Surveillance and Privacy in Adolescent Life: A Winnicottian Perspective
RESCHEDULED: Thursday March 5th, 8:00-9:30 PM ET
(will be recorded for registrants)
Mike Langlois, LICSW
Teaching Associate in Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
From smartphone bans to Ring camera footage, adolescents and young adults in the current social milieu experience increased surveillance on their developing private lives. Embedded in particular sociopolitical contexts of the post-industrial global north, Surveillance impacts adolescent development in ways which may be counterintuitive to therapists. Adolescents and technology are both often perceived as suspicious and dangerous, split off from the valorized qualities of order and control. Parents and therapists may unconsciously be drawn into identifications with authoritarian practices to the detriment of both the youth and caregiver relationships.
This webinar aims to interrogate our ideas of privacy and safety, how parents, educators and caregivers may unconsciously displace larger social anxieties onto adolescents. We will look at the current climate of xenophobia and heightened violence towards BIPOC and LGBTQIA youth which is heightened when adults attempt to surveil and control adolescents by restricting access to technology in the guise of mental hygiene. We’ll discuss this in terms of class privilege, technophobia, and the psychodynamic frame from Winnicott of hiding and being found.
The second half of the webinar will be a Q and A devoted to putting these ideas into clinical practice both with youth in treatment and parent guidance. How do we foment rebellion in adolescents and young adults? How do we manage this in the context of the parental relationship when parents are our employers?
Mike Langlois, LICSW is currently a Teaching Associate in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, where he supervises interns and clinicians. He has served on the Massachusetts Commission for LGBTQ Youth. Mike serves as a resource on digital literacy & social justice issues such as dismantling racism, LGBTQIA awareness & safety, disability awareness, and non-traditional families. He has served in an advisory capacity to NASW on youth suicide prevention. Mike is a member of APsaA and APA’s Division 39 as well as the Board of Psychoanalysis for Social Responsibility.
Registration $25
Please Register in Advance at https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_TUXqBwFiTgKPKeg3fb0JDg
Paying It Forward
Candidates, trainees, & early career please contact directly for reduced rate options. If you have significant financial privilege, & you want to support early career therapists from a variety of racial & class backgrounds, you are welcome to fund a full or partial scholarship.
