Learn how interpersonal processes become internalized and create the structure of the conscious and unconscious mind. Through readings, discussions, and case presentations you will gain a deeper understanding of core object relations concepts including internalization, identification, mentalization, splitting, repression, projective identification, and containment.

Presenter: J. Christopher Fowler, PhD Description: We are acutely aware of the fear and dread of losing a patient to suicide. Unlike other medical crises, there are no biologic tests to accurately determine the level of suicide risk, nor metrics for determining when a suicidal crisis may occur (Fowler, 2012; Franklin et al., 2017). It […]

Connections and Conversation is a free monthly Zoom meeting. The core thesis, threading through several publications is that if contemporary psychoanalysis aspires to contribute to addressing our socio-political and ecological challenges, we must develop an enlarged repertoire of theory and practice. The distinguished Harvard Law School Professor, Lawrence Lessig has eloquently argued that repairing our […]

The Allure of Fascism and the Appointment in Samarra (presented by Era A. Loewenstein, PhD with discussion by Michael J. Diamond, PhD, FIPA) Increasingly we are observing the rise of proto-fascist parties around the world and in the American MAGA political movement. Building on the fable The Appointment in Samarra, the presentation will discuss the characteristic features […]

Join Shari Thurer, Sc.D., and a panel of discussants as she discusses her new book, Beyond the Binary: Essays on Gender with Dan Jacobs, MD, and the online audience.

David Scharff, MD presents a case study on Family Reconciliation as part of our ongoing Psychoanalytic Couple Therapy Videoconference series.

Presented by Harold Braswell, PhD, MSW. The word “radical” is generally understood to mean a break from tradition. But, etymologically, the term also connotes a return to one’s roots. A “radical” psychoanalysis would, in this sense, seem paradoxical—but perhaps, in the process, faithful to the nature of the unconscious itself. This course explores this paradoxical […]

Anne Alverez presents on erotic transference as part of our Master Speaker Series videoconference.

The Master Gardener (2022, 2 hr, 25 minutes), directed by Academy Award® nominee Paul Schrader, continues Schrader’s long filmic exploration of the psychology of redemption. Here, a former skinhead gang enforcer lives an apparently monastic life as he tends the grounds of a beautiful estate until others’ needs impinge on his ascetic resolve. Learning Objectives: […]

The Master Gardener (2022, 2 hr, 25 minutes), directed by Academy Award® nominee Paul Schrader, continues Schrader’s long filmic exploration of the psychology of redemption. Here, a former skinhead gang enforcer lives an apparently monastic life as he tends the grounds of a beautiful estate until others’ needs impinge on his ascetic resolve. Learning Objectives: […]

The word “stranger” comes from the Latin word extraneus, meaning “one who is on the outside.” In this latest installment of our case conference series, targeted to early career clinicians and those curious to learn more about psychodynamic approaches to therapy, PCOP Psychotherapy Associate Member, Jasmine Gibson, LCSW, will present from her work with a […]

Interpersonal psychoanalysis has always included culture and other intersectionalities

Participants will explore challenging places of analytic work from different theoretical perspectives of working in the psychoanalytic field: Autism is the Treatment: Suturing the Rupture Between Body and Mind by Leon Brenner, Ph.D; Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Substance Use and Mis-use by D. Bradley Jones, Psy.D, LCSW; Placement, Displacement, Replacement: Where the Social and the Unconscious […]

Although we might wish for them not to, racial enactments in psychoanalytic organizations can be observed to happen regularly, exposing schisms that are borne of personal, social, and structural elements. Now, in the wake of contemporary racial polarization and galvanizing instances of brutality, and in the ongoing context of widespread social division, upheaval, and international […]

Presented by Martha Stark, MD Highlights the primary difference between relentless hope and relentless despair, elaborate upon the patient’s intense ambivalence about entering the world of objects, explains the relevance of the concept of dreading surrender to resourceless dependence upon another, expounds upon the importance of moments of authentic meeting as offering opportunity for restoring […]

Damian McCann presents on Couples as Parents as part of our ongoing Psychoanalytic Couple Therapy Videoconference series.

Discussants: Oren Gozlan and Willa France.   Moderators: Margarita Cereijido and Anne Adelman The discussion will focus on issues pertaining to transgender people and society’s prejudices against them. We encourage audience participation. Participants should view the film beforehand. It is available on Netflix and Hulu.

This Scientific Meeting will address the challenges met when working with patients who cannot “work together” with an analyst, who are not sufficiently able to symbolize and mentalize. We will address both patients who suffer disturbances in the area of self-other definition, continuity and regulation of self, as well as patients who can appear to […]

A Workshop presented by Robert Grossmark, PhD, ABPP

Psychoanalytic interventions occur in manualized short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy through the Regulation Focused Psychotherapy approach. In this presentation, Drs. Leon Hoffman and Timothy Rice will review the history of the psychoanalytic technique of interpreting defenses against painful affect with children, demonstrate its effectiveness in the case history of Philip, a six-year-and-five-month old boy who was felt […]

Jack Drescher, MD discusses the study of human sexual identities is changing, and these changes oblige analysts to think about sexualities in ways never envisioned by their psychoanalytic forbears. These changes also require that they be aware of some of the limitations imposed upon by their own theoretical traditions. Toward that end, this presentation begins […]

For patients, it's seldom the content of the analyst's interpretation that's memorable but rather the feeling of being understood. Within the interpersonal field, the analyst's interpretation gives voice to field shifts that are jointly created between analyst and patient and make way for a new freedom to think and feel.

In this presentation, Dr. Peter Shabad describe how shame results from traumatic ruptures in human relationships. I will describe the developmental trajectory of shame in self-pity, resentment, entitlement, and regret for missed opportunities. I will illustrate shame with a clinical example, and talk more generally of my clinical values and principles in working with people […]

Presenter: Efrain Bleiberg, MD Description: This presentation will discuss the acquisition of trust and social learning in normal development and in psychotherapy and success that such acquisition is facilitated by the therapist’s ability to model repair by taking responsibility for one’s inevitable mistakes and misattunements and the impact they have on the patient. Examples of […]

Past Lives (2023, 2hr, 23 min) written and directed by Celine Song. The film follows the line of connection/disconnection over 24 years of a Korean boy and girl who are separated when her family moves to Canada. From the opening moments, we wonder how that friendship will affect her American marriage, which we are shown […]

Past Lives (2023, 2hr, 23 min) written and directed by Celine Song. The film follows the line of connection/disconnection over 24 years of a Korean boy and girl who are separated when her family moves to Canada. From the opening moments, we wonder how that friendship will affect her American marriage, which we are shown […]

Speaker: Eric Mendelsohn. Topic:  Working as a therapist is irreducibly challenging. We deal with loss, adversity, and preoccupation, and we live and work in a time of considerable instability and dysfunction.