COWAP Conference                2018 

Committee On Women And Psychoanalysis (COWAP) is a wing of the International Psychoanalytical Association, London (www.ipa.world). COWAP has been consistently working on issues and areas on women and psychoanalysis, a very specific initiative by IPA to create theoretical engagement and awareness on the feminist aspects of psychoanalysis, its contemporary and cultural concerns across the world.

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The last COWAP conference in China, Wuhan 2017, was on the theme, ‘Women’s Matters’, being presided over by the then COWAP Overall Chair Gertraud Schlesinger-Kipp. The incoming COWAP Overall Chair Paula Ellman shared her proposal of a COWAP Conference in India, 2018, with Jhuma Basak, a member of the Indian Psychoanalytical Society, Kolkata. This created the occasion to have a Planning Committee for the conference, comprising – The Indian Psychoanalytical Society, Centre for Psychodynamic Studies of the West Bengal State University, and faculty from Jadavpur University. Other supporting institutes for the conference are, The Psychoanalytic Study Group of Christ University (Bangalore), and Crystal Minds (Kolkata).

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To extend the discourse on women and psychoanalysis, the Planning Committee of COWAP India proposed a theme for the conference –

‘Women’s Safety in Dogmatic Times'

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Women’s wellbeing and security in India have often depended on their gender positioning. Historically, women in India have been subjected to various forms of oppression and deprivation. Starting from sex selective abortions to domestic violence, bride burning for dowry and acid attacks, women in India wade through severe threats to their physical safety and survival at every juncture of their lives.  These threats to women’s security have increased manifold with the progressive polarization and hardening of socio-political and cultural ideologies in recent times. As spaces for dissent and difference shrink and dogma dominates our public lives, women find themselves more marginalized than ever before. When women are refusing to conform to these restrictive norms, they are being subjected to violence. Any attempt to challenge institutional hegemonies of marriage, religion or heterosexuality is leading to aggressive and punitive assaults. It is not surprising that the rates of crimes against women are on the rise and the question of women’s safety and well being is becoming urgent and critical.   

Objective :

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The Conference wishes to initiate an inter-disciplinary dialogue revolving around psychoanalysis and other social sciences in order to understand the ways in which fundamentalist states of mind contribute to the marginalization of women and often results in situations of violence and violation. This is with the hope that psychoanalysis can become more relevant in deepening the understanding as well as redressal of social inequities particularly those of gender relations. The conference also aims to broaden the scope of psychoanalysis to include other socio-cultural perspectives to enrich its theory and practice in India. Further, it is an initiative to create an entry-point for psychoanalysis in main-stream academia in this country.

The sub themes have been designed to bring multidisciplinary perspectives on particular aspects of dogmatic thought and their impact on women’s lives. . Experts from the fields of Psychoanalysis, Social Studies, Gender Studies along with mental health professionals and activists will bring their experiences and disciplinary insights to examine how women experience marginalization due to growing hardening of ideologies in the different spheres of religion, intimate relationships, motherhood and the clinical space.