San Diego Psychoanalytic Center

Description: Even for those of us with prior tele-analytic experience, our sudden immersion in practicing tele-analytically during the pandemic caused a seismic shift in our ordinary way of practicing with all the psychic reverberations such a change evokes. Now that the dust has settled some, we have an opportunity to reflect on what we’ve observed […]

Weekend Event - October 21 & 22 A Psychoanalytic Retrospective: Thoughts on the Essence of a Happy and Fulfilled Life Calvin A. Colarusso M.D. Training and Supervising Child Adolescent and Adult Analyst San Diego Psychoanalytic Center. Dr. Colarusso will describe the effect of more than fifty-five years of exposure to psychoanalytic theory and the practice […]

Weekend Event - October 21 & 22 A Psychoanalytic Retrospective: Thoughts on the Essence of a Happy and Fulfilled Life Calvin A. Colarusso M.D. Training and Supervising Child Adolescent and Adult Analyst San Diego Psychoanalytic Center. Dr. Colarusso will describe the effect of more than fifty-five years of exposure to psychoanalytic theory and the practice […]

Weekend Event - October 21 & 22 Sunday, October 22 The Developmental Process: The Analysis of a Traumatized Three-Year-Old. Rex McGeHee, M.D. Training and Supervising Child, Adolescent and Adult Analyst. Denver Institute for Psychoanalysis Dr. McGeHee will present a case to illustrate how psychoanalytic treatment changes the developmental trajectory of a life. Building on Freud's […]

Nancy McWilliams Clinical Supervision: Old Controversies and New Dilemmas. Event Description: National organizations of psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and counselors have recently advocated specific courses in supervision for trainees their respective clinical disciplines. They have tended to frame supervision in terms of specific competencies or progressive skill sets, often measured via symptom reduction in the supervisee’s […]

Leora Benioff, PhD, is a psychoanalyst and couple therapist based in Berkeley, California. This presentation will examine contemporary methods in psychoanalytic couples therapy, with a special focus on the approach developed by the Tavistock Clinic, as well as modern Bionian and object relations techniques. It may also explore additional theories, including link theory and attachment […]

Mark Solms is a psychoanalyst, neuropsychologist and a professor in Neuropsychology at the University of Cape Town (South Africa). His lecture begins with a discussion on the series of discoveries about the dreaming brain between the 1950s and 1980s that suggested that Freudian theory was scientifically disproven. Less well known is the fact that a […]

DESCRIPTION: Embarking on retirement is a significant transition for any professional, and for mental health providers, it comes with its own set of ethical challenges and clinical considerations. This presentation will detail the relevant clinical, ethical, and legal considerations for the provision of advanced planning for psychologists. Topics covered will include how to identify a […]

Description: Three esteemed psychoanalysts will discuss a case presented by a fourth-year candidate, each from their distinctive theoretical orientation. This stimulating panel presentation will provide a glimpse into the spectrum of psychoanalytic approaches and their convergences and divergences. Following the presentations, a moderated discussion will encourage the exchange of ideas and perspectives. Bio: Charles M. […]

Description: The current extension of the concept of the unconscious to different levels, configurations, and functioning of the mind is the result of decades of collective reflection on the clinic and on theory. Analysts today have a broader, more refined and complex knowledge of defensive and transformative processes, and this has also led to an […]

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.

Daniel Brockett, M.D. will explain the neuropsychopharmacology of classical psychedelics as well as atypical psychedelics such as ketamine and empathogens such as MDMA.

Dr. Karbelnig believes that psychoanalytic clinicians practice framing, presence, and engagement in their work with patients. They pursue the unconscious mind through focusing on transference and countertransference, repetitive psycho-behavioral themes, and dreams (and other signifiers of the unconscious).

Dr. Peter Shabad will briefly describe how the origins of chronic shame emerge from chronic experiences of rejected vulnerability at the hands of one’s parents. These cumulative experiences of trauma may be viewed as the psychic loss of a physically present parent, in which one’s expectant hope for a wished-for parent is continually frustrated by […]

Humans have long looked to dreams for meaning, seeing in them symbolic messages, divine signs, or glimpses of the future. Dr. Daniel Goldin suggests that dreams reconnect us with a pre-verbal mode of communication—what Tomasello calls a "natural language" of imaginative storytelling. In this immersive, symbolic space, our minds craft metaphorical narratives that mirror the […]

What if the most important perspective in psychoanalysis is the one we rarely hear? Lay patients—those without theoretical training or professional community—constitute the majority of analysands, yet their authentic voice remains largely absent from our field's discourse. Unlike analyst-patients who can contextualize their experience through theory and peer discussion, lay patients navigate analysis without a […]

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 […]

This presentation is based on a paper by Calvin Colarusso, MD, which reflects his longstanding interest in the observation of children and adults within the context of the nuclear family. In this work, Dr. Colarusso conceptualizes the family as a living organism that progresses through five stages of development, from formation to eventual decline, offering […]

In this seminar, Dr. Reid Meloy will teach such pre-offense warning behaviors to clinicians in attendance. Based upon his research group's work over the past 15 years, and validated by numerous studies by others in North America, Europe, and Australia, these proximal warning behaviors provide important benchmarks for the clinician to identify, assess, and manage […]

Despite the steady decrease in violent crime over the past three decades, there has been an increase in targeted attacks toward people in public places, ranging from schools and workplaces to open recreational areas. Motivations vary, but often include both personal grievances and an attraction to extreme religious or political beliefs. Mental health professionals, on […]

Using vivid clinical material, broad theoretical references, and decades of experience as an analyst, Dr. Sugarman will explore the total situation in child analysis — and why it tends to elicit particularly intense countertransference responses and enactments. He defines transference and countertransference as the interpersonalization of mental structures, examining them not only in response to […]

The field of psychoanalysis is replete with theories about infancy and child development, and within psychoanalysis there is a longstanding tradition of linking child development to the organization of intrapsychic structure. This six-week hybrid seminar led by psychoanalyst, Maya Klein, Ph.D. returns to the foundational texts of psychoanalytic developmental theory, tracing the arc from Freud's […]