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 […]
RaMell Ross's Nickel Boys (2024) is based on Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about two African-American boys sent to an abusive reform school in 1960s Florida. Shot entirely from first-person perspective, the film explores institutional trauma, systemic racism, friendship, resilience, and the long-term psychological effects of childhood abuse. The story is inspired by the real […]
with Dr. Bessel van der Kolk
Session 2 of 3 “Creativity and Resiliency” Presented by Rosa Aurora Chavez, MD, PhD, FABP Saturday, November 15, 2025, 12:00 – 2:00pm (2 CME/CE) Presentation and Discussion via Zoom Presentation: In this seminar (in English) we will discuss the evolutionary relevance of creativity for resiliency form psychodynamic and neuropsychoanalytic perspectives. Registration Link: https://wbcp.memberclicks.net/reg_psy_creativity_arts_25-26#/ Flyer: https://wbcp.memberclicks.net/assets/docs/PR/25-26/Psychoanalysis%20Creativity%20and%20the%20Arts%202025_26%20flier%20Multi-Session%20program%20%28B%29.pdf
“Holding and Containing: The Metaphor of the Baby in Winnicott, Bion, and Klein
An Introduction to Applications of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy in Medical Settings: The Successful Resolution of a Conversion Symptom by Psychoanalytic Technique in the ER Presented by Micah Knobles
Presenter: Therese Ragen, PhD This lecture will present the journey of a descendant of one of the leaders of the 1919 Chicago race riot in which dozens of people were killed, hundreds wounded and some thousand homes of Black people were burned down. The journey traced in the presentation is from the 1919 race riot […]
Presented by: J. Reid Meloy, PhD Although criminal violence in the United States has been incrementally decreasing for the past forty years, the incidence of targeted mass attacks has been increasing during the past decade. How can the psychoanalyst or psychotherapist assess the risk of such an attack by their patient–or when should the patient […]
Presenters: Golzar Naghshineh, MS, LP, CGP, and Nancy Kaufman, LCSW, LP - While addressing behavioral needs and surface level fears and anxieties is crucial in helping patients who struggle with infertility, it is also crucial that we help patients process their deeper unconscious (and often conflicting) feelings around treatment, failure, loss, inadequacy, and successful pregnancy. […]
Please join WBCP with COWAP North America (Committee on Women and Psychoanalysis, International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA)) for: Misogyny Then and Now: Implications for Psychoanalytic Perspectives Presented by: Special Guest, filmmaker, Jennifer Reeves, Margarita Cereijido, PhD, Paula Ellman, PhD, David Joseph, MD, Janice Lieberman, PhD Saturday, November 22, 2025 10:00 am – 1:00 pm (3 CME/CE) […]
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, leading to impairment […]
This presentation explores how the framework of neuroqueering—a concept rooted in neurodiversity and queer theory—invites a radical reconsideration of foundational psychoanalytic concepts such as identity, subjectivity, normativity, and development. By centering lived experiences of neurodivergent and queer individuals, this talk interrogates the implicit assumptions of the analytic frame and challenges psychoanalysis to reexamine its historical […]
Diana Moga, MD, PhD and Robert Glick, MD This presentation explores how the framework of neuroqueering—a concept rooted in neurodiversity and queer theory—invites a radical reconsideration of foundational psychoanalytic concepts such as identity, subjectivity, normativity, and development. By centering lived experiences of neurodivergent and queer individuals, this talk interrogates the implicit assumptions of the analytic […]
Presented by: JoAnn Ponder, PhD This special presentation will examine castles as historical structures in reality and as symbols that may appear in sandplay therapy with children or adults. Castles are magnificent structures that capture our collective imagination. My own fascination with them began when I was a young child living in Darmstadt, Germany. From […]
Presenter: Brin Grenyer, PhD The Sheila Hafter Gray Memorial Lecture is underwritten by ACPEinc and honors Dr. Gray's role in advancing the importance of psychoanalytic education. The mechanisms of patient change have been described in detail by prominent psychoanalytic thinkers over the last 130 years. These descriptions form the basis for analytic training and are […]
Gerald Melchode, MD The working alliance or the therapeutic alliance is the strongest predictor for the success of psychotherapy. The presentation explores the origins of these concepts and raises the question whether the working alliance can be applied to teaching and learning. Academics educators have already begun to do this. Their findings are presented which […]
The working alliance or the therapeutic alliance is the strongest predictor for the success of psychotherapy. The presentation explores the origins of these concepts and raises the question whether the working alliance can be applied to teaching and learning. Academics educators have already begun to do this. Their findings are presented which also inform us […]
This talk will endeavor to address appropriate concerns while also revisiting the utility of a psychoanalytic approach toward patients with schizophrenia and other psychotic illness. We will review of the history of the seminal contributions of psychoanalytic thinkers to theories of psychosis, as well as their applications. The benefits, limitations and dangers of psychoanalytic treatments […]
Stacia I. Super Memorial Ethics Conference Please join us for a panel discussion on Analyst Losses: Illness and Life-Changing Events and Their Effects on Treatment Presented by: Paula L. Ellman, PhD, Marc S. Levine, MD, and Harvey J. Schwartz, MD Moderated by: Sandra S. Lashley, PsyD Sunday, December 7, 2025 1:00 – 4:00 pm Presentation and Discussion […]
Presented by: Lisa Madsen, MD This special presentation will focus on complex cases which have reached an impasse with little forward movement or even a regression on the part of the patient. What do you recommend when a patient is no longer progressing in weekly psychotherapy? What do you do when a patient needs more? […]
What is a baby trying to say when it is crying? For British psychoanalyst Wilfred Bion, cries are more than a call for food or assistance. They are expressions of an all-consuming fear: of dying. Understanding this fear, and responding to it empathically was, for him, essential to the work of parenting—and analysis. But what […]
Presented by: Christian Roesler, PhD Dreams have been used in psychotherapy since Freud’s publication, The Interpretation of Dreams. First, the prominent dream interpretation theories of Freud and Jung are presented in comparison, as well as the resulting therapeutic approach. These concepts are then compared with the results of empirical dream research, which has developed since […]
The Coen Brothers 1998 film THE BIG LEBOWSKI (1998) is a post-modern fever-dream, now a classic. As a comic retelling of Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep, the film wiggles through multiple genres with an underlying message that narrative spins as communication is distorted by desire and expectation. Discussants: Seth Alt, PhD is an independent cultural […]
What might contribute to our subjectively feeling at home in the world? What leads to the loss of one’s psychic sense of home which in turn results in us feeling psychically unmoored in the world? These are some of the questions we will ponder together. Focus will be on the psychic loss of home even […]
Using both psychoanalytic writing and a case conference format, participants will examine psychoanalytic perspectives on SUDs and deepen their understanding of the psychodynamic underpinnings of their own cases. Presented by Dr Holly Han, Psy.D., LMFT.
Beginning and senior candidates will present vignettes from their early encounters with analytic patients, illustrating the ways our experience of writing helped us to understand ourselves as budding analysts. Discussants Jennifer Stuart, Ph.D. and Mark Moore, Ph.D. will respond, drawing from their own expertise in clinical writing and experience teaching psychoanalytic trainees.
Presenter: Stephen E. Finn, PhD Psychological assessment is typically viewed as something one does to diagnose psychological disorders or to plan for or evaluate an intervention. In this Grand Rounds, Dr. Finn will discuss Therapeutic Assessment, a brief intervention during which psychological testing is used collaboratively with clients to help them develop new self-narratives that […]
Winnicott brilliantly grasped the child’s nuisance-making as a bid for assurance of the parent’s reliability. Some adult patients continue their patterns of nuisance-making in ways that can be annoying to others, including the analyst. Dr. Cooper explores the work that the analyst must do on behalf of his patient to transform countertransference annoyance into meaningful […]
Spreaker: Volney Gay, PhD. We explore American slave owners who embodied the existential contradiction of American values (individual liberty) with human bondage. We focus on their struggles to defend themselves against that contradiction. We locate those struggles within the biographies of famous persons, such as President Washington, and unknown persons who claimed to be both […]
Presented by: Jon Allen, PhD Decades of research shows that factors common to various therapies contribute more to their effectiveness than the differences among them. These common factors pertain largely to the quality of the patient-therapist relationship. Prototypical are the Rogerian triad (empathy, positive regard, and genuineness) and the extensively researched therapeutic alliance. These factors […]
This presentation is appropriate for psychotherapists of all levels, interested in learning more about sandplay technique, its underlying theory, utility, and interpretation. It is a 10-session study group and workshop on Friday mornings from January 9 to April 10, 2026. Presented by Joann Ponder, PhD.
Middle School Latency
Presenter: Dagmar Herzog, PhD These days, the topic of intellectual disability seems frequently to function as a conversation stopper, and yet studying its history can teach us much we need to know about the seductive appeal of fascisms both past and present. The Question of Unworthy Life resituates the hundredthousandfold Nazi coercive “eugenic” sterilizations and […]
This conference on risks involving ethics, exposure, and eroticism in the psychoanalytic process features talks by two authors and clinicians, Charles Levin, PhD and Avgi Saketopoulou, PsyD, who have numerous publications on these important topics. Commentary will be offered by Elizabeth Wallace, MD, who has published papers about the immediate and long-term effects of losing […]
PRESENTER: Dorothy Evans Holmes, PhD This lecture will demonstrate the various ways in which Dr. Marianne Goldberger was a pioneer in psychoanalysis. The paper will draw on multiple sources of data: Dr. Holmes’ experiences as Marianne's supervisee, student, mentee, collaborator in writing, and friend; a review of commemorations of Marianne upon her death, and reflections […]
Facilitated by: Erica Ehrenberg, Licensed Psychoanalyst, MFA What do the great writers have to teach us about psychoanalysis, and in what ways do some of the most powerful psychoanalytic texts function as poetry? This writing workshop is predicated on the idea that creative writers have crucial contributions to make to how we conceptualize psychological experience, […]