Counter-Talk Series

P-HOLE is thrilled to introduce our Counter-Talk Series!

As you know, P-HOLE was born out of the frustration with psychoanalytic institutions in their recalcitrant difficulties with issues of gender, sexuality, race, class, religion, and ability -and their refusal to address them in substantive ways.

Check here for forthcoming counter-talks:

Why Divest from Legacy Psychoanalytic Institutions.

June 13th, 2026, 12-2pm ET

This forthcoming Counter-Talk has been explicitly devised to respond to and go beyond the limited frame of an upcoming APsA symposium: “Reimagining Engagement in Psychoanalytic Institutions.” That event asks “why…analysts and trainees [are] stepping back from institute life” and “what…it cost[s] the field — clinically, professionally, communally — when institutional engagement declines?” The opening premise of this symposium, then, is that disengagement is only a problem. And APsA has declined to invite anyone who has been publicly critical of APsA, of psychoanalytic institutions, or any of those insisting on why divestment might be important.

Our event inquires into how APsA and other legacy psychoanalytic organizations continue to fail to meet the moment and explores why people interested in psychoanalysis are increasingly seeking alternative ways to learn and engage psychoanalysis to build a DIY psychoanalytic scene.

The Counter-Talk will take place on Saturday, June 13^th, from 12pm to 2pm ET – the same date and time as the APsA event- featuring presentations from Dr. Carter Carter and Dr. Kristen Miller, and to be chaired and moderated by one of P-HOLE’s founding members, Dr. Adrian Sanchez. Come on by the P-HOLE: the water is fine, and the thinking is at once theoretically rigorous, politically engaged, and refreshingly uninhibited by the need to defend or promote any particular psychoanalytic institution or any psychoanalytic institution at all.

Counter-Talks are free (though pre-registration is required); but we tie each event to an organization that benefits causes related to the theme of the event. For this first event, we have chosen The Asian American Center for Psychoanalysis (TAACP); not only do we want to support their work, we are also especially excited about their 2027 initiative. As you register for this free event, please consider donating to TAACP as generously as you can.

This event is virtual only and we will NOT be recording it.

Speakers

Carter J. Carter

Carter J. Carter is a psychoanalyst, but not according to APsA. In addition to their private practice in psychoanalysis, couple and family therapy, and clinical supervision, they serve on the editorial boards of Studies in Gender & Sexuality and Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society. Their recent writings have appeared in a wide variety of psychoanalytic journals, as well as on their Substack, Psycho Analyst. Their first book, on fascism in psychoanalysis, is painfully forthcoming in every sense.

Kristen Miller, PhD

A psychologist and psychoanalyst in Detroit, MI. Kristen teaches in several psychoanalytic training programs, and she is on faculty at the Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute, the University of Detroit-Mercy, and William Beaumont School of Medicine. She is the Clinic Director of the Mel Bornstein Clinic. Kristen was a member of the steering committee for APA/Division 39’s most recent Spring Meeting, Institutional Life: Reclaiming Life from Institutions. She has resigned, in protest, from several psychoanalytic institutions and organizations.

Adrian Sanchez

A clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst based in Portland, Oregon. His recent publications address borderline personality, cultural and linguistic code-switching, and the erotic dimensions of the analytic field, focusing particularly on the intersections of individual experience and social context and their clinical implications. He serves as a consulting editor for Psychoanalytic Inquiry and is a founding member of P-HOLE.

The Counter-Talk Series is P-HOLE’s answer to the depletion many of us feel around psychoanalytic institutions and psychoanalytic organizations, which either:

Use psychoanalysis to launder homotransphobia, anti-Blackness, anti-Palestinian animus and racism overall, class elitism, ableism, or secular bias

Platform psychoanalysts or speakers whose work is seen by some of us as having repeatedly promoted thinking we find harmful and who have been impervious to community feedback.

We are tired of begging to be heard/taken seriously. Rather than continuing to expend our energies in protesting events that might do harm or which promote damaging rhetorics; instead of trying to educate institutional actors that will take up our time to, then, turn around and accuse us of being divisive or, worse, destructive; and rather than dedicate considerable effort to improve our institutes while fearing it will cost us our progression, referrals, or, even, that the institute may find excuses to drop us when we speak up, we feel that a much better use of our resources is to offer better and more sophisticated analytic programming.

Counter-Talk events will be scheduled at the same day/time as the event they are countering, naming the specific talk/speaker and the event’s sponsoring organization. As such, we will be offering real-time psychoanalytic alternatives that speak to the same issues and which take politics into account in ways that align with our principles. These events will be virtual. We will be paying our speakers and presenters –using funds from our annual course, as we firmly believe that work should be paid. Attendance will be free but we will tie registration to an organization that benefits causes related to the theme of the event – and encourage you to donate generously within your ability.

Join us as we build a psychoanalysis done differently, a psychoanalysis that is not insular, whitewashed, or depoliticized and which puts rigorous psychoanalytic thinking in conversation with the social and the political. We will be letting you all know by email when such an event is upcoming but please feel free to check this page periodically for updates. Should you want to be removed from the Counter-Talks list, you can let us know by replying to our email to you.

If you know of an event that might warrant counter-programming and would like to let us know, please fill out the form below. Since this is a new initiative, we do not know how much capacity we will have and for how many events — but we will certainly follow up with you.

Solidarity, always
P-HOLE