Rosine Perelberg, PhD, 2023
/Professor Rosine Perelberg’s open-minded work coalesces psychoanalytic thought and social anthropology expertise to offer a forward-looking framework for the understanding of temporality, sexuality, and antisemitism. Offering an innovative interpretation of paternal and maternal functions, in both clinical practice and social phenomena, as well as a psychoanalytic understanding of the Shoah (Holocaust) her work emphasizes the relevance of psychoanalytic insights in navigating contemporary societal challenges. Perelberg’s integration of British clinical traditions with French, American and Latin American conceptual psychoanalysis has profoundly influenced international psychoanalysis’ ability to acknowledge and learn from the varying application.
An acclaimed author, Perelberg’s work is informed by her anthropological training with topics focused on phantasies of origin, exploring the infantile ‘s unconscious drives related to the symbolic functions of the maternal and paternal. The distinction between the murdered father and the dead father plays a crucial role in enhancing understanding of pressing social and political issues. In Sexuality, Excess and Representation she offers a ground-breaking psychoanalytic framework for the understanding of bisexuality and sexual difference. Under her leadership as president of the British Psychoanalytical Society (2019-2022), her international influence helped guide protocols for virtual teaching and practice of psychoanalytic work virtually through the pandemic. Her seven-minute film, The Empty Couch, created at the onset of the pandemic had great social impact as it amassed nearly 5,000 views.
A practicing psychoanalyst and visiting professor at the University College London, Perelberg’s clinical work is rigorous, innovative, and poetic. Perelberg completed her master’s degree in social anthropology at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, before receiving her PhD in Social Anthropology from the London School of Economics, University of London.