Introduction to the psychoanalytic thinking of Didier Anzieu: The Skin Ego theory and its Usage in the Psychoanalytic Setting
Instructor: Christine Anzieu-Premmereur
Dates: September 14, 21, and 28 from 7:15-8:45 p.m.
Price: $150 for 4.5 credits
This course is for Faculty, Candidates & Advanced Candidates only.
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The French psychoanalytic way of cultivating its Freudian origins might make an interesting contribution to American analysts, with notions like the fundamental importance of the drives, the role of the economy in the balance in the psyche that led to the psychosomatic school.
We will explore the role of Didier Anzieu in shaping French thinking on the role of the affects and the body in the psychoanalytic field: the Skin Ego theory, from early childhood dyadic sensorial and emotional experiences to consequences in adulthood.
This course will explore how to use the theory on analytic technique: the role of the frame in the analysis of narcissistic and borderline patients, the interpretation of transference, and the interpretative work of the analyst as a way to keep the fluidity of the associative process in a transitional space.
Class 1. The Skin Ego Theory.
The participants will:
1. become familiar with the Skin Ego Theory;
2. recognize the multilayered dynamics present in mother-baby interactions and the consequences on mental health;
3. describe specific unconscious issues associated with primitive anxiety and sensorial aspect of attachment in early childhood.
Class 2. Narcissistic and Borderline issues.
The participants will:
· acquire an understanding of and describe narcissistic vulnerability differentiated form Borderline disorders in a clinical material;
· deepen their understanding of the anxieties, defenses, mental structures, and types of object relations that characterize the two disorders.
· recognize specific issues in patients who require attention to their need for regulation of transition and separation and to select analytic interpretations regarding transitional space.
Class 3. Psychic Envelopes and Formal Signifiers
The participants will:
1. become familiar with Anzieu’s concepts of psychic envelop and formal signifier
2. consider the implications of formal signifiers on understanding in the therapeutic process.
3. bring and hear clinical material from their practices which the group will discuss in the context of the concepts we have covered
