The Nature of Human Aggression - Webinar

Join Dr Adrian Perkel for a 90-minute TherapyRoute-hosted presentation and Q&A on Human Aggression and its psychoanalytic and neuroscientific dimensions.

The presentation will focus on aggression's pivotal role in shaping the mind, psychopathology, and individual symptoms.

Drawing from Freud's foundational yet unfinished work on the death drive, Dr. Perkel examines how this complex human drive manifests in individual behaviour, group dynamics, and broader geopolitical conflicts.

This webinar will offer a rich, integrative approach, blending psychoanalytic theory with modern neuroscience, to explore how aggression functions as a central part of psychic life.

Dr Perkel will discuss the intricacies of the death drive, the inversion of perpetrator-victim narratives, and how aggression ties into homeostasis, free energy, and defence mechanisms.

Attendees can expect to gain a deeper, more nuanced understanding of how specific aggressive drives (impulses/instincts) operate within the mind as protective mechanisms, similar to how the immune system defends the body. 

This perspective highlights how psychological symptoms are not just isolated issues but form part of a complex response to internal threats rooted in these natural drives, potentially transforming how you understand, work with, and interpret mental health symptoms and the origins of psychopathology.

You’ll learn how purely empathetic, passive interventions may not be enough and that a balanced combination of active and passive therapeutic techniques often yields the best outcomes by effectively engaging these protective drives, creating more enduring therapeutic results.

This session is perfect for professionals seeking a deeper understanding of the mechanisms underlying aggression. It promises to challenge traditional perceptions, offer new perspectives on conceptualizing and treating the mind, and help you apply interventions that meet complex client needs.

People who may find this event of interest:

• Psychologists

• Psychoanalysts

• Psychotherapists

• Marriage and Relationships Therapists

• Counsellors

• Family Therapists

• Clinical Social Workers

• Psychoanalytic Enthusiasts

Dr Adrian Perkel, author of multiple publications, including The Nature of Human Aggression: A Psychoanalytic and Neuroscientific Approach, has over 30 years of experience as a psychoanalytical-orientated clinical psychologist and couples psychotherapist. He is in private clinical practice in Cape Town.