Charlie and His Maps: The Developmental Vicissitudes in Achieving a Recognition of External Reality Presenter: Dr. E. Kirsten Dahl
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 […]
Speaker: Nikki Karalekas, PhD, LCSW. Love is both mysterious and a psychoanalytic term of art. Despite worrying that love was beyond the scope of scientific inquiry, Freud developed several different theories of love. Perhaps most famously, in the Three Essays on Sexuality, he writes, “The prototype of every love relationship is the child sucking at […]
Presenter: K. Chapman Attwell, MD Dr. Attwell will introduce the class to the didactic similarities and differences between individual and group psychoanalysis as well as how they can work in effective tandem. He will then run an experiential group to illustrate the key principles in a here-and-now focus on growth of the interpersonal ego and […]
Presenter: Daniel José Gaztambide, PsyD - This presentation will use a decolonial lens to review current thinking in psychoanalytic case formulation that addresses a) intrapsychic functioning (Davanloo’s feeling-anxiety-defense model), b) interpersonal dynamics (Luborsky’s wish-response of other-response of self), c) personality structure (Kernberg’s level of personality organization), and d) structural forces (Raque and Meisels’ structurally informed […]
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 […]
Speaker: John Lucas, LPC. Many clinicians are hesitant to begin working with adolescents, although there is a significant need for adolescent therapists. This course will serve as a primer on working with adolescents and their parents/caregivers from a psychodynamic framework. We will cover both theoretical and clinical perspectives. The course will highlight the contributions of […]
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 […]
SORRY, BABY (2025), written, directed, and starring Eva Victor, invites us into the intimate-life world of Agnes, a newly minted Liberal Arts professor. The unsavory underbelly of academic power dynamics and the sexual transgressions therein, play out against life's ever-changing seasons and stages. This off-beat tale, with its penetrating depth, authentic psychological sophistication, and quality […]
*** Film must be viewed prior to event. *** Discussion of the film “Me Before You” Friday, January 30, 2026 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm Via Zoom 2016 (120 min) Director: Thea Sharrock Discussant: Katherine Marshall Woods, Psy.D. A girl in a small town forms an unlikely bond with a recently-paralyzed man she’s taking care […]
These classes may be taken individually or together. When taken as a series, they thoughtfully complement one another. Participants who register for both will receive a 10% discount.
Presented by: Anne Alvarez, PhD, MACP We can sometimes be too preoccupied with removing defenses, which is helpful with many patients but can drain the already limited resources of those with weak egos and a kind of apathetic despair. This session will alert participants to the difference between resistance of a defensive nature and true […]
Join us for the Kramer-Mahler Forum for a compelling case presentation demonstrating the use of TFP-A in working with a 17-year-old patient with Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
Dr. Steve Hassan Must-Have Tools to Help Clients Disengage from Online Conspiracies, Radical Political Organizations, Cults & More
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, […]
Join us for an exciting opportunity to hear Susie Orbach in conversation with Amy Levy about Amy's new book The New Other: Alien Intelligence and the Innovation Drive. This book is a meditation on a technology that manifests all the hallmarks of human relating, human needs, and human complexities in its interactions with another subject. […]
“Addressing Defenses: A Core Mechanism of Change in Psychodynamic Treatments “
Tarsem Singh's THE FALL (2006) explores themes of trauma, healing, storytelling as therapy, and the complex relationship between a hospitalized stuntman and a young immigrant girl in 1920s Los Angeles. The movie is an illuminating example of transference and countertransference within a dyad, and that it illustrates the interesting effect of the immutable presence of […]
Presenter: Derek Hook, PhD - Obsessional neurotic analysands are notoriously good at neutralizing a psychoanalytic treatment. They annul the role of the analyst, avoid the dimension of the Other’s desire (or lack), deny the relevance of parapraxes, and use free association as a means of defense. Given then that the obsessional, for Lacan, is never […]
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.
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, […]
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, […]
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 […]
Presenter: Dagmar Herzog, PhD These days, the topic of intellectual disability seems frequently to function as a conversation stopper, and yet studying its history can teach us much we need to know about the seductive appeal of fascisms both past and present. The Question of Unworthy Life resituates the hundredthousandfold Nazi coercive “eugenic” sterilizations and […]
Middle School Latency
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.
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 […]
Spreaker: Volney Gay, PhD. We explore American slave owners who embodied the existential contradiction of American values (individual liberty) with human bondage. We focus on their struggles to defend themselves against that contradiction. We locate those struggles within the biographies of famous persons, such as President Washington, and unknown persons who claimed to be both […]
Presenter: Stephen E. Finn, PhD Psychological assessment is typically viewed as something one does to diagnose psychological disorders or to plan for or evaluate an intervention. In this Grand Rounds, Dr. Finn will discuss Therapeutic Assessment, a brief intervention during which psychological testing is used collaboratively with clients to help them develop new self-narratives that […]
The Coen Brothers 1998 film THE BIG LEBOWSKI (1998) is a post-modern fever-dream, now a classic. As a comic retelling of Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep, the film wiggles through multiple genres with an underlying message that narrative spins as communication is distorted by desire and expectation. Discussants: Seth Alt, PhD is an independent cultural […]
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 […]
What is a baby trying to say when it is crying? For British psychoanalyst Wilfred Bion, cries are more than a call for food or assistance. They are expressions of an all-consuming fear: of dying. Understanding this fear, and responding to it empathically was, for him, essential to the work of parenting—and analysis. But what […]
Stacia I. Super Memorial Ethics Conference Please join us for a panel discussion on Analyst Losses: Illness and Life-Changing Events and Their Effects on Treatment Presented by: Paula L. Ellman, PhD, Marc S. Levine, MD, and Harvey J. Schwartz, MD Moderated by: Sandra S. Lashley, PsyD Sunday, December 7, 2025 1:00 – 4:00 pm Presentation and Discussion […]
The working alliance or the therapeutic alliance is the strongest predictor for the success of psychotherapy. The presentation explores the origins of these concepts and raises the question whether the working alliance can be applied to teaching and learning. Academics educators have already begun to do this. Their findings are presented which also inform us […]
Presenter: Brin Grenyer, PhD The Sheila Hafter Gray Memorial Lecture is underwritten by ACPEinc and honors Dr. Gray's role in advancing the importance of psychoanalytic education. The mechanisms of patient change have been described in detail by prominent psychoanalytic thinkers over the last 130 years. These descriptions form the basis for analytic training and are […]
Diana Moga, MD, PhD and Robert Glick, MD This presentation explores how the framework of neuroqueering—a concept rooted in neurodiversity and queer theory—invites a radical reconsideration of foundational psychoanalytic concepts such as identity, subjectivity, normativity, and development. By centering lived experiences of neurodivergent and queer individuals, this talk interrogates the implicit assumptions of the analytic […]
This presentation explores how the framework of neuroqueering—a concept rooted in neurodiversity and queer theory—invites a radical reconsideration of foundational psychoanalytic concepts such as identity, subjectivity, normativity, and development. By centering lived experiences of neurodivergent and queer individuals, this talk interrogates the implicit assumptions of the analytic frame and challenges psychoanalysis to reexamine its historical […]
Please join WBCP with COWAP North America (Committee on Women and Psychoanalysis, International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA)) for: Misogyny Then and Now: Implications for Psychoanalytic Perspectives Presented by: Special Guest, filmmaker, Jennifer Reeves, Margarita Cereijido, PhD, Paula Ellman, PhD, David Joseph, MD, Janice Lieberman, PhD Saturday, November 22, 2025 10:00 am – 1:00 pm (3 CME/CE) […]
Presenters: Golzar Naghshineh, MS, LP, CGP, and Nancy Kaufman, LCSW, LP - While addressing behavioral needs and surface level fears and anxieties is crucial in helping patients who struggle with infertility, it is also crucial that we help patients process their deeper unconscious (and often conflicting) feelings around treatment, failure, loss, inadequacy, and successful pregnancy. […]
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 […]
Presenter: Therese Ragen, PhD This lecture will present the journey of a descendant of one of the leaders of the 1919 Chicago race riot in which dozens of people were killed, hundreds wounded and some thousand homes of Black people were burned down. The journey traced in the presentation is from the 1919 race riot […]
“Holding and Containing: The Metaphor of the Baby in Winnicott, Bion, and Klein
Session 2 of 3 “Creativity and Resiliency” Presented by Rosa Aurora Chavez, MD, PhD, FABP Saturday, November 15, 2025, 12:00 – 2:00pm (2 CME/CE) Presentation and Discussion via Zoom Presentation: In this seminar (in English) we will discuss the evolutionary relevance of creativity for resiliency form psychodynamic and neuropsychoanalytic perspectives. Registration Link: https://wbcp.memberclicks.net/reg_psy_creativity_arts_25-26#/ Flyer: https://wbcp.memberclicks.net/assets/docs/PR/25-26/Psychoanalysis%20Creativity%20and%20the%20Arts%202025_26%20flier%20Multi-Session%20program%20%28B%29.pdf
RaMell Ross's Nickel Boys (2024) is based on Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about two African-American boys sent to an abusive reform school in 1960s Florida. Shot entirely from first-person perspective, the film explores institutional trauma, systemic racism, friendship, resilience, and the long-term psychological effects of childhood abuse. The story is inspired by the real […]
Presenter: Gila Ashtor, PhD, LP - There is a type of patient who haunts psychoanalysis from the margins, never settling into existing diagnostic categories but never completely disappearing either. Variously referred to as “normotic” (Bollas, 1987, McDougall, 1978, 1985), “false self” (Winnicott, 1960), and the “as if” personality (Deutsch, 1942), this patient confounds conventional classificatory […]
Session 1 of 3 *** Film must be viewed prior to event. *** Discussion of the film “The Thing” Friday, November 14, 2025 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm Via Zoom 1982 (109 min) Director: John Carpenter Discussant: Alex Smith, Psy.D. A research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance […]
Instructor: Julie Jaffee Nagel, Ph.D., psychologist, psychoanalyst & musician The Power of Music as Heard in Peter's Psychological Development in "Peter and the Wolf" (Sergei Prokofiev, Composer) This presentation will emphasize through both words and music the power of music in our lives by discussing both words and music about how Prokofiev told a story […]
Child Analysis
In this presentation Dr. Lotterman documents the extensive overlap between the symptoms and psychology of neurotic and psychotic patients. He portrays the way the sense of self falls apart, and its possible recovery in psychological therapy. Areas of convergence between neurosis and psychosis include: the fragmenting of the sense of self, the sense of aloneness […]