Philip Stokoe in conversation with David Morgan

Saturday 25 September, 2021, 11.00am-12.30pm BST

The capacity to be curious about ourselves and others is fundamental to the development of personality and meaningful relationships with others. This was recognised by Melanie Klein, in her concept of the epistemophilic instinct and by Wilfred Bion in his concept of ‘K’ (the urge to know) which he understood as an emotional link between two people, and central to our capacity for thinking.

Curiosity is a central feature of the epistemophilic instinct and of K. Whether in clinical work with patients, social work with clients, with children and young people in educational settings, in couple psychotherapy, or in organisational life, it is heartening when we experience evidence of the growth of curiosity. We can feel confounded when, despite thoughtful attention and help, someone seems unable to become emotionally interested in themselves and their relationships.

Sometimes, the difficulty or frustration can lead to intrusiveness, an insistence on certainty and possession, rather than an enquiry with an uncertain outcome. Many questions arise. Is a capacity for curiosity innate? If so, what psychological conditions are needed to help grow its roots? What stimulates the emerging of curiosity and what inhibits it? How do we help someone who seems incurious?

Phillip Stokoe’s recently published book, The Curiosity Drive: Our Need for Inquisitive Thinking , explores this rich terrain and he approaches the territory with an open-minded curiosity which exemplifies the subject. The MPDT webinar will be a conversation between Phillip Stokoe and David Morgan in which they will open up and interrogate the ideas described in detail in the book. There will be the opportunity for questions from the audience. We’re delighted to be able to welcome Phillip and David to MPDT and we hope this study event will stimulate your curiosity.

About the speakers

Philip Stokoe is a Psychoanalyst in private practice working with adults and couples, and an Organisational Consultant, providing consultation to a wide range of organisations.

He worked in the Adult Department of the Tavistock & Portman NHS Foundation Trust between 1994 and 2012, he was the Clinical Director from 2007. During his career, he has been responsible for the creation of innovative services; designing a treatment system for very dangerous adolescents held in a Youth Treatment Centre; developing a model for understanding organisations called the Healthy Organisation Model from which, he created an innovative intervention for teams and organisations, the short course intervention, which combines teaching and consultation; he designed the Primary Care Psychotherapy Consultation Service (PCPCS), and these ideas have led to a radically different approach to training psychiatric nurses, which has been running at City University. He designed two Masters courses and was the co- designer of the Couple Psychotherapy Training at the Tavistock Clinic. He is a member of the European Psychoanalytic Federation Forum on Institutional Matters, which studies the nature of psychoanalytic institutions.

The Curiosity Drive: Our Need for Inquisitive Thinking, was published by Phoenix Publishing House in November 2020.

David Morgan is a Psychoanalyst, Consultant Psychotherapist, Fellow of the British Psychoanalytic Society, Training Analyst with BPA, BPF, he is Chair of the Political Mind Seminars at the Institute of Psychoanalysis and Editor of The Unconscious in Social and Political Life (2019) A Deeper Cut (2020), and co-editor with Stan Ruszczynski of Violence Perversion and Delinquency (2009) He has organised a radio programme and podcast called Frontier Psychoanalyst. He is Director of Public Interest Psychology a campaigning organisation bringing psychoanalytic thinking to public life.

Via Zoom, £25.00