Invitation to the Psychohistory Forum Work-in-Progress Meeting

Topic: “PSYCHOLOGY OF SPORTS”

April 27th, 2024 (Saturday)
10:00am-1:10pm EDT (room opens at 9:30am EDT)

Presenter: Drs. Tom Ferraro and Kenneth Bruce Van Gross

Virtual Participation via Zoom.
RSVP is required (see the RSVP form below)
Zoom link will be provided to you after you complete the form

Introduction by the Psychohistory Forum’s Director/Convenor:

As we write this, “March Madness” has just now completed in basketball, but my (PHE) beloved baseball season has just begun in sports obsessed America. There is a massive amount of advertising for betting on sports that goes on in the New York Metropolitan area and elsewhere where it’s allowed.  Psychologically minded colleagues need to pay more attention to the psychodynamics and psychoneurology of these incredibly focused on activities.

Consequently, I hope you will join us on April 27^th, when psychoanalyst Dr. Tom Ferraro will present on the defense mechanisms in sports (which relate so much to defense mechanisms in life generally) and neurologist Dr. Kenneth Bruce Van Gross will present on the neuropsychology of sports.

We will start the meeting with my announcements as to what’s going on with the Forum and Clio’s Psyche, followed by Tom Ferraro’s presentation and his Q&A. Next, after a brief break, we will have Ken Gross’ presentation and Q&A. Please be sure to read the papers, which are at the virtual links.

1. “The Athlete and Their Mechanisms of Defense: A Psychoanalytic Approach to Sport Psychology” (by Tom Ferraro, Ph.D.)
Read here: https://psychohistoryforum.com/the-athletes-and-their-mechanisms-of-defense-a-psychoanalytic-approach-to-sport-psychology/
Download PDF: https://psychohistoryforum.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Tom-Ferraro-The-Athletes-and-Their-Mechanisms-of-Defence.pdf

Brief bio: Dr. Tom Ferraro is a psychoanalyst in private practice who works with both amateur and professional athletes and teams. Working in the New York metropolitan area, he is also an author, award-winning syndicated columnist and has been featured in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the London Times.

What Tom Ferraro expects: I seek feedback from the reader as to whether my description of defenses was understandable. I would like a wide-ranging discussion of sport psychology from the psychoanalytic perspective. I would like more discussion on the way athletes from different nations cope with their stress and on-the-field anxiety.

2. “Psychoanalytical, Neurological, and Psychoneuroanalytical Foundations of Sports” (by Kenneth B.V. Gross, M.D.)
Read here: https://psychohistoryforum.com/psychoanalytical-neurological-and-psychoneuroanalytical-foundations-of-sports/
Download PDF: https://psychohistoryforum.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Kenneth-B-V-Gross-Psychoanalytical-Neurological-and-Psychoneuroanalytical-Foundations-of-Sports.pdf

There is an international obsession with sports, which represents an opportunity for human beings to express very strong emotions and divide the world between us and them without worrying about being politically correct. Regrettably, while privately many psychoanalysts, psychohistorians, and academics are sports enthusiasts, professionally, there is a tendency not to attend these meetings on the psychology of sports. It is our hope that you will not give in to this tendency and join us to understand more about this very human activity and how it relates to issues of play, politics, and the humanization of those who are treated as enemies so the game can continue in the future. Can we learn from D.W. Winnicott and other theorists about how to understand our human condition as it relates to the intense emotion we express in sports and politics? Is our Real Self the emotional sports enthusiast and our false selves the politically correct?

Please read these interesting papers prior to the meeting.  We look forward to a lively discussion as we forge new paths in psychohistory.

We hope you can join us for this event!

Sincerely yours,

Paul,
Paul H. Elovitz, PhD, Historian, Research Psychoanalyst, Online Professor, Editor, Clio’s Psyche, and author The Making of Psychohistory: Origins, Controversies, and Pioneering Contributors (Routledge, 2018), editor of The Many Roads of the Builders of Psychohistory (2021) and author of over 400 publications. Email: cliospsycheeditor@gmail.com.

Inna,
Inna Rozentsvit, M.D., PhD, MBA, MSciEd, Physician, Neuropsychoanalyst, Neuropsychoeducator, Associate Editor of Clio’s Psyche and Associate Director of the Psychohistory Forum. E-mail: inna.rozentsvit@gmail.com. Web: www.innarozentsvit.com.

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