Events

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, […]

Presented by: Lisa Madsen, MD This consultation group will focus on complex cases which have reached an impasse with little forward movement or even a regression on the part of the patient. We will consider systemic or environmental factors impinging on the dyad, the patient’s comorbid conditions, intrapsychic variables (i.e., personality, resources, defenses), interpersonal issues, […]

Join us for an engaging opportunity to learn more about NPI! Meet the Dean and President for an introduction to the programs offered, connect with current candidates, experience a live class in action, and participate in a Q&A session to explore all our program offerings.

Presenter: Derek Hook, PhD - Obsessional neurotic analysands are notoriously good at neutralizing a psychoanalytic treatment. They annul the role of the analyst, avoid the dimension of the Other’s desire (or lack), deny the relevance of parapraxes, and use free association as a means of defense. Given then that the obsessional, for Lacan, is never […]

Tarsem Singh's THE FALL (2006) explores themes of trauma, healing, storytelling as therapy, and the complex relationship between a hospitalized stuntman and a young immigrant girl in 1920s Los Angeles. The movie is an illuminating example of transference and countertransference within a dyad, and that it illustrates the interesting effect of the immutable presence of […]

Dr. Richard Lane presents recent advances in neuroscience have the potential to reposition psychoanalysis on a stronger empirical footing and facilitate improvements in its efficiency and effectiveness.

Explore the pervasive narcissism of our culture and attempt to re-define the concepts of Self, Narcissism and Well-Being with Jeffry Luria, PhD

“Addressing Defenses: A Core Mechanism of Change in Psychodynamic Treatments “

Join us for an exciting opportunity to hear Susie Orbach in conversation with Amy Levy about Amy's new book The New Other: Alien Intelligence and the Innovation Drive. This book is a meditation on a technology that manifests all the hallmarks of human relating, human needs, and human complexities in its interactions with another subject. […]

Presented by: Nancy McWilliams, PhD Dr. McWilliams will reflect on contemporary diagnostic conventions in mental health, emphasizing the unintended negative consequences for both patients and clinicians of diagnostic practices that focus solely on symptoms and observable behaviors. She will describe alternative taxonomies intended to remedy the weaknesses of the DSM and ICD for guiding treatment, […]

In this panel, Brian Ngo-Smith will share a paper entitled Canceling Oedipus, or A Plea to Share the Future, reflecting on a period in his work with a young man in analysis in which a hateful and regressive impasse brought both analyst and analysand into contact with the dangers of the pursuit of hope. Drawing […]

Dr. Steve Hassan Must-Have Tools to Help Clients Disengage from Online Conspiracies, Radical Political Organizations, Cults & More

Join us for the Kramer-Mahler Forum for a compelling case presentation demonstrating the use of TFP-A in working with a 17-year-old patient with Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

Given that we can detect in the canonical work of many psychoanalytic thinkers the philosophical influences of Kant, Schopenhauer, Hegel, and Heidegger this presentation explores this point of connection between philosophy and psychoanalysis. Few thinkers have matched Friedrich Nietzsche’s psychological insights—a fact Freud acknowledged when he admitted to avoiding Nietzsche’s work to preserve the originality […]

How do psychoanalysts work with medication? What is the significance to both patient and analyst of an analyst prescribing medication? Dr. Garza will address these topics and provide clinical examples from his psychoanalytic practice. About Our Speaker. Luis Garza, MD Dr. Luis Garza graduated from the University of Texas-Houston School of Medicine. He completed his […]

Through panel presentations and large and small group discussions, this program will address the nature of generational anxieties (parricidal, filicidal, and siblicidal) as these emerge in the varying aspects of psychoanalytic institutions. Presenters Brian Ngo-Smith and Teresa Méndez will share reflections from their clinical work as well as from supervisory and other collegial relationships, to […]

Presenter: Bruce Reis, Ph.D., FIPA, BCPsa Program Committee Chair: Marina Mirkin, MD Analysts seem spellbound by language when it comes to the word interpretation, a word so idealized and grand, so laden with fantasy, that the term itself continues to hold a magical sense that defies us to think about it. Accordingly, issues of construction, […]

Presented by: Anne Alvarez, PhD, MACP We can sometimes be too preoccupied with removing defenses, which is helpful with many patients but can drain the already limited resources of those with weak egos and a kind of apathetic despair. This session will alert participants to the difference between resistance of a defensive nature and true […]

These classes may be taken individually or together. When taken as a series, they thoughtfully complement one another. Participants who register for both will receive a 10% discount.

*** Film must be viewed prior to event. *** Discussion of the film “Me Before You” Friday, January 30, 2026 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm Via Zoom 2016 (120 min) Director: Thea Sharrock Discussant: Katherine Marshall Woods, Psy.D. A girl in a small town forms an unlikely bond with a recently-paralyzed man she’s taking care […]

SORRY, BABY (2025), written, directed, and starring Eva Victor, invites us into the intimate-life world of Agnes, a newly minted Liberal Arts professor. The unsavory underbelly of academic power dynamics and the sexual transgressions therein, play out against life's ever-changing seasons and stages. This off-beat tale, with its penetrating depth, authentic psychological sophistication, and quality […]

Facilitated by: Barton Jones, LCSW & Lindsey Hogan, PhD A collegial companion to Dr. Nancy McWilliams’ lecture, Diagnosis and Its Torments This seven-week, all-level study group invites clinicians to engage deeply with Nancy McWilliams’ widely respected and clinically invaluable text, Psychoanalytic Diagnosis: Understanding Personality Structure in the Clinical Process. Co-facilitated by Barton Jones, LCSW and […]

Speaker: John Lucas, LPC. Many clinicians are hesitant to begin working with adolescents, although there is a significant need for adolescent therapists. This course will serve as a primer on working with adolescents and their parents/caregivers from a psychodynamic framework. We will cover both theoretical and clinical perspectives. The course will highlight the contributions of […]

Presented by: Lauren Levine, PhD Discussion by: Janine de Peyer, LCSW In this presentation, Dr. Levine examines the transformative power of storytelling and witnessing in creating shared symbolic meaning and coherence from ungrieved trauma. She explores creativity as a transformative force that emerges within the clinical process, drawing on film, dance, literature, and dreams as […]

Presenter: Daniel José Gaztambide, PsyD - This presentation will use a decolonial lens to review current thinking in psychoanalytic case formulation that addresses a) intrapsychic functioning (Davanloo’s feeling-anxiety-defense model), b) interpersonal dynamics (Luborsky’s wish-response of other-response of self), c) personality structure (Kernberg’s level of personality organization), and d) structural forces (Raque and Meisels’ structurally informed […]

Presenter: K. Chapman Attwell, MD Dr. Attwell will introduce the class to the didactic similarities and differences between individual and group psychoanalysis as well as how they can work in effective tandem. He will then run an experiential group to illustrate the key principles in a here-and-now focus on growth of the interpersonal ego and […]