*** Film must be viewed prior to event. ***

Discussion of the film “Please Stand By”

Friday, February 27, 2026
4:00 pm – 5:30 pm
Via Zoom

2023 (93 min)
Director: Ben Lewin
Discussant: Karen Weise, PhD

A young autistic woman runs away from her caregiver in an attempt to submit her 500-page manuscript to a “Star Trek” writing competition at Paramount Pictures.

Presentation This presentation will consider how racially crafted stereotypes located in literary and film works have permeated artistic mediums over the last century. Jefferson’s American Fiction depicts an esteemed scholar and novelist frustrated by the narratives published in the literary world that perpetuates racial stereotypes influencing the ways in which people of color are imagined and understood in the world.  Within this presentation, racial stereotypes frequently depicted are examined understanding that their insidious residue exist within quotidian dynamics, including therapy rooms.  This film carefully examines the roles artists and audiences have to uphold racial stereotypes within present day artistic expressions, while challenging one to consider how minority artists have contended with these stereotypes and navigated systems that depict their identity as the other. American Fiction directly confronts these systemically racially charged dynamics while being curious regarding whose voices and narratives are silenced and whose are celebrated.

Discussant: Karen Weise, PhD is a clinical psychologist and child/adolescent psychoanalyst based in Washington DC. She obtained her PhD in clinical psychology from City College in New York (CUNY) and completed her psychoanalytic training at the Hampstead Clinic (Anna Freud Centre) in London. She presently has a psychotherapy and assessment practice in NW DC, where she works with children through young adults and their parents. Over the past twenty-five years she has been a staff psychologist at Children’s National Medical Center in the Developmental Clinic, as well as at the Reginald S. Lourie Center for Infants & Young Children. She has long been involved in psychoanalytic education and is on the child faculty of the Washington Baltimore Center for Psychoanalysis, and is the chair of the Child & Adolescent track in the PsyD program at George Washington University (DC), where she has been core faculty for more than ten years. She is the current President of Division 39, Section II (Child/ Adolescent) of the APA and holds the office of Councilor in the Association of Child Psychoanalysis (ACP). Dr. Weise has presented her clinical work with gender-expansive youth to a variety of local audiences, and also has clinical interests in working with children and adolescents on the autism spectrum and/or with adoption histories.

Pre-registration is required via the WBCP website at http://wbcp.org. If you do not have an account on the WBCP website, you will need to create a “guest account” to register and view/print your CME/CE credit certificate after the seminar. For registration assistance, contact the WBCP at 301-470-3635/ 410-792-8060 / 202-237-1854 or admin@wbcp.org

Registration Link: CLICK HERE

Program Flyer: CLICK HERE

REGISTRATION DEADLINE: Wednesday, February 25, 2025 at 4:30 pm