Houston Psychoanalytic Society

Presented by Donnel B. Stern In my first model of unformulated experience (Stern, 1983, 1997), my intention was to study our capacity to reflect on our own experience; and that meant that the boundary between formulated and unformulated experience needed to be defined by verbal language: My first model held that if you can think […]

6 Tuesday Evenings - Nov 5 - Dec 17 Facilitated by Joseph Aguayo, PhD In the aftermath of Wilfred Bion’s notable contributions to psychoanalysis, there have been succeeding generations of psychoanalysts who have addressed underdeveloped themes in his many papers and books. This seminar addresses the succeeding psychoanalysts, primarily in Europe and the United States […]

Presented by Robert S. White, MD From the point of view of classical psychoanalytic theory, I will survey what is established as the standard model of Freud, including drive/defense, compromise formation, oedipal conflict and development, free association, and interpretation. This is a one-person, intrapsychic model. Klein's addition did not fundamentally alter the Freudian model. Klein […]

Presented by Mark Winborn, PhD In our discussion, we’ll review some of the major ideas of Bion and Ogden that the authors reinterpret or recontextualize within field theory, bringing these ideas alive through clinical vignettes. We will also touch on Winnicott’s transformative ideas on play, Ogden’s depiction of “aliveness and deadness” in psychoanalysis, as well […]

Discussion with author David Mintz, MD with discussion by Catherine Stevenson, MD The histories of psychoanalysis and biomedical psychiatry have promoted a polarization between these disciplines. Often, this has led psychoanalysts to adopt a narrowly biomedical view of psychopharmacology (while simultaneously being critical of biopsychiatry for holding a biomedically-reductionist focus). Under scrutiny, a dualistic understanding […]

A Note from the HPS Program Chair: Metaphor is a fitting topic for our 2024-2025 educational program this year, in that it evokes both depth and vitality. It will be fun to explore this form of symbolism and word play with Gretchen Heyer, who is a published writer and poet as well as a practicing […]

Presented by Daniel Goldin, PsyD Aristotle believed that having a grasp of metaphor was a sign of genius, as it "implies an intuitive perception of the similarity in dissimilarities." Freud saw this metaphoric grasping together in the art of the dreamer, who compresses into a single story a day's worth -- perhaps even a life's […]

What if the leading purpose of the therapeutic relationship is to elevate the process of play? And when this capacity is absent, how might we find ways to fertilize the imagination? These questions were posed by Nora Swan-Foster, a Jungian analyst and art therapist who was invited to review and discuss Steven Cooper's recent book. […]

Presented by Steven H. Cooper, PhD with discussion by Joyce Slochower, PhD Through a series of clinical vignettes, the author explores the ethical undergirding of play in analytic work with adult patients. He defines play as a form of idiomatic, verbal responsiveness that emerges in the context of the analytic intersubjectivity, one that can illuminate […]

Presented by Perrine Moran, M.A. The dilemma of how to be emotionally dependent on another without losing oneself permeates many popular love songs and underlies issues that couples often bring to therapy. Its management results in different dynamics which place partners in couples on a spectrum going from too close to too far apart. This […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

6 Tuesdays | Sept. 2 - Oct 7 Austrian psychoanalyst Otto Rank’s significant contributions to modern psychotherapy have been undervalued. Drawing on her comprehensive research, Sara Ekenstierna offers an overview of some of the key tenets of Rank’s psychology, with focus on his relational, integrative, and process oriented approach, and aims to show how he […]

Elliott Jurist, PhD, uses memoir as a way to understand how patients experience therapy. Memoirs provide an unexplored place to hear from patients, separate from professional opinion. Drawing from diverse sources, Dr. Jurist argues that some memoirists see therapy as transformative, but others are equivocal or even negative. He also reflects upon how our beliefs […]

7 Wednesdays | Sept 10 – Dec 3 | Facilitated by: Garrett Tanner, PhD | This reading group is offered to explore the foundational texts of our field. Participants will engage in the seminal works of Sigmund Freud that all subsequent psychoanalytic theory – intentionally or unintentionally – responds to. Special attention will be given […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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? […]

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 […]

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.

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 […]

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, […]

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

Presented by: Clara Mucci, PhD Dr. Mucci will use neurobiology of attachment and affect regulation theory (Allan Schore), developmental psychopathology (Giovanni Liotti) and contemporary relational psychoanalysis to illustrate her own contribution to the field through what she terms the “three levels of trauma of human origin” and what she indicates as “embodied witnessing” as a […]

Presented by: Karen Hopenwasser, MD While moments of attunement with individuals manifesting dissociated self-states are often confusing, dissociative attunement can be used as a valuable tool in therapeutic process. Attunement is a synchronized awareness of implicit knowing that is nonlinear and bidirectional. It is an embodied rhythmic encounter that can be understood, in part, through […]

Facilitated by: J. Christopher Fowler, PhD & Stuart Weir, PsyD A foundational premise of psychoanalysis is Freud’s discovery of the unconscious and uncovering the meaning of latent content from dreams, parapraxes, and unintentional actions such as forgetting. This 6-week seminar will explore sources of latent (liminal) data from the analysand, as well as the analyst. […]

Presented by: Donnel Stern, PhD In the interest of integrating the social and the individual in psychoanalysis, Dr. Stern examines the relation of Althusser’s concept of interpellation and the psychoanalytic idea of dissociative enactment. Interpellation is a way of conceptualizing the creation of subjectivity via individual participation in the ideological tropes of power. Dissociative enactment […]

Facilitated by J. Christopher Fowler, PhD & Stuart Weir, PsyD A foundational premise of psychoanalysis is Freud’s discovery of the unconscious and uncovering the meaning of latent content from dreams, parapraxes, and unintentional actions such as forgetting. This 6-week seminar will explore sources of latent (liminal) data from the analysand, as well as the analyst. […]

Presented by: Kathleen Adams, PhD In Part I of this two-part special presentation, author Kathleen Adams, PhD, discusses her book Attuned Treatment of Developmental Trauma: Non-abused, High Functioning People Living Outside of Time. Many therapists don’t even think of their patients as “trauma patients” despite descriptions of early neglect, abuse, separations and loss, and dysfunctional […]

Presented by: Kathleen Adams, PhD Discussion by: Robert Grossmark, PhD In Part II of this two-part special presentation, author Kathleen Adams, PhD, discusses her book Attuned Treatment of Developmental Trauma: Non-abused, High Functioning People Living Outside of Time. Group and individual therapists who frequently encounter patients with characters organized around melancholy, anxiety, entitlement, and rage […]

Presented by: Arthur Niesser, Dr. Med., Derek Hook, PhD & Leora Trub Discussion by: Todd Essig, PhD This conference will consider some clinical and theoretical considerations in telehealth versus in-person psychoanalytic treatments. Dr. Niesser will explore if there might be groups of patients for whom online analysis might be advantageous compared to the traditional in-person […]

Presented by: Shir Shanun, PhD Civitarese (2024) writes we have a need to exist in the eyes of others, it is what makes relationships meaningful. Such loving connections and freedom in complex analytic system and the positive relationship between them are at the center of this paper. I will argue that restriction or expansion of […]

Presented by: Lauren Levine, PhD Discussion by: Janine de Peyer, LCSW Please join us whether or not you have read the book. Some people want to read and discuss the book; others want to learn more before deciding if they want to read it. All are welcome! In this presentation, Dr. Levine examines the transformative […]