Events

What if the most important perspective in psychoanalysis is the one we rarely hear? Lay patients—those without theoretical training or professional community—constitute the majority of analysands, yet their authentic voice remains largely absent from our field's discourse. Unlike analyst-patients who can contextualize their experience through theory and peer discussion, lay patients navigate analysis without a […]

Speaker: Tom Wooldridge, PsyD, ABPP, FIPA, CEDS-C - The role of the father, both flesh-and-blood and symbolic, is explored in a subset of families of patients with anorexia nervosa. In these families the mother’s narcissistic investment in her child makes separation-individuation difficult. A factor potentially influencing whether the child goes on to develop anorexia nervosa […]

Led by our Emeritus Faculty, this event will feature a short documentary and discussion about the shared trauma of Katrina: how the Center came together to manage the crisis and evolved as a result, personal accounts of rebuilding, and how the storm impacted their career trajectories. Don’t miss this opportunity to experience the profound impact […]

presented by Tobias Wiggins, PhD

The Gender and Sexualities Education and Development Group (sponsored by the APsA Committee on Gender and Sexuality) has initiated the First Things First series to educate ourselves and other psychoanalysts on developing a contemporary psychoanalytic curriculum for sexuality and gender. This development group will be useful for those teaching psychotherapy student classes and curricula, graduate […]

Facilitated by: Erica Ehrenberg, MFA Psychoanalytic, Buddhist, and literary works indicate a vast internal expanse for which each discipline attempts to find language. However abstract the terms for describing variations of this space may seem–the unconscious, emptiness, or Keats’ concept of “negative capability,” our psychic contact with this terrain in all cases has powerful implications […]

James Anderson, Ph.D. introduces therapists and analysts to the ways that psychobiography reveals the powerful undercurrents of countertransference, to serve as a didactic tool for early career therapists and analysts, as well as a refresher for more senior practitioners. CE

Author: Katherine Marshall Woods, PsyD | Interviewer: Ricardo Ainslie, PhD | Black Film Through a Psychodynamic Lens delves into the nuanced character development and narrative themes within the struggles and successes presented in Black films over the last five decades. In this pioneering book, Katherine Marshall Woods looks at Black cinema from a psychological and […]

Erikson Institute of the Austen Riggs Center 2025 Virtual Fall Conference The Austen Riggs Center invites you to join an interdisciplinary conference, "Rebuilding Trust in Institutions: Bridging Generational Insights.” This gathering expands Erik Erikson’s foundational insights on basic trust and mistrust, extending them into today's complex social and institutional landscapes.

Presented by Beverly Simmons, PhD, LCSW

APsA's Candidates' Council Online Seminar: Instructor: Bonnie J. Buchele, Ph.D., ABBP, DFAGPA This seminar will focus on the relationship between fashion and the frame as it relates to the analysand, the analyst and the process.  Dr. Buchele will give a brief review of the literature and speak of her relationship with fashion as well as the role it […]

Join Dr. Lawrence Hedges, Ph.D., Psy.D., ABPP for The Unfinished Copernican Revolution: An Introduction to the Work of Jean Laplanche, a thought-provoking salon exploring how Freud’s “four insults to human narcissism” continue to shape our understanding of the human psyche. Drawing on Laplanche’s revolutionary ideas about the unconscious, seduction, and the influence of “otherness,” Dr. […]

The conference will be divided between exploring four different psychoanalytic models and their relevance to the treatment of major primitive psychopathologies. Dr. Panajian will discuss Freud’s understanding of two principles of mental functioning, thinking, negation, disavowal, and delusions as an attempt to recover psychic functioning. Klien’s paranoid schizoid position, depressive position, manic and obsessive defenses […]

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 […]

Dr. Stark’s therapeutic approach to working through neurotic conflictedness, “Conflict Statements: Leveraging the Patient’s Anxiety to Incentivize Transformation and Growth”

This conference will feature Peter Fonagy, PhD, and Ed Tronick, PhD — distinguished researchers and scholars who have had long academic careers studying and theorizing about the clinical processes that contribute to human growth and therapeutic change. The clinical processes in the psychoanalytic treatment of adult patients have long been viewed as sharing similarities with […]

Join Dr. Holly Han and Dr. Shirley Liao for a five-week, psychoanalytically-informed group exploring the text Racial Melancholia, Racial Dissociation by David L Eng and Shinhee Han (2019). Together, we will reflect on the social and psychic dimensions of racial identity and belonging in the lives of Asian Americans.

Selma Fraiberg and colleagues’ seminal article, “Ghosts in the Nursery,” brought our attention to the infant-parent relationship and the intergenerational transmission of trauma. Since the publication of the article in 1975, infant observations and empirical studies have continued to elucidate the developmental consequences of the parent-child relationship and implications for adult treatment. In Part II […]

Kathryn Zerbe, MD will discuss how hearing secrets is an often-overlooked yet critical aspect of clinical practice, necessitating that therapists understand the ethical complications and potential for powerful, unanticipated reactions that can arise from these disclosures in order to better assist their patients and themselves. CE

The Morris Eagle Psychoanalytic Research Lecture is an annual NCP Lecture in honor of the career and contributions of Morris Eagle. Introducing the Revised Standard Edition of Freud’s Psychological Works: Can the existing English translation by James Strachey of Freud’s Psychological Works be salvaged and updated, or is a completely fresh start called for? This […]

Psychoanalysis Creativity and the Arts: Session 1 of 3: “Lo creativo y lo vital” Presented by Alfredo Panceira, MD, Jani Santamaria, PhD, Ariel Liberman, PhD, and Rosa Aurora Chavez, MD, PhD, FABP Saturday, October 4, 2025 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm (2 CME/CE) Presentation and Discussion via Zoom *This first session will be conducted in […]

DEWALD LECTURE: The New Other: A.I. What have we created, and why? (Amy Levy, PsyD) Humanity has engineered a new Other. Sometimes referred to as “alien intelligence,” AI technology has the capability to think about our minds, communicate with us at conscious and unconscious levels, and act as a new “container” for human psychic life. […]

Humanity has engineered a new Other. Sometimes referred to as “alien intelligence,” AI technology has the capability to think about our minds, communicate with us at conscious and unconscious levels, and act as a new “container” for human psychic life. From a psychoanalytic perspective, AI is our symptom. What does it reflect about humanity? Our […]

LGBTQ+ Workshop Please join us as Sien Rivera, MD and Justin Shubert, PsyD, PhD present Monstrousness and Aliveness: Engaging Gender in Psychoanalysis Sunday, October 5, 2025 Public Session: 1:00 – 4:00 pm Presentation and Discussion Via Zoom Presentation: This workshop seeks to explore a range of engagements with gender in the psychoanalytic encounter. One portion […]

This paper takes up the clinical challenges of working with patients for whom the repetitive pursuit of intense, erotic relationships both expresses and conceals yearnings to be and belong. While sexual experiences can elicit core fantasies of transformation, awareness of the very otherness that offers such promise also threatens a fragile self and is thus […]

Psychoanalytic clinicians often encounter the complexities of erotic transference and countertransference, yet struggle with conceptual frameworks and language that adequately capture these intense, often ambiguous experiences. Traditional models can obscure the subtle intersubjective and developmental meanings of erotic material, resulting in impasses or missed therapeutic opportunities. This presentation aims to expand clinicians’ capacity to think […]

Speaker Linda Horrell, MDiv, MSW, LCSW. This course is for anyone curious about child development and for experienced psychotherapists who are interested in the psychoanalytic insights into the dreams of children and adolescents. We will have fun discussing the animation, Dream Productions, a Pixar-created mini-series from the creators of Inside Out.

Presented by: Elizabeth Danze, FAIA This presentation examines the concept of resilience in both architecture and human experience through the shared metaphor of the palimpsest—a form that retains traces of its past while adapting to the present. Drawing on Vitruvius’s notion of firmitas and extending it through the study of buildings, we explore how architecture […]

THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG (2024) written, co-produced and directed by Mohammad Rasoulof won them Special Jury Prize of 2024 Cannes Int’l Film Festival. The film centers on a family thrust into the public eye when the father is appointed as an investigating judge in Tehran, as political unrest erupts in the streets. When […]

This hybrid conference offers clinicians and psychoanalytic practitioners an opportunity to deeply engage with how social positionality, embodiment, and therapeutic practices intersect—equipping attendees with reflection tools, case-based learning, and strategies to foster more inclusive, body-conscious therapy. Presented by Jamie Steele, LMFT, Molly Merson, LMFT, and Laura Westmoreland, LMFT.

Instructor: Golzar Selbe Naghshineh, LP, CGP This seminar explores how fashion influences identity through the lens of heritage— how it's either embraced or rejected in both cultural fashion and in what is passed down/inherited in families. What is inherited can be both a gift and a burden; heirlooms and inherited wardrobes carry meanings and identifications […]

Join us for an illuminating exploration of the hidden narratives and alternative histories that have shaped psychoanalytic practice from Los Angeles to the broader therapeutic landscape. Hannah Zeavin will open our program by examining the overlooked histories of psychoanalysis and psychiatry, revealing how these forgotten chapters continue to inform and illuminate contemporary therapeutic practice. Her […]

Felecia Powell-Williams, Ed.D., LPC-S, RPT/S presents a case presentation with a focus on clinical material of a four-year analysis that has continued therapeutically from childhood into adulthood, and her early attachment disruptions in relationship with her mother and father. The presentation will illustrate the internal conflicts concerning a difficulty with aggression surrounding traumatic loss of […]

6 Tuesdays | Oct 21 – Dec 9 | Facilitated by JoAnn Ponder, PhD We have recently witnessed brazen displays of patriarchy, oppressive behavior toward women, attempts to control their bodies, and threats or acts of violence toward them in American political and social life. Given the longstanding roots of patriarchy and misogyny in our […]

Please join PCOP in welcoming Dr. Steve Axelrod from NYC to speak about some of the most recent considerations of adult psychological development in our field. CE.

Defense Mechanisms: Hierarcy, Adaptation and Change - Dr. Chris Perry

Book Editor: Klara Naszkowska, PhD | Discussant: Rosemary Balsam, MD This book discussion is dedicated to filling a hole in the history of women pioneers of psychoanalysis. Their groundbreaking contributions to the nascent field notwithstanding, their biographies have been largely and systematically erased from the historical narrative. Klara Naszkowska will draw on the anthology that […]

Presenter: Todd Essig, PhD - The AI revolution is here—and by “here,” I mean right here in our consulting rooms. Interactive self-help tools are now marketed as AI psychotherapy, and for many, they’ve become a viable treatment option. Augmentation technologies for clinicians are readily available, reshaping aspects of clinical practice in real time. Meanwhile, patients […]

Nancy Kulish Ph.D Educational objectives: 1. Describe how early infantile trauma can be expressed in bodily symptoms or replayed in a person’s behavior. 2. Identify how the manifestations and symptoms of early infantile trauma appear in the transference and countertransference in psychotherapy or psychoanalysis. 3. Discuss how to relate to and empathize with traumatized patients. […]

The 2 recent explosions within the Program Committee and then within the American Psychoanalytic Association are examined, from an insider’s perspective, as analysts’ difficulties with listening to each other. Analysts’ anxiety with erotic excitement, especially with racial erotics, even when used for self-affirmation, is discussed. So too is the need for Othering and the need […]

6 Mondays | Oct 27 – Dec 8 | Presented by: Erica Ehrenberg, Licensed Psychoanalyst, MFA In this course we will discuss, respond to, and write together from the work of artists, writers, and analysts in order to explore the connections between their work, and the creative forces behind psychic change. What does it mean […]

Presented by: Carol Gilligan, PhD In a special presentation for HPS, renowned social psychologist and feminist Carol Gilligan, PhD will explore the roots of patriarchy and its persistence in contemporary American political and social life. She is best known for her groundbreaking book, In a Different Voice, published in 1982 and described by Harvard University […]

Exploring the Links: Moving from Observation to Transformative Interventions We are excited to announce our upcoming conference with Jeanne Magagna, PhD, Tavistock Centre-trained Child, Adolescent and Adult Psychotherapist London, UK Saturday, November 1, 2025 George Washington University Hospital Auditorium 8:45 am – 4:45 pm ET 6 CME/CE Dr. Magagna’s work emphasizes the transformative power of […]

Model Minority and Its Discontents: Understanding the Asian American Experience This presentation offers a psychoanalytic exploration of the Asian American experience.? Asian Americans comprise 7% of the total US population; yet, they remain largely invisible and unknown to Americans and American psychoanalysis, except for being perceived as a Model Minority. ?The Model Minority myth leads […]

In this presentation Dr. Lotterman documents the extensive overlap between the symptoms and psychology of neurotic and psychotic patients. He portrays the way the sense of self falls apart, and its possible recovery in psychological therapy. Areas of convergence between neurosis and psychosis include: the fragmenting of the sense of self, the sense of aloneness […]

Child Analysis

Instructor: Julie Jaffee Nagel, Ph.D., psychologist, psychoanalyst & musician The Power of Music as Heard in Peter's Psychological Development in "Peter and the Wolf" (Sergei Prokofiev, Composer) This presentation will emphasize through both words and music the power of music in our lives by discussing both words and music about how Prokofiev told a story […]

In this book discussion, we will discuss Borderline: The Biography of a Personality Disorder (Beacon Press, 2024), authored by Alexander Kriss, PhD. The presentation will consist of a conversation between the author and J. Christopher Fowler, PhD. Drawing on psychoanalytic theory, patient narratives, and shifts in psychiatric authority from antiquity to present day, the book […]

Session 1 of 3 *** Film must be viewed prior to event. *** Discussion of the film “The Thing” Friday, November 14, 2025 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm Via Zoom 1982 (109 min) Director: John Carpenter Discussant: Alex Smith, Psy.D. A research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance […]

Presenter: Gila Ashtor, PhD, LP - There is a type of patient who haunts psychoanalysis from the margins, never settling into existing diagnostic categories but never completely disappearing either. Variously referred to as “normotic” (Bollas, 1987, McDougall, 1978, 1985), “false self” (Winnicott, 1960), and the “as if” personality (Deutsch, 1942), this patient confounds conventional classificatory […]