Ofra Eshel was invited to review and discuss Joseph Aguayo's book, Introducing the Clinical Work of Wilfred Bion (Routledge, 2023). After reading the book, she decided to focus on what she discerned as the complex relationship and the significant gap between Bion's theoretical and clinical work, as documented by Bion's own writings from the critical […]

A Scientific Meeting presented by Dr. Joseph Fernando, MDCM

A Scientific Meeting presented by Dr. Joseph Fernando, MDCM. This presentation explores the links between trauma, guilt, and the superego, and through this exploration attempts to make some additions to our understanding of individual dynamics, group regression, and group delusions. Dr. Fernando first describes his concept of the zero process as the form of mental […]

Cinematic masterpiece Saltburn, (2023) directed by Academy Award winning Emerald Ferrell, is a fascinating study in perverse autonomy. Barry Keoghan stars in the psychological drama Saltburn from which he won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor. Keoghan plays Oliver Quick, a bright, young, brooding social outcast who lands at Oxford and is quickly drawn to […]

Workshop presented by Dr. Joseph Fernando, MDCM

A Scientific Meeting presented by Dr. Joseph Fernando, MDCM. In this presentation Dr. Fernando will differentiate two defenses that are important clinically but that are often confused with each other: projective identification and identification with the aggressor. He will show that differentiating these two defenses at the conceptual level can be helpful clinically. Dr. Fernando […]

About the Event: Self-defeating behaviors are present to some degree in every psychodynamic treatment. We will explore ways in which sadomasochism manifests, particularly in the transference/countertransference arena. The developmental roots and psychodynamic underpinnings will be illuminated through clinical examples. A contemporary understanding via Neuropsychoanalysis will explore self-defeating behavior as a problem with the PLAY instinct, […]

Art Nielsen, MD. Asking for Things and Listening to Criticism: Two Fundamental Challenges in Intimate Relationships and Targets for Couples Therapy. Grounded in self psychology, Dr. Nielson uses everyday language to convey complex challenges in working with couples. He begins his talk with an experience-near discussion of why people have trouble asking for what they want, […]

In this era of increasing recognition that most individuals who enter our consulting rooms are struggling with symptoms that mark developmental impasses, we encounter bright individuals who appear to have the capacity for reflective thought but there is often insufficient grounding in integrating thoughts and feelings to learn from experience. In that context, adaptive efforts […]

Janice Hiller

featuring Tyler Beach, MSW, LCSW

This seminar will present basic tenets of theory and practice in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy, including a consideration of the differences between the two. The first half of the seminar will include fundamental psychoanalytic and psychodynamic concepts, as well as psychoanalytic models of the mind, of development, and of technique. The second half of the seminar […]

What do you want to be when you grow up? This provocative question is the title of one chapter as well as the theme woven throughout Thomas Ogden’s book, Coming to Life in the Consulting Room: Toward a New Analytic Sensibility. While the question seemingly refers to occupational goals, Ogden clarifies that he really means […]

Presenter: Jean Goodwin, MD., MPH | Psychoanalysis was both a help and a hindrance to me in the late twentieth century as I was beginning to explore child sexual abuse and its sequelae. It was unhelpful that my medical school mentor(1968) explained that incest occurs one per million population. Also unhelpful when my supervisor in […]

The Headless Woman is a 2008 Argentine psychological thriller art film written and directed by Lucrecia Martel and starring María Onetto. After hitting something with her car, a bourgeois woman’s life slowly descends into paranoia and isolation, as she fears she may have killed someone. Not well-known to American movie-goers, Martel is "arguably the most […]

Racial Rage, Racial Guilt: The Uses of Anger in Asian America Time: 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm Presenter: David L. Eng Live Presentation Post Hall George Washington University Mt. Vernon Campus REGISTRATION DEADLINE: Wednesday, October 2, 2024 Description: Asian Americans are conventionally described as “middle-man minorities,” outside of dominant racial paradigms of White and Black, […]

Brett Kahr

Mark Solms, neuroscientist and psychoanalyst, has substantially altered contemporary understanding of both Consciousness and Self-Experience. Solms is a clear and personable writer, but his understanding draws on science largely unfamiliar to psychotherapists. In preparation for his appearance at next Spring’s NCP Manifest Mind conference, we are offering an introductory course (5 monthly sessions over Zoom) […]

Edmund Sprunger, MSW, LCSW: Students sometimes seem to dismiss their teachers' best attempts to help them learn. They might ignore simple directions, roll their eyes, sigh, or mention that elephants are the only animal that cannot jump. Teachers can also feel disregarded by parents, who may attempt to discredit a teacher, fail to support their […]

Presented by Ricardo Ainslie, PhD Cities are interesting and complex psychological spaces that shape our subjective experience in ways that are both conscious and unconscious. Drawing from Bion, Winnicott, and other psychoanalytic theorists, but also from the work of architects and researchers from a variety of disciplines. This presentation examines the thesis that we simultaneously […]

Jill Savege Scharff and David Scharff   CE

Dismayed by the fragmentation haunting the psychoanalytic project for more than a century, Dr. Karbelnig has proposed an overarching clinical model for psychoanalysis. The approach intends to unify practitioners using Freudian, Jungian, Kleinian, Self-Psychological, Relational, or any psychodynamic approach. The presentation expands upon his February 2022 paper, "Chasing Infinity: Why Clinical Psychoanalysis' Future Lies in […]

A Scientific Meeting presented by Deborah Luepnitz, Ph.D. A common misconception about treatments derived from psychoanalysis is that they are appropriate only for highly educated people of means. This presentation challenges that assumption by referring both to Freud's free clinics and to Winnicott's work with homeless children. We will proceed to a discussion of IFA […]

A Scientific Meeting presented by Deborah Luepnitz, Ph.D.

Workshop presented by Deborah Luepnitz, Ph.D. Freud believed that dream work is the "royal road" to the unconscious, and he called The Interpretation of Dreams his "best and most important book." While the "Relational turn" of the 1980s enhanced the field in several ways-- reviving an interest in trauma, redefining counter-transference, and exploring the categories […]

Beginning with the question of the individual’s fitness with their family of origin, the authors describe the variables that determine the adolescent’s capacity to join peer groups. Optimally, the adolescent – when cognitive advancement is combined with a specific kind of group psychological mindedness – can consolidate their group identifications. When traumatized, an adolescent’s exclusion […]

Presented by Giuseppe Civitarese, MD, PhD with Discussant Joseph Aguayo, PhD Terms such as vitality and authenticity are difficult to define. Moreover, they are not truly psychoanalytic concepts. However, when psychoanalysis attempts to theorize the non-specific aspects of treatment, such as those related to the person of the analyst, it becomes inevitable to refer to […]

Free zoom event with Koichi Tagashi, Ph.D., L.P.: Are you able to cure your patient? In this presentation, I like to pose this question, without defining what a “cure” might look like, in order to get at your initial instinctive feeling. This presentation is intended to be an ethical question. I am not examining whether […]

Compulsions and Obsessions: A Lifespan Perspective. Greg Rizzolo, PhD. Freud's concept of the obsessional neuroses has evolved into today's obsessive-compulsive disorder with ideas from many fields helping to understand this condition. Dr. Rizzolo contributes to this effort by framing the variety of obsessive presentations as "a disorder of volition, an exaggerated sense of willpower not […]

Clinical supervision provides the foundation for ensuring patient care and professional development. This salon introduces an approach integrating psychoanalytic/psychodynamic principles and processes to enhance clinical competence. Participants will learn practical strategies to facilitate effective clinical supervision through presentations, video examples, and discussions. Topics include best practices for developing the supervisory alliance, facilitating reflective practice, addressing […]

Time: 1:00pm - 4:00pm Presenter: Sam Guzzardi, LCSW "Holding Laplanche Lightly: The Story of Two Queer Treatments" Via Zoom Presentation: As psychoanalysis seeks to find new frontiers both for clinical work and engagement with the social, the work of Jean Laplanche is becoming increasingly popular in the United States. In this presentation, participants will hear […]

This presentation is divided into five parts. The first part will concentrate on Eigen’s work. The following four parts will explicate each one of the relational areas in dialogue with that work, focusing upon two protagonists from Ferrante’s Novels: Elena Greco and Rafaela (Lila) Cerullo. It will be shown that the obstructive object is not […]

featuring Allen R. Dyer, MD

In this conference, Donna Roth Smith, LCSW & Hilda Catz, Ph.D offer a new way to talk about clinical work. They will talk together through the year about ongoing treatments and then bring participants into the conversation they have been having. Clinical work performed in isolation or within only a small group of colleagues risks […]

A Psychoanalytic Town Hall: Controversial Issues in the 2024 Presidential Election Panel of Psychoanalysts: Michael Diamond, PhD, David James Fisher, PhD, Mark Fisher, MD, Debra Myers, MD, Peter Wolson, PhD Town Hall Moderator: Peter Wolson, PhD On the cusp of this hotly contested presidential elections with radical differences between the party platforms and candidates and […]

Dr. Levy will read a chapter from her soon to be released book, On Apprehending the new other: alien intelligence and the innovation drive. This chapter deals with the form change that many of us are undergoing, owing to AI-driven personal technology, from humans into ‘digital people’. The metamorphosis will be explored through theories of […]

Alexandra Leonardo

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 […]

This is an introductory course on the evolution of the Independent Tradition (British in origin) applied to our work with children and adolescents. This tradition (or approach) is developmentally appropriate to our work with younger populations, as it moves from the more epistemological (knowing) approach, with its emphasis on interpretation and insight, to a more […]

Presenter: Ellen Safier, LCSW | Our intimate partnerships are the places where we are most vulnerable. It is of course these relationships that have the potential to provide the greatest sense of safety and security and comfort that are also the relationships where we can experience the greatest hurt and be most easily wounded.

Presented by Loan Vo, PhD, LISW-S

Presented by Donnel B. Stern In my first model of unformulated experience (Stern, 1983, 1997), my intention was to study our capacity to reflect on our own experience; and that meant that the boundary between formulated and unformulated experience needed to be defined by verbal language: My first model held that if you can think […]

Gila Ashtor, PhD, LP

Presented by Dr. Mauricio Salvador Garza Villalobos Psychiatric medication is surrounded by myths and fears both by patients and even from professionals in the mental health world. Being able to detect when the threshold for a referral to the psychiatrist is an essential skill for everyone who works in psychotherapy. But the work is not […]

DESCRIPTION: Embarking on retirement is a significant transition for any professional, and for mental health providers, it comes with its own set of ethical challenges and clinical considerations. This presentation will detail the relevant clinical, ethical, and legal considerations for the provision of advanced planning for psychologists. Topics covered will include how to identify a […]

The American Psychoanalytic Association(APsA) Advanced Practice in Nursing Committee is hosting an online Q&A session about Nursing + Psychoanalysis. Free to Nursing Professionals and Colleagues interested in Psychoanalysis. With Miriam Lundy, Brooke Finley, Sidney Miller and Linda Grey. Please do register (no password required for the meeting): https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMpdO-vrDIiEtAQcBZXpf9uBhLnZyxaXkt4