Houston Psychoanalytic Society

In this three part study group, participants will explore the trends and controversies that have occurred over time in the psychoanalytic conceptualizations and treatment of trauma. The purpose is not to examine history as static and resolved, but to consider how the prior issues keep evolving, influencing the ways in which we view trauma, its […]

Ketamine and Trauma On the Couch presented by Megan Rundel, PhD In this interactive presentation, we will explore the biological and psychological effects of ketamine on mental health issues, with a special focus on trauma. We will learn about how to carefully and effectively utilize the power of ketamine for patients with different kinds of […]

The concept of self-alienation is inextricably linked to shame. Working with adult children of traumatizing narcissists, and with others who experience narcissistic abuse, Shaw’s way of working with these clients shifted as he began to study and integrate concepts and techniques from some of the contemporary traumatologists. What he has learned has led Shaw to […]

This event will focus on ideas from Galit Atlas’ new book "Emotional Inheritance."  It will address silenced experiences that belong not only to us or to our patients, but to their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents, and the ways they impact our lives. The clinical tales will focus on emotional material that is passed down from […]

This study group is based on a book authored by Carl Shubs, PhD, titled Traumatic Experiences of Normal Development: An Intersubjective, Object Relations Listening Perspective on Self, Attachment, Trauma, and Reality (Routledge, 2020). It describes a new conceptualization of trauma, so we can be better prepared to work with it. The book presents a psychoanalytic […]

Presented by Johanna Dobrich, LCSW-R Working with Survivor Siblings in Psychoanalysis: Ability and Disability in Clinical Process explores a previously neglected area in the field of psychoanalysis, addressing undertheorized concepts on siblings, disabilities and psychic survivorship, and broadening our conceptualization of the enduring effects of lateral relations on human development. What happens to a person’s […]

Presented by Jean Goodwin, MD Electra, like Oedipus, is a character from Greek mythology. The founders of psychoanalysis used their names to denote a psychosocial developmental phase. However, Electra’s story, like the biography of Oedipus, teaches us more about murderous violence than about internal conflict. Electra can also teach us something about recovery; she and […]

Presented by Richard Gartner, PhD Research suggests that in the United States one in six boys is directly victimized sexually by age 16. It has also become increasingly apparent in recent years that adult men, like women, are subject to sexual abuse, harassment, and assault. In order to treat this population, it is crucial that […]

Presented by M. Gerard Fromm, PhD In January, 2002, an annual Group Relations Conference was held as it had been for many years, and one of its large-group events began ordinarily enough. But, four months after 9/11/2001, members could not stay in the room to do the work of that session. Even though the recent […]

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 […]

When catastrophic events overtake adult lives, they can often scar the psyche in ways that psychodynamic clinicians struggle to understand. The adult survivor of a catastrophe--whether a life-threatening assault, a serious accident, an act of terrorism, or a natural disaster- experiences a near fatal disruption of fundamental aspects of self experience. Many who have physically […]

Treating people suffering with trauma disorders present the clinician with several challenges and dilemmas. How does one diagnose and treat a trauma survivor from a psychodynamic or psychoanalytic perspective? How does the clinician understand changes in self-states, moods, and shifting affective states? Are we treating developmental trauma, or the kind of trauma that leads to […]

One of the most damaging sequelae of trauma is the loss of trust and security in interpersonal relationships (Fonagy & Allison, 2014.) When encountering a patient with traumatic interpersonal experiences, we cannot assume a capacity to trust or to form a safe, secure attachment. Nor can we assume the capacity to learn or benefit from […]

Vitality is considered a manifestation of life, of being alive (Stern, 2010). While most of us have an embodied, intuitive sense of aliveness or deadness in our daily interactions and clinical processes, few of us have systematically studied the concept of vitality. Though the concept remains largely undertheorized in psychoanalysis, there is some available literature […]

Presented by Jeanine M. Vivona, PhD We tend to think of language as an abstract system that is imposed upon us from outside. Yet, as Hans Loewald knew, language is also an inner system, one that is learned from particular others in particular lived moments, one that is idiosyncratic and inherently relational. Indeed, every person’s […]

Presented by Stephen Seligman, DMH, Anne Alvarez, PhD, M.A.C.P. & Christopher Bonovitz, PsyD Vitality might be considered the essence of aliveness. Louis Sander and Daniel Stern drew our attention to vitality as a core component of human development and psychotherapeutic treatment. They were the most visionary of the first group of infant observation researchers, along […]

Ofra Eshel was invited to review and discuss Joseph Aguayo's book, Introducing the Clinical Work of Wilfred Bion (Routledge, 2023). After reading the book, she decided to focus on what she discerned as the complex relationship and the significant gap between Bion's theoretical and clinical work, as documented by Bion's own writings from the critical […]

What do you want to be when you grow up? This provocative question is the title of one chapter as well as the theme woven throughout Thomas Ogden’s book, Coming to Life in the Consulting Room: Toward a New Analytic Sensibility. While the question seemingly refers to occupational goals, Ogden clarifies that he really means […]

Presented by Ricardo Ainslie, PhD Cities are interesting and complex psychological spaces that shape our subjective experience in ways that are both conscious and unconscious. Drawing from Bion, Winnicott, and other psychoanalytic theorists, but also from the work of architects and researchers from a variety of disciplines. This presentation examines the thesis that we simultaneously […]

Presented by Giuseppe Civitarese, MD, PhD with Discussant Joseph Aguayo, PhD Terms such as vitality and authenticity are difficult to define. Moreover, they are not truly psychoanalytic concepts. However, when psychoanalysis attempts to theorize the non-specific aspects of treatment, such as those related to the person of the analyst, it becomes inevitable to refer to […]

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 […]