STUDY DAY No. 76 - UNDERSTANDING THE UNCANNY

Prof. Adrian Parker (Chairman)   After qualifying in clinical psychology at the Tavistock Clinic, Adrian Parker was the recipient of the Perrott-Warrick Studentship in psychical research, Trinity College, Cambridge. and became the first to gain a UK doctorate with a thesis on altered states and ESP from the University of Edinburgh. His doctoral work co-innovated the technique, known as the psi-ganzfeld, of reproducing psychic-like experiences in the laboratory.  He is author of the book States of Mind and has over a hundred publications on altered states of consciousness and psychic experiences. Adrian has also worked in child psychiatry and studied medical sciences before accepting a position at Gothenburg University, when a major award from the Swedish Bank Jubilee Fond (Riksbanken) enabled the development of the “Real Time Digital Ganzfeld” which is now a benchmark procedure for studying high-quality psi (psychic) events in the laboratory. Adrian is Professor at Gothenburg University, where he is currently carrying out research into lucid dream states and exceptional experiences amongst twins, and teaches an international course on “Consciousness Studies and Psychical Research.” 

 

Dr Graham Kidd, MBBS, MRCPsych, has been a member of the SPR since 1969, on the Spontaneous Cases Committee since 2009, and a member of the Council since 2014.Trained at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, he was medical officer to 10th Gurkha Rifles, subsequently training in psychiatry at St Thomas's Hospital. He was a Consultant in Old Age and General Psychiatry in Surrey, and on retiring from the NHS, worked in private practice at the Priory and the Cardinal Clinics, before retiring to do purely psychotherapy, specializing in psychological trauma using Ego state and EMDR techniques. He teaches occasionally at St George's Hospital. He has studied dissociation and was a member of the ISSTD for many years. He has contributed to SPR study days, to the JSPR and the Paranormal Review. 

 

Dr Peter Heinl, MD MRCPsych is a psychiatrist, psychotherapist and family therapist in private practice. Following research in muscle physiology including two years research work in the laboratory of the Nobel prize winner Sir Andrew Huxley he took up a career in mental health, training at the Maudsley Hospital and the Tavistock Clinic. He is the author of 3 books as well as numerous articles in the fields of muscle physiology, psychotherapy, psychotraumatology (war trauma) and psychosomatics. The role of intuition in exploring and diagnosing unconscious mechanisms has never ceased to fascinate him.

 

Janine de Peyer, LCSW-R is a psychotherapist/psychoanalyst in private practice in New York. She is on the faculty and supervises at the National Institute for the Psychotherapies, and the Stephen Mitchell Center for Relational Studies where she teaches on clinical process and transference-countertransference dynamics. Janine is Associate Editor and is published with Psychoanalytic Dialogues: The International Journal of Relational Perspectives. Janine has presented internationally in New York, Toronto, Madrid and London, and conducts on-line distant learning courses on clinical practice and theory.  With an avid interest in parapsychology, Janine integrates EMDR (Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing), breath work and guided imagery within a contemporary, relational, psychoanalytic framework. She grew up in London, has travelled extensively, and has been practising in Manhattan for 25 years.

Erica Brostoff has a B.Sc. in Experimental Psychology and M.Sc. with Distinction in Social Psychology. She was a researcher in three leading advertising agencies, working in the specialty in motivational research (meeting people’s needs).  She left to work as a researcher in a clinical setting and has actively continued this interest in retirement. In addition to exploring inter-subjectivity in psi and intuition, she is hoping to co-edit a book on potential shortfalls and harm in psychotherapy.  The topic of intuition and other unexplained insights became of crucial interest after the death of a colleague. Her view is that the topic of “psi” seems to lie in an area of enquiry where rational, psychoanalytic, healing, mystical and religious traditions overlap, and it is doubtful whether any one person can encompass all. From this flow different perspectives, each with their own benefits and biases, often difficult to appreciate by others. Her particular emphasis is on a rational approach to subjectivity, and to the richness of humanity and warmth of relationships, despite their difficulties.