Online Seminar: Splitting and Projection in Individuals, Groups and Society

With Linda Buckingham
Online via Zoom | CPD Event

Join us for a thought-provoking seminar hosted by the Society for Social and Critical Psychoanalysis, as psychotherapist Linda Buckingham explores Melanie Klein’s influential theory of splitting and projection — and its enduring relevance not just to individual psychology, but to the fragmentation and polarisation we see in social and political life today.

Klein’s work reveals how splitting and projection, mechanisms originating in infancy, persist throughout life, shaping group dynamics, institutional behaviours, and national ideologies. In today’s climate of increasing authoritarianism and shrinking spaces for dissent, these unconscious processes offer vital insight into how fear, idealisation and scapegoating drive collective behaviour.

This interactive seminar, rather than a one-way lecture, will offer space for dialogue. Linda invites attendees to help think through key questions, such as:

• What are the unconscious forces that fragment human groups — and those that unite them?

• Is the appeal of extremism linked to its simplicity in contrast to the complexity of pluralism?

This is a CPD-eligible event open to clinicians, academics, students, and all interested in psychoanalytic approaches to society and politics.

Event Details:
🗓️ Date & Time: Saturday 17th May 10 am - 12 pm
📍 Online via Zoom
🎓 CPD Hours Provided
💻 Register Now to Secure Your Place!

👉 For all general enquiries, please email: enquiries@sscp.uk

About the Speaker:
Linda Buckingham has a background in Philosophy and English Literature and trained as a Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist. She worked in the NHS for 30 years and is affiliated with the Guild of Psychotherapists and the SSCP.