Today’s discussion is with Dr. Celeste Pietrusza, as she presents her work on kink, BDSM, psychoanalysis and phenomenology. 

Dr. Pietrusza is a post-doctoral psychodynamic clinician current working at Greene Clinic in Brooklyn, NY. She completed her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at Duquesne University. Her doctoral dissertation traces changing dynamics in kink and BDSM theory and practices. She is currently working on a manuscript on feminine sexuality in and through contemporary art praxes.

Ecrits conference at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, October 11-13, 2019: https://www.duq.edu/academics/schools/liberal-arts/departments-and-programs/psychology/2019-lacans-écrits-conference

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Rendering Unconscious Podcast is hosted by psychoanalyst Dr. Vanessa Sinclair, who interviews psychoanalysts, psychologists, scholars, creative arts therapists, writers, poets, philosophers, artists & other intellectuals about their process, world events, the current state of mental health care, politics, culture, the arts & more.

Rendering Unconscious is also a book! Rendering Unconscious: Psychoanalytic Perspectives, Politics and Poetry (Trapart, 2019): www.trapart.net

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Books mentioned in this episode include:

Juliet Flower MacCannell (1999)The Hysterics Guide to the Future Female Subject: https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/the-hysterics-guide-to-the-future-female-subject

Alenka Zupancic (2017) What is Sex?: https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/what-sex

Books Dr. Pietrusza recommends on kink / BDSM:

Robin Bauer's work and that of many others is in this volume, which includes essays on self-transcendence and kink/BDSM:

Langdridge, D. & Barker, M. (Eds.) Safe, sane and consensual: contemporary perspectives on sadomasochism: https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9780230517745

Lee Harrington's essay on pup play is in this volume:

Taormino, T. (Ed.), The ultimate guide to kink: BDSM, role play and the erotic edge: http://cleispress.com/book/2072/the-ultimate-guide-to-kink-bdsm-role-play-and-the-erotic-edge/

For some accounts from practitioners who speak directly about their experiences:

Hammers, C. (2013). Corporeality, sadomasochism and sexual trauma. Body & Society, 1-23. Retrieved from: http://bod.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/03/08/1357034X13477159

Hay, M. (July 25, 2016).

The pleasure and pain of being disabled in the BDSM community. Vice. Retrieved from: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/nnkv3d/disabled-bdsm-experiences

On Mistress Velvet (who requires her clients to read black feminist theory): https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mistress-velvet_n_5a822b50e4b00ecc923d4eba

The track at the end of the episode is “Unconscious Sexuality” from Message 23. Words by Vanessa Sinclair. Sounds by Carl Abrahamsson. From Highbrow Lowlife: https://highbrowlowlife.bandcamp.com

Artwork by Vanessa Sinclair & Carl Abrahamsson from the exhibition “Mementeros” currently on view at MOPIA, Zürich, from July 4 – August 28, 2019: www.porninart.com

Photo of Dr. Celeste Pietrusza