Each year, the Institute opens several classes in the training program to non-candidates. Graduates of an advanced Psychotherapy program (such as the Advanced Psychodynamic Psychotherapy program affiliated with the Institute or comparable training programs), individuals in psychiatric training programs, academics with a research interest in the area, along with Advanced Analytic Candidates and Faculty of the Institute may apply to take these open classes.

Up to thirty-two (32) class sessions, but no more than three (3) courses, successfully passed, taken as Open Classes, can count toward Analytic Training.

Acceptance into Open Analytic Theory Classes is by application process only.  Please submit the appropriate application linked at right – Returning Students must apply at least 3 weeks in advance and New Students must apply at least 6 weeks in advance of the start date. Space is limited.

Upcoming Open Analytic Theory Classes for the 2020-21 academic year:

Core Concepts (8 sessions)
Instructor: Ann Simmons
Dates: 9/11/2020-10/30/2020* Fridays 10:30-11:45 a.m.
Course Fee: (Early) $512, (Regular) $536, (Late) $552

In this course, we will discuss some basic concepts of psychoanalysis, such as the unconscious, fantasy, the drive, psycho-sexuality, transference and counter-transference, topographical and structural theories, defenses, importance of dreams, and object relations.  We will address a central question of psychoanalysis: why is psychoanalysis a talking cure, and how does it help?

Borderline (12 sessions)
Instructor: Stuart Ozar, MD
Dates: 12/11/2020-3/12/2021*Fridays 10:30-11:45 a.m.
Course Fee: (Early) $768, (Regular) $804, (Late) $828

This course is a detailed overview of the multiple theoretical approaches to the understanding of a large population that, historically, came to be labeled as “borderline.”  This group could not be easily described or understood using the classical formulations of neurotic psychopathology. Neither did this group fit well into the theoretical or phenomenological realm of psychoses.  The course will consider both clinical phenomena that demand explanation as well as developmental models that inform theory and technique. An emphasis is placed upon the relationship of theory to observational data along with an appreciation for the evolving understanding of assessment and diagnosis.

While this course is not a technique course, treatment approaches are discussed.  Treatments range from psychoanalysis modified to safely allow and promote deep regression, to supportive techniques.  Those who speak for the current state of the psychoanalytic art recommend specific forms of psychotherapy such as transference focused psychotherapy; mentalization based psychotherapy, or combinations of the two, for most patients. These modes of treatment are now the ones most subject to empirical validation.

Dreams (4 sessions)
Instructor: Nilufer E. Yalman, PhD
Dates: 9/11/2020-10/02/2020 *Fridays 1:15-2:30 p.m.
Course Fee: (Early) $256, (Regular) $268, (Late) $276

Since time immemorial dreams have been fascinating us. In ancient Egypt people with vivid dreams were thought to be blessed and were considered to be special, bringing messages from Gods. From ancient Mesopotamia (2000 BC,) when dreams were thought of as a person’s soul taking a journey outside the body, to the Upanishads (900-500 BC,) in which dreams were seen as expressions of inner emotions, to the classical period (Greeks, Romans) dreams as omens, messages from the deceased, as prophesies, we have been wondering. Plato was the first who wrote about dreams reflecting hidden desires within us. Freud, similarly, believed that our dreams could tell us about our unconscious world, about our wishes, desires, and our motivations. He thought that if he could just understand the mechanism of dreaming, he might be able to understand some fundamentals about mental illness.

Whether understood through the prism of psychoanalysis (Freud), neuropsychology (Solms), cognitive theory, or dream research, these mental images, sounds, thoughts and sensations in sleep, at times mundane, at times complex, sometimes scary, sometimes exciting, ostensibly without any rhyme or reason, leave us wondering. Whether they reveal insights into hidden desires and emotions, help consolidate memories, or are artifacts resulting from random brain activation, the nature of dreams and what they might mean continue to elude us.

Regardless of theory, in psychoanalysis dreams are a part of the entire process of relating. Dreams do not necessarily tell us about what a certain behavior in the dream symbolizes or for that matter what the manifest dream expresses. We will approach dreams not just as something that happens during sleep but as it relates to  the context of the dreamer’s life– the character and circumstances of the specific dreamer–as a part of the whole story of the individual, which also includes her relationship to her analyst and what she represents.

Attachment (4 sessions)
Instructor: James Mikolajczak
Dates: 10/9/2020-10/30/2020 *Fridays 1:15-2:30 p.m.
Course Fee: (Early) $256, (Regular) $268, (Late) $276

This Attachment course will introduce some basic principles of Attachment Theory. Among the theorists discussed will be Bowlby, Ainsworth, and Fonagy. The application of their principles to clinical work will be shown. The steps in a person’s development of Mentalization and Reflective Functioning will be elaborated and applied clinically. This will enable students to better understand human Attachment and improve treatment of patients.

Neuroses (7 sessions)
Instructor: Nilufer Yalman, PhD
Dates: 11/6/2020- 1/8/2021 * Fridays 1:15-2:30 p.m.
Course Fee: (Early) $448, (Regular) $469, (Late) $483

This 8-week seminar is designed to familiarize candidates with neurotic level psychopathology and psychopathological entities classically referred to as neuroses.  From the birth of psychoanalysis, Freud understood neurotics (hysterics, obsessionals, phobics) as those who risk experiencing unending symptomatic yearning for what was lost and suffering from psychical conflicts whose origins lie in the subject’s childhood history. Neurotic psychopathology and manifest neuroses is traditionally referred to as being non-psychotic and “higher level” in terms of defensive architecture.

We will study economic, structural, dynamic, constitutional, and adaptive aspects of neurotic states and aim to distinguish these states from other psychopathology that appear superficially similar.

Psychosis (4 sessions)
Instructor: Bernard Feinberg, MD
Dates: 1/15/2021-2/5/2021 *Fridays 1:15-2:30 p.m.
Course Fee: (Early) $256, (Regular) $268, (Late) $276

The premise of this course is that psychoanalytic theories of how the mind works provide the most useful inroads to the understanding and treatment of psychosis.  Not only can psychoanalytic theory help mental health professionals to treat psychosis more effectively, the study of psychosis is also invaluable for an understanding of how the unconscious mind is put together even in non-psychotic subjects.

Neuropsychoanalysis (9 sessions)
Instructor: Stuart Ozar, MD & Mary Nielsen, MD
Dates: 2/12/2021 – 4/9/2021  Fridays 1:15-2:30 p.m.
Course Fee: (Early) $576, (Regular) $603, (Late) $621

Freud was originally, and maybe essentially, a neuroscientist. He abandoned neuroscience, realizing that the technology of the time, clinic-anatomic studies, did not allow for investigation of dynamic relationships in the brain. We now have those tools, ones that Freud anticipated and certainly would have used. A new, interdisciplinary field of study has emerged, named by Mark Solms and colleagues, neuropsychoanalysis. This course will introduce students to some of the advances in neuroscience that allow for dynamic models of brain functioning that correlate in striking ways with psychodynamic theories of the mind.

Prerequisite: None

Trauma (8 sessions)
Instructor: Mary Nielsen, MD
Dates: 9/11/2020-10/30/2020* Fridays 2:45-4:00 p.m.
Course Fee: (Early) 512, (Regular) $536, (Late) $552

This course will focus on theoretical and clinical aspects of trauma, beginning with a definition of trauma relative to other psychic pathology. We will discuss implicit and explicit memory as they relate to traumatic experience, and the problems of subjectivity and changeability of memory as they affect the practice of reconstruction of traumatic events.  We will also explore the effects of various traumas, including incest, neglect, and wartime experience, on development and symptom formation in children and adults.  Clinical examples will be of adults who have experienced traumas in childhood and adulthood.  Important aspects of work with victims will be reviewed, including common transference and counter-transference phenomena encountered in therapeutic work.

Pre-requisite: Developmental Viewpoint or Models of the Mind

*Dates are subject to change.

An annual resource fee of $120 will be charged. Upon acceptance a 10% or $150 (whichever is the lesser amount) non-refundable advanced course deposit will be charged.

All sessions will be held at the Institute. Distance Learning is available  for those living outside the St. Louis metro area for all courses except where noted. For some courses, the instructor may teach the class via Zoom from an off-site location.

For a complete list of descriptions for previous open courses, click HERE.

REFUND SCHEDULE

Questions?  Contact Margo Smith, 314-361-7075 x 319, recruitment@stlpi.org