My name is Jared. I’m a licensed social worker and psychoanalyst-in-formation in the Chicago area. Social work may be my “profession,” but psychoanalysis is really my passion. You might be wondering “why psychoanalysis?” That answer could get complicated, but here I’ll keep it simple: I had a professor to get me initiated, an analyst to speak with me, a supervisor to guide me, and a group of friends and colleagues to keep my desire alive.
Can You Even Analyze?
I graduated from Northern Illinois University with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, which basically qualified me to do nothing. I wanted to perform clinical therapy, but doing more schooling in psychology seemed more research-based than therapy-based (I probably could have found some programs more suited to me, but I’m glad for the way things have gone), and doing psychiatry seemed like a much too roundabout way of getting there. Ultimately I settled on doing a masters degree in social work at Aurora University, where I graduated again. Once I did the license exam and all that other red tape nonsense, I was all set to practice. I have done (and still continue to do) training with various members of the New Lacanian School in New York, and I have been in analysis myself for about two years.
What Will I Find Here?
I want to use this blog space to do a few main things.
- Make an account of my analysis. This is really the bulk of my aim. There is some, though not much, writing on being in analysis from the perspective of the analysand (patient), and I’d like to add a bit more to that. So most of what you’ll find if you check out this blog is little synopses of my sessions, or dreams that I’ve had and thought about, or other things like that.
- Providing some notes on learning materials. The field of psychoanalysis can be a tricky one to enter. All the time in online spaces I see questions like “where do I start?” Well, I don’t have an answer for that, but another aim of mine is just to provide some secondary notes to various psychoanalytic writings for anyone who might be interested in that. Most of the writers I touch on will be Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan, but you’ll find references to probably countless other people. We’ll see what happens.
- Some other fun things. I watch a lot of movies (especially kids movies) so you might find the occasional piece about those. I listen to a lot of music so there might be stuff about that. And I listen to a lot of comedy, so there might be something about that as well. Who knows?
Is There Anything Else?
I participate in a few other projects separate from this blog that might interest some readers.
- I co-host a podcast all about psychoanalysis with a friend Neil. The show is called Inform:Podcast, and you can find it on every podcasting app or site that I know of. If you’re familiar with the podcast Why Theory, then the format might seem similar, and that’s on purpose. The show started when I told Neil that I wished there was a podcast just like Why Theory but from a clinical perspective, to which he said he wished there was as well. Fast forward a year or two and we’re starting the show!
- I am an associate editor for the bi-annual publication called Lacanian Ink which features all sorts of writers in the psychoanalytic vein: Slavoj Žižek, Jacques-Alain Miller, Marie-Hélène Brousse, and a lot more. There are also often pieces about art and poetry, among other things like that.
And really, that’s it! If you happen to be interested in contacting me, whether to have a conversation about a piece, something unrelated, to tell me that I rock, or to berate me, you can email me at cornerpsychoanalysis@gmail.com
I hope this does something useful or interesting for you.