On Open Tents, Beaches and Cultural Divides

Abstract

<jats:p>The 2012 New Zealand Association of Psychotherapists (NZAP) Conference in Wellington included a panel discussion which addressed the topic: “How culture creates other: Traversing difference or fractured divide”. The panellists were Tess Moeke-Maxwell, Donna Orange, Wiremu Woodard, and Jeremy Younger. Their speeches are presented in this article alongside edited highlights from the ensuing discussion, with introductory and reflective comments from myself as the panel chair.&#x0D; Waitara&#x0D; I te hui a te NZAP 2012 i Pōneke he rōpū matapaki, ā, e whā nga kaikōrero manuhiri: Wiremu Woodard, Donna Orange, Tess Moeke-Maxwell rātou ko Jeremy Younger. I tono atu te Komiti Matua kia huri ki te kaupapa: “Pēhea te Whakaatanga Ata Atu ā-Ahurea: Whakawhitinga Rerekē, Wehenga Whati rānei? E tuku atu ana tēnei tuhinga i ngā kōrero a ngā kaikōrero tokowhā, ā, me ngā miramira āta arohia mai i nga matapaki whai muri mai; me ētahi whakaaro whakataki, whakaata a te kaitaki o te rōpū.</jats:p>

Creating Space to Meet the Other

“…I am influenced in my use of Lacan's theory of psychic structure, particularly his idea of "the real" (Lacan, 1964(Lacan, /1998b; see also Eyers, 2012) by two conference presentations (Anttila, 2012;Younger, 2012), and by my experiences at Conference, particularly following the panel presentations (Stuthridge, Moeke-Maxwell, Orange, Woodard, & Younger, 2012). I also draw on Benjamin's (2004) writing about intersubjectivity in clinical practice, and the creation of "thirdness" (Lacan, 1975(Lacan, /1991 as a function or "a vantage point" from which we might experience relationship, in order to articulate what, in my view, became the Conference "space" and which contained these encounters with the Other/s.…”