Psychoanalytic Takes on the Cinema: Discussion of the Film: “Marcel the Shell With Shoes On" 2021 (89 mins) Directors: Dean Fleischer Camp A documentary maker struggling with finances decides to make to make his newest documentary about a mollusk shell he finds living in his Airbnb with his friends. *Film must be viewed before the […]

The Thomas and Julia Saltz Annual Adult Seminar Workshop Presents Something to Lose: Being in Dialogue About Difference When We Feel Like Leaving A special presentation by Dr. Anton Hart When: February 1, 2025 Time: 9:00 am – 11: 30 am Live Presentation Where: University Club of Washington DC 1135 16th Street NW, Washington, DC […]

Presented by Dr. Lauren Levine, Ph.D. In this presentation, Dr. Lauren Levine will reflect on the power of stories to create shared symbolic meaning and coherence out of ungrieved trauma. Through evocative clinical stories, she will explore creativity as transformative, emergent in the clinical process, drawing on film, dance, and literature and dreams as frames […]

Scholars like Sir James Fraser, Erich Neumann, Joseph Campbell, Will Durant and most Biblical Scholars of the19th and early 20th centuries wrote persuasive stories about the meanings of the figurines found by archeologists studying Prehistory, Ancient Mesopotamia, and Ancient Egypt. These scholars argued that the figurines represented mother goddesses, fertility, and perfect images of elite […]

Presenter: Sean Fitzpatrick, PhD, LPC | We live in a liminal moment in which mental health stigma is crumbling, in great part because of increasing psychological struggle triggered by the pandemic and recent social unrest.

Dina Oren and Israeli research group

Some say the love of it is the root of all evil. Others do not believe they can ever have enough. Therapists can, at times, avoid discussing it as much as anyone. Money. This course will examine how we talk about money in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. We will begin with a general overview of the […]

Ronny Jaffe

This course serves as an introduction to and overview of major schools of thought within the psychoanalytic tradition, including Freud, Ego Psychology, Klein, Object Relations, Winnicott and many more. We will focus on the distinction between theories of mind (metapsychology) which are metaphysical or structural and focus on the condition for the possibility of psychological […]

Professor David Tuckett will present on using a new theoretical framework for comparative analysis in psychoanalytic work, David will explore the different ways transference is understood, detected, and interpreted by different psychoanalysts practicing today and attempt to highlight the vulnerabilities in each approach.

An Online Reading and Discussion Group facilitated by Donald R. Ross, MD & Asli Baykal, PhD, LCSW A Note from the Program Chair: Many clinicians have heard of psychoanalytic treatment as a process of transforming ghosts into ancestors. However, there is much more than the ancestor concept to be learned from the writings of Hans […]

What makes a thought or feeling unbearable and how might psychoanalytic psychotherapy help us understand how our patients are able to bear (or avoid bearing) unbearable states of mind? In this group of clinically-driven essays, the Chilean psychoanalyst, Riesenberg-Malcolm examines how we think about what is unbearable and what it means for the therapist to […]

Discussion with Author David Mintz, MD with interview by Catherine Stevenson, MD This event would be of interest to a general audience of psychodynamic clinicians as well as those who prescribe medications. Though the book is generally aimed at prescribers, with a framework for how to integrate psychodynamic understandings and techniques to address dynamics driving […]

Presented by Huey Hawkins, PhD, LCSW

Pierre Cachia

Curious about psychoanalytic education & training? Whether you're dipping your toes into the field or gearing up to apply, our virtual Open House is the perfect place to explore what's possible. Join us for an afternoon filled with insightful conversations, meaningful connections, and a welcoming community ready to share their experiences. Meet our esteemed faculty […]

Explore the mysterious and haunting ways activated childhood memories can play out in our adult lives. The Lost Daughter, which premiered in 2021, is Maggie Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut based on Elena Ferrante’s novel of the same name. It centers on the character of Leda, a 48 year old literature professor who is vacationing by herself […]

Speaker:Polly Young-Eisendrath, Ph.D., Historically, people in committed relationships have felt shame about separating. Now, they feel ashamed when they stay and their demands for equality are not met. Many of us expect fairness and reciprocity, whether or not we know anything about negotiation. We expect to be seen and known and to speak freely and […]

Tyia Grange Isaacson, PhD. Daring to Hope: A Couple's Journey from Trauma to Connection.  Dr. Isaacson presents her treatment of a deeply traumatized, high conflict couple that is massively overwhelmed by multiple stressors. She delineates how she uses concepts from self psychology within a systems treatment framework to demonstrate how to invite traumatized partners to […]

Arthur Leonoff

Psychoanalysis has been criticized from its beginnings as a treatment that is only available to the genteel and affluent; however, at the same time, it is a treatment that, from very early in its development, has been seen as a potentially powerful force in the larger world: shortly after WWI, “Freud’s free clinics”, as described […]

Presented by Marilyn Charles, PhD, ABPP Nowhere do we see our psychic struggles so clearly as in the world of dreams, where images call to our attention the emotionally-charged, aesthetically-driven aspects of experience, and patterned relationships help reveal aspects of our stories that have remained hidden. Dream images afford metaphors embedded in the person's own […]

Jeanne Magagna

Presenter: Jon G. Allen, PhD | This presentation will include discussion of the developmental trajectory of relationships informed by attachment theory and research; empirical findings from a study of the connections between therapists’ personal relationships and the quality of their relationships with patients; and recent findings regarding what patients value in psychotherapy.

Dr. Colarusso will share insights on his paper, Psychoanalytic Perspectives on the Nearness of Death, which contimues his lifelong interest in normal and pathological development. Using the psychoanalytic tools of observation, insight and introspection, he describes the very sparse, psychoanalytic literature on late-late adulthood, and describe his own experience as he approaches 90.

This symposium will focus on the effects of war on children and on parenting with three case presentations describing children and families who have experienced war and a paper by Dr. Abigail Gewirtz in which she will focus on the impact of a parent's military experience, exposure to war, and transition stressors, while also discussing […]

This paper deals with the problem of reversibility and the limitations of the psychoanalytic psychotherapy for the severely traumatized patient. The repetition compulsion is understood as failing reparation of the damaged internal world. Two clinical cases are presented to discuss the problem of working through mourning and guilt. Final considerations address the role of remembering […]

In this workshop, we will consider how discussions of race are avoided in interracial couples. The interracial couple's dissociation from racial stratification leaves the couple ensconced in the paranoid-schizoid position, where Internal and external pressures contribute to the couble enacting a monoracial identification aligned with white dominant norms. These racialized dynamics have an impact on […]

Presented by Howard B. Levine, MD

This seminar is presented Afsaneh Alisobhani, Psy.D, FIPA will explore André Green’s seminal paper, The Dead Mother, delving into how the experience of an emotionally unavailable maternal figure—due to loss, depression, or trauma —shapes psychic development, attachment, and identity formation. Green’s concept provides profound insights into the inner worlds of patients, particularly those he describes […]

Many child clinicians are not trained in group work, yet they are often called upon to lead such groups. This program will offer a description of group work with children, summarizing curative factors and clinical applications. It will provide direct strategies for leading groups and understanding the clinical process. By detailing best practices, it will […]

Join us online for a lively discussion with students and faculty from each of our programs who will share how their training at NCP has fostered personal growth, a deeper understanding of their patients' experiences, and opportunities to build professional networks. You'll also have an opportunity to meet our program directors and Dean, learn more […]

Blink Twice (2024, Zoe Kravitz director & co-screenwriter, 1 hr 42 min) tells the story of a dream-perfect island retreat turned sinister, where guests become entangled in a web of memory manipulation and psychological control. Set against the alluring backdrop of wealth and exclusivity, the film traces themes of power, complicity, and the struggle to […]

Nathan H. Brown, Psy.D and Sandy Hyatt, Psy.D. will provide an overview of trauma and its treatment among patients seeking medical care for traumatic injuries in a Level 1 Trauma Center. Presenters will review current research on "evidence-based" treatments for PTSD, specifically Prolonged Exposure (PE) and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), compared with certain […]

A Book Review and Discussion of The Necessary Dream: ?New Theories and Techniques of Interpretation in Psychoanalysis by Giuseppe Civitarese, MD, PhD, presented by Mark Winborn, PhD Civitarese takes the title of the book from a passage in Bion’s volume (p. 33), Cogitations, “the way in which the necessary dream is constructed”. The emphasis taken […]

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. This event is in-person, but we will be holding a […]

Led by Diane O'Donoghue. There is a considerable bibliography of writings about the vast collection of early objects, most from Egypt and the classical Mediterranean, filled Freud’s working spaces at Berggasse 19 in Vienna. He spoke frequently of the close relationship between his methods and those of the archaeologist; indeed, the language of fieldwork appeared […]

Howard Levine, MD: Psychoanalysis is ‘the talking cure,’ but the problems raised by language are complex, paradoxical, and perhaps unsolvable. At their most effective, words play a vital role in psychic homeostatic regulation and the psychoanalytic process that is analogous to the architecturally structural role played by the keystone of an arch. The problem, however, […]

This case conference series targets early career clinicians and those interested to learn about psychodynamic therapy technique. Jon Venitz, LSW, will present a patient seen in residential D&A treatment, with discussant Fred Baurer, MD, providing an overview of key concepts for working psychodynamically with patients struggling with addiction, including (1) case formulation, (2) the use […]

Presented by Diane O'Donoghue. Guided tour at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Sigmund Freud’s widely read The Interpretation of Dreams (1900) made a number of bold claims about the meaning and mechanics of a phenomenon—dreaming— that was at that time widely dismissed in Eurocentric traditions. One of the best-known of his insights involved the notions […]

During this two-day conference, Ofra Eshel will present two works, which will be evaluated and discussed by contemporaries Charles Levin, Aner Govrin, and Mary Tennes, as well as a clinical case presentation by Margaret Rubin. The works focus on recognition of the paradox of learning uncertainty and multiplicity of knowledge as well as helping clinicians […]

Speaker: Chester Smith, MEd, LPC. Loss and trauma in general have long been understood to play a role in the creative process for many famous artists. Using the early histories of Munch, Van Gogh, and Picasso we will look at the role of loss as a contributor to their art. In this course we will […]

Kate Scharff & David Scharff

Speakers: Harold Braswell, PhD & Nikki Karalekas, PhD. This course will explore the relationship between writing and psychoanalysis through a group workshop process. We will begin by holding two courses exploring the connection between psychoanalysis and writing: How do psychoanalysts work with difficulties that can arise during the creative process? How do we support our […]

This series of four meetings is designed to meet the needs of clinicians interested exploring on- line aspects of child play psychotherapy and incorporating these psychodynamic concepts and techniques into their clinical practice with children. This course will have a clinical focus and will provide an opportunity for participants to hear and discuss case material.

Presented by Christie Hunnicutt, PhD, LCSW

Morning Focus: Core Competencies in Relational Psychoanalysis Drawing from Dr. Roy Barsness’ text, Core Competencies in Relational Psychoanalysis: A Guide to Practice, Study, and Research, this session invites participants to identify and explore the seven core disciplines of relational psychoanalysis, as revealed through his qualitative research. The workshop will deepen participants' understanding of relationally oriented […]

If virtual, the discussion begins at 4pm CDT. Please use link to review all details. This film screening explores the pleasure and fascination we experience when consuming horror movies and true crime media. Presenters will draw from analytic philosophy and psychoanalytic theory to explain our attraction to what is frightening and uncertain in our world. […]

In person film screening begins at 2pm. The discussion begins at 4pm. This film screening explores the pleasure and fascination we experience when consuming horror movies and true crime media. Presenters will draw from analytic philosophy and psychoanalytic theory to explain our attraction to what is frightening and uncertain in our world. By identifying horror […]

David Scharff & Kate Scharff