University of Chicago Press, 2015); and the forthcoming Our Two-Track Minds: Rehabilitating Freud on Culture, currently in press at Bloomsbury Academic Publishing in the series “Psychoanalytic Horizons.” He serves on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis, American Imago, and the Society for Psychological Anthropology Book Series. Dr. Paul has served as Dean of the Graduate School and of the College of Arts & Sciences at Emory University, and was for many years the editor of Ethos: Journal of the Society for Psychological Anthropology. He is a member of the College of the IJP and is on the board of directors of the Sigmund Freud Archives at the Library of Congress. He also serves on the advisory board of the Erikson Institute at Austen Riggs.
Chief Vincent Mann is the Turtle Clan Chief of the Ramapough Lunaape Nation, which encompasses Passaic County NJ, Warwick, and surrounding areas in New York. Chief Mann has held the title of Turtle Clan Chief for approximately twelve years. For the past five years, he has worked with the NYU Environmental Studies Department. During that time, he participated in the construction and implementation of a community health survey focused on identifying and addressing health concerns within his community. To honor Chief Mann’s efforts to shed light on his community’s efforts to fight back after the Ford toxic dumping, he was awarded the Russ Berry Foundations highest award of Unsung Hero. Chief Mann has been at the forefront of the New Jersey environmental justice movement, where he has worked to protect the water supply of 4 million people and advocated for the community living in close proximity to the Ringwood mines superfund site. He has served on the Legacy Council of the Highlands Coalition and the Ringwood mines superfund site’s Citizen Advisory Group (CAG). His efforts have been documented in the recent publication Our Land, Our Stories: Excavating Subterranean Histories of Ringwood Mines and the Ramapough Lunaape Nation. This collaborative publication was developed through Chief Mann’s partnership with the Rutgers-Newark Price Institute and Anita Bakshi, Professor of the Landscape Architecture Program at Rutgers New Brunswick. Currently, Chief Mann is working on co-creating the United Lunaapeewak, a project broadly focused on issues of cultural restoration and the construction of a permanent educational center for the greater citizens of New Jersey and Southern New York. He is also working on co-creating an organic farm, known as the Munsee Three Sisters Medicinal Garden. The prayer behind this is to create local jobs and, more importantly, to bring back food sovereignty to his Clan. As an advocate for cultural and environmental issues, he continues to this day to offer up prayers for humanity and for our natural environment.
Educational Objectives
Upon completion of this activity, participants should be able to:
1) Recognize cultural influences on psychodynamic problems discussed in the treatment setting.
2) List at least two sources of male aggression in humans.
Psychologists
New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute is approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to sponsor continuing education programs for psychologists. New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
Social Workers
New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0317.
Physicians
This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the Essential Areas and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education through the joint providership of the American Psychoanalytic Association and the New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
The American Psychoanalytic Association designates this Live Activity for a maximum of (2) AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.