November 2023: "The Abject: Clinical manifestations of hatred of the feminine" , presented by Nancy Kulish, PhD

his paper explores certain clinical implications of Julia Kristeva’s concept of the abject. The abject describes the developmental moment when the infant is first separating from the mother, when separation of self from other is incomplete and tenuous. The other, still desired, must be made abject, extruded from the self with a lingering sense of horror and terror. The concept of the abject underlays the feelings of desire and fear directed toward the “feminine” or the maternal body by individuals and society and provides an explanation of misogyny. The author provides clinical material to illustrate this concept in men who loathe and desire the female body, and in women who hate themselves and their female bodies. The clinical cases raise issues concerning the primitive feeling of horror, how the abject is related to early narcissism, and the inseparability of desire, affect, defense and object. Learning Objectives 1. Participants will be able to discuss Kristeva’s concept of the abject and its developmental origins. 2. Participants will recognize the abject as underlying the desire and fear directed toward the ‘feminine’ or the maternal body and its role in individual and societal misogyny. 3. Participants will be able to identify and articulate clinical manifestations of the abject in men who both loathe and desire the female body and women who hate their own female body.