End 2021 Strong by Investing in YOU!
~2021-22 Lectures & Seminars~
DEWALD LECTURE: WHAT ARE WE LEARNING? GENDER DEVELOPMENT-AN ONGOING PROCESS THROUGHOUT DEVELOPMENT (Don Spivak, MD)
Sept. 24, 2021 at 7:30 P.M. / 2 Credits / $40 with credits Or $25 without credits / beginner / Virtual via zoom
Gender is very much on people’s minds these days. People are wondering about gender development, gender expression, and gender conflicts. They’re asking questions such as “How do we become the gender we express?” “What variants in gender expression are there?” “What do we know about gender development through the lifespan and what are we still learning?” These questions will be addressed in this presentation. While learning about gender development and expression, participants will have the opportunity to think about their own ideas about gender, will become acquainted with the anxieties that are ubiquitous when thinking about gender, and will learn about the fluid nature of gender.
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JOUISSANCE (Todd Dean, MD)
Tuesdays, Oct. 19, 26, Nov. 2, 9, & 16 at 7 P.M. / 7.5 Credits / $225 / intermediate / Virtual via zoom
“Superego,” “repetition compulsion,” “death drive,” “negative therapeutic reaction,” are terms that have in common an attempt to understand how it is that people are unable to pursue their desires. Lacan added “jouissance” to this list, a concept that addresses our inability to do what we want, but which also suggests there’s something enjoyable about that failure (the root of the word is the French verb “to enjoy”). In this class, we will explore the theoretical, clinical and cultural problematics of this complicated relationship between what we wish for and what we do. In the process, we will see how this dynamic informs the nature of what we call “reality,” and how the broader culture influences the development of the individual’s jouissance. We hope to be able to make clear why Braunstein considers the study of jouissance absolutely central to the study of psychoanalysis.
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NO MORE ‘BLAME GAME’ – WHAT PSYCHOANALYSIS AND COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE TEACH US ABOUT BIAS AND RACISM, AND THE TOOLS TO FORM MEANINGFULLY CONNECTED SPACES. (Ali Feit, PhD)
Unconscious biases have always dogged us, but multiple factors made them especially dangerous today. Globalization and technology, and the intersecting fault lines of religious extremism, economic upheaval, demographic change, and mass migration have amplified the effects of hidden biases. Our mental errors once affected only ourselves and those in our vicinity. Today, they affect people in distant lands and generations yet unborn. The flapping butterfly that caused a hurricane halfway around the world was a theoretical construct; today, subtle biases in faraway minds produce real storms in our lives.” Shankar Vedantam Ever wonder if we could live in a more just society, gender, race and all such divisions put to the society? Does it seem confusing that with so many well-intentioned people across so many decades, we are still struggling to treat one another fairly and justly. A whole host of psychoanalytic, psychological and cognitive neuroscience research has showing us that the way to reduce bias is not to make people feel guilty about what they cannot control, rather, its actually to enable emotional and intellectual tools for self-examination. Much of what Freud told us more than a century ago, about our tendency to have thoughts and feelings we know little about has been verified by cognitive neuroscience. . Week 1. Implicit Bias- If I am unconsciously biased, why the heck would I want to know if there is nothing I can do about it? The place of ‘institutionalized guilt’ and its ineffectiveness in enacting real change. What can motivate us to know things that may be unpleasant about ourselves Week 2. Unconscious Activity- Freud redux. What did Freud tell us about the unconscious and how it works? Why was there so much resistance to the idea that we do not have access to many of our thoughts and feelings? What are its implications for implicit bias today? Week 3. A psychoanalytic view of unconscious racism. What is the difference between a cognitive bias and a defense? How do they impact our ability to stay neutral and fair, without our bias? How do our past associations and feelings make this difficult and what is there to do about them/ Week 4. Greenwald, Banaji, Bargh etc,,….What does the Social Psychological experimental data tell us about our own biases? What is the meaning of a ‘bias’ if it is something I don’t even know about? Week 5. What does Cognitive Neuroscience (fMRI, PET scans etc….) tell us about how much control we do and don’t have over our unconscious/implicit thoughts and feelings. Week 6. No more ‘blame game’ Real tools and ideas for living with more self-knowledge, less bias and becoming part of a growing community of individuals who want to use such self-knowledge to educate, learn and form meaningfully connected spaces.
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ADAM PHILLIPS’ ATTENTION SEEKING (Tennyson Dodd, MSW)
Thursdays, January 6, 13, 20,& 27 at 7:30 P.M. / 5 Credits / $100 / Beginner / location tbd
In Attention Seeking, his short book packed with his inimitable style, Adam Phillips makes the case that “attention-seeking is one of the best things we do.” This course will explore the odd fact that activity so fundamental to our lives has become an accusation, rather than a compliment. We will explore how our need for attention, as well as our desire for it, is shaped by the way we’ve been attended to by our various environments. The links between shame, sociality, and attention-seeking will also be attended to during this course, with the clinical implications of these relationships kept in mind throughout.
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RACIALIZED SELF/RACIALIZED OTHER: THE REALITIES OF RACE IN THE THERAPEUTIC ENVIRONMENT (Carol Robinson, MEd, LPC), PARTS I & II
This course will support participants in developing capacity in discussing and working with the impact of racialized identity on life and the therapeutic process. Clinicians will have an opportunity to deepen understandings of how we can engage in ways that have a positive impact for clients as they confront these concerns. We will examine the concept through both theoretical writings (from Freud’s work on Groups and Identity to modern day Critical Race Theory) and in-class group work. Discussions will include viewing these topics from the perspective of both the client and that of the mental health professional.
PRESIDENT’S DAY CHILD DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE 2022: From the Body to the Mind: What Sometimes Goes Wrong in Development & Some Thoughts About What Can Help (Molly Witten, Ph.D.)
Feb. 21 at 8 A.M. – 3 p.m. / 6 Credits / $75 / beginner / location tbd
This one-day workshop will cover three major thrusts of growth that come together to create the mind of a person and support an individual’s growth in relationships —1) development, 2) coping, and 3) becoming a citizen. We will also cover some of the ways that our developmental processes can go awry. We will also discuss opportunities to respond to derailed developmental processes; opportunities that can offer individuals support and help them thrive.
More Information HERE
THREE THOUGHT-PROVOKING PAPERS BY DAVID BELL, MD (Bernard Feinberg, MD)
Wednesdays, March 2, 9, 16, 2022 at 7 p.m. / 4.5 Credits / $135 / intermediate / Location TBD
David Bell, a member of the British Psychoanalytic Society, writes about the relationship between psychoanalysis and literature, politics, and philosophy. Each of the 3 articles selected for this course demonstrates his interest in applying psychoanalytic knowledge to achieve a deeper understanding of the individual mind and of the culture. In particular, Bell provides the philosophical basis for a discussion of trans identity, a matter of importance to both the healthcare professions as well as the larger culture. When a child or adolescent wishes urgently to change his or her body to conform to his or her subjective experience of gender, should we regard the matter as conclusive and closed or make an effort to investigate? Bell offers his views on this controversial subject. You will have the chance to thoughtfully articulate your perspectives.
More Information HERE
HYMAN FINGERT LECTURE: Psychoanalysis of Culture, Culture of Psychoanalysis: Character in the Consulting Room (Dwarakanath Rao, MD)
Mar. 4, 2022 at 7 P.M. / 2 Credits / $40 with credits Or $25 without credits / LOCATION TBD
Recent social and racial upheaval has necessitated a re-examination of our assumptions about identity. Psychoanalysis constitutes a unique conceptual and technical bridge between societal and personal culture. Psychoanalytic technique leads to a third “consulting room culture,” something the analyst and the analysand must create, negotiate, and utilize for analytic progress to occur. I propose that character is the main working surface through which culture is reflected and understood by analyst and analysand. Culture, therefore, does not exist in the clinical situation, except as character. Since character is ubiquitous and unique, every clinical interaction is a cross-cultural encounter, regardless of how similar or dissimilar each person’s culture within the dyad may be. This co-constructed “psychoanalytic culture” is a cauldron in which elements of culture are continuously created and destroyed in a bi-directional, disequilibrating, and dialectical process. Central to psychoanalysis and culture is the exploration and resolution of the tensions between the safety of the familiar and the anxiety of newness. Analysis of culture is plagued by defensive intellectualizing and stereotyping, both antithetical to understanding individuals. Clinical examples are provided. Labels for theory and technique, such as “conservative” and “liberal,” maybe defensive extensions of an individual or group culture and often examples of over-simplification and avoidance of painful complexity. The impact of such labeling on analytic education is discussed. The culture of the analyst and the analysand meet at a crossroads that may constitute one meaning of the “analytic third.”
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The Place of Dying in Psychoanalytic Theory (Harold Braswell, PhD)
Thursdays March 24, 31 & April 7, 2022 at 7 P.M. / 4.5 Credits / $135 / intermediate / location tbd
Neither death, nor life, but something in-between, “dying” is a tense and dynamic period, rich in its potential for psychoanalytic theorization and clinical growth. This three-session course will explore its difficult, tragic aspects, as well as the unseemly, at times inconceivable, opportunities that it awakens. We will begin with a consideration of dying as a state of transition marked by loss; we will then consider the role of mourning in helping individuals cultivate existential maturity in the face of death, and we will conclude by considering the problems raised by the death—both real and imagined—of the therapist. This is an introductory-level course, but readings will be recommended for students with a more advanced background in psychoanalytic thought. It is open for clinicians, researchers, or anyone interested in the topic.
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WINDOWS INTO THE THERAPY PROCESS (Stuart Ozar, MD and Juliana Varela, MSW)
Thursdays Mar. 31, Apr. 7, 14, 21, 28, May 5, 12, 2022 at 7 P.M. / 10.5 Credits / $135 / beginner / location tbd
For clinicians or mental health students who are curious about what it is that psychodynamic therapists actually do, we offer a “window” into the process and a chance to connect an introduction to theory with actual clinical material. Each class will begin with a brief theoretical description of a core clinical concept, followed by the presentation and discussion of material from a long-term psychotherapy process. We welcome lively discussion, dialogue and debate. We encourage therapists working from within other theoretical frameworks to take this class. Some knowledge of psychodynamic theory and practice is helpful but not required.
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I.H. COHN LECTURE: TRAUMA: HOW WE ARE DAMAGED AND WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT IT (Chester Smith, MEd, LPC)
April 1, 2022 at 7 P.M. / 2 Credits / $40 with credits Or $25 without credits / beginner / LOCATION TBD
If there is one common factor among most forms of mental illness, it is trauma. Due to children’s limited abilities, they are unable to effectively deal with early traumatic experiences. Instead, these experiences are buried away in what we call the unconscious. Unresolved trauma can disrupt development and
cause a wide range of emotional and physical symptoms throughout the lifespan. We will be looking closely at the earliest experiences of trauma and how they influence the course of development, impact relationships with others, along with how these early experiences can affect one’s ability to function at an optimal level in meeting life’s challenges. We will also look at how psychoanalytically oriented therapies offer a way to treat the underlying trauma thus reducing the impact of trauma on both mental and physical health.
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HARRY GUNTRIP & SCHIZOID CONFLICT: AN INTRODUCTION (Michael Brog, MD)
Thursdays, Apr. 21, 28, May 5, 2022 at 7 P.M. / 4.5 Credits / $135 / intermediate / location tbd
Perhaps nowhere in psychoanalytic lore has the relationship of a writer’s life history, personal analysis and scholarly contributions been so fascinatingly delineated as in the work on schizoid phenomena by Harry Guntrip. The remarkable story of Guntrip’s life history and personal analytic work with both Fairbairn and Winnicott helps us to more deeply appreciate his essential contributions to understanding schizoid components of personality. This three session seminar will review Guntrip’s personal saga and survey his key papers, which remain a vital resource for recognizing, framing, and working with manifestations of schizoid conflicts commonly encountered in clinical practice.
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