Exploring Political Polarization in America and How to Bridge the Divide

2 CE Hours available for
NY Practitioners – LCSWs, LMSWs, LPs, LMFTs, LMHCs, LCATs, PHDs, PSYDs

This presentation will feature a dialogue between psychoanalytic psychotherapists and authors Ken Barish, PhD, and David Lotto, PhD.

Ken Barish will address the urgent questions explored in his most recent book, Bridging Our Political Divide, focusing on how Americans can listen to and engage with one another constructively, with less hostility and contempt. He will outline principles of constructive dialogue and reasoned debate, offering alternatives and solutions to the angry, repetitive, and unproductive arguments that currently dominate American political culture.

David Lotto will explore concerns about the potential erosion of democracy and fears of fascism, alongside anxieties surrounding the rise of racism, xenophobia, homophobia, misogyny, and gun violence. Inspired by Ken Barish’s ideas, he will strive to understand the current wave of American discontent.

The presentation will consist of lecture, discussion between the presenters, and a question and answer period.

Ken Barish, PhD, is a graduate and faculty member of the Westchester Center for the Study of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. He also serves on the faculty of the William Alanson White Institute Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy Training Program. In addition, he is a Clinical Professor of Psychology at Weill Cornell Medical College and a Visiting Professor at Tongji Medical College in Wuhan, China. Outside of his academic and clinical work, Ken enjoys playing jazz trumpet.

David Lotto, PhD, is a graduate of WCSPP and has been in practice in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, since 1977. He serves as the editor of the Journal of Psychohistory and has published extensively in psychoanalytic and psychohistorical journals.