Abstract:
What does it mean to be human? This is one of the most fundamental and complex questions known to our species. It cannot be adequately addressed without focusing on history and psychology, and about 20 other disciplines. Homo sapiens have a remarkable history. We have gone from bows and arrows to nuclear weapons, from local hunting and gathering to global farming, from not speaking to language and literacy, from hand signals to smart phones. Our contradictory character is integral to our creative accomplishments and our dire desires. This astounding history and our unusual psyche are indispensable in addressing being human. This paper and panel revisits being human from interdisciplinary and psychohistorical angles. Ken Fuchsman gives his account of what is necessary to consider in addressing what being human means. His analysis will be commented on by historian/psychoanalyst/psychobiographer Paul Elovitz, psychoanalyst and editor David Lotto, and physician/neuroscientist Inna Rozentsvit. This will be two hour sessions
Short bio:
Ken Fuchsman is former President of the International Psychohistorical Association, and is Emeritus faculty from the University of Connecticut, where he designed and taught The Nature of Being Human. He is editor or author of a book on Trump, another on psychoanalyst Michael Eigen, and Movies, Rock & Roll, Freud.
Inna Rosentsvit, MD, Ph.D, MBA, MSci. She is a physician-neurologist and neurorehabilitstion specialist trained in Psychoanalysis and psychotherapy with extensive experience in brain injury, autoimmune neurological and neuropsychiatric conditions and rehabilitation. She is Associate Editor, Clio’s Psyche; Associate Director of the Psychohistory Forum; Group Co-Leader of the Psychobiography Research and Publication Group of the Forum.
Paul H. Elovitz, PhD, is a research psychoanalyst, presidential psychobiographer, historian, and scholar with over 400 publications who has presented at all 45 IPhA conferences and has served this organization in most offices as well as the presidency. He is Editor-In-Chief of Clio’s Psyche, Convener/Director of the Psychohistory Forum, and a retired college professor who has taught at Fairleigh Dickenson, Rutgers, and Temple universities as well as at Ramapo college where he was a founding faculty member. He continues to teach psychohistory online and may be reached at .