This lecture will explore the intimate connection that has always existed between sex and technology. Dr. Knafo will describe how sex and technology partner for pleasure, novelty, transcendence, and perversion. The internet and associated technologies (AI) have enabled the creation of an alternative adult world of sex dolls and sex Read more
This article is an inquiry into the role of smartphones in shifting the dynamics of human relationships as we have traditionally known them. I reimagine the Oedipus Complex to account for the company we keep in the digital age – the smartphones that have become ubiquitous inhabitants of our interpersonal Read more
Psychoanalytic practitioners face a number of challenges in our fast-paced, technological age. How do we practice our human craft while navigating a complicated therapeutic landscape: virtual sessions, competing online platforms, technological addictions, and others? Please join us for a group discussion on the unique challenges of technology in the modern Read more
In early 2024, longtime Tesla shareholder Ross Gerber called Elon Musk “the most delusional” CEO he’s ever invested with. Indeed, the adjective most associated with the technological fantasies and business maneuvers of Musk—e. g., the prospect of colonizing Mars with one million people by 2050 or creating one billion humanoid Read more
Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP) is an experiential therapy created by Habib Davanloo. In this study group, we will learn the basics of ISTDP with a dual focus on moment-to-moment interventions to address resistance and to regulate excessive anxiety, both of which can present significant barriers to therapeutic progress. We Read more
Toxic Polarization has spread throughout our culture like a cancer. We are trained to be good listeners, to be able to hold different and sometimes opposing thoughts in our minds at the same time, to listen to ourselves as we listen to others, to pay attention to our reactions, both Read more
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 to texts on metapsychology and Freud’s corresponding case histories demonstrating Read more
What do you do when a patient needs more? What do you recommend when a patient is no longer progressing in weekly psychotherapy? Do you intensify the individual therapy, or do you reach out to the community to expand the treatment team? What intrapsychic and interpersonal factors inform your treatment Read more
After some much-needed summer rest, we are so excited to warmly welcome you to join us at Draught House (4112 Medical Pkwy) next Thursday 9/11 for drinks, food, and free association! This is a great chance to get to know your colleagues better on a personal level, and to build community Read more
In an era of managed care, how can psychoanalytic principles be woven into a community mental health system? By exploring hateful countertransference reactions - both his own and those of members of the community in which he practiced - Brian Ngo-Smith will examine professional tensions that arose in his work Read more
Instructional Level: Intermediate Developmental trauma profoundly shapes psychic structure, altering the balance of id, ego, and superego, and leaving lasting imprints of toxic shame and trauma-driven flashbacks. This presentation examines how the biological responses of fight, flight, and freeze intersect with personality development and require modifications in traditional psychotherapeutic approaches. Read more
Dr. Huey Hawkins will explore Donald Winnicott's concept of the antisocial tendency, focusing on the impact of deprivation. Drawing from nearly 12 years of experience with a Black male child in foster care, he will discuss the importance of providing a nurturing, maternal environment during critical periods in the child's life. Hawkins will highlight specific therapeutic strategies used to promote resilience and well-being, while also examining the challenges posed by the foster care system in a large Midwestern city, particularly regarding the intersections of race and class.
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In this presentation for beginner to advanced learners, Beth Kita, PhD, LCSW, discusses clinical work with people who, sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of murder, have now returned home to live life after serving life, and explores their efforts to reckon with what they have done (and, frequently, what was done to them) despite being confined in traumatogenic institutions that functioned to thwart such growth. Using case material, Dr. Kita reflects on the ways in which a psychodynamic approach can help navigate the overwhelm of violent crimes and violent punishments, and the unresolved trauma that usually precedes both, and offers ideas about how we can and why we should develop our collective capacities to bear and to repair – in the hopes of transforming the trauma that incarceration reenacts.
In the face of rising oppression, authoritarianism, and climate breakdown, keeping space for social, political, and environmental concerns in psychodynamic therapy may be more important than ever. With this in mind, we will consider the impact of macro system-level social harms on our clients, the potential benefits of helping them integrate emotional impulses related to these harms, and the place of political action in mental health and psychotherapy. We will also consider suggestions, inspired by critical approaches to psychotherapy, for how we may better help our clients with these concerns… without introducing an agenda or changing what we value about psychodynamic work. Our exploration will be informed by the concepts of intrapsychic conflict, as used in experiential dynamic therapies such as Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP), and emotional hegemony—the ways in which people with power teach us to fear the emotions of political resistance and solidarity (i.e., rage and love) while also steering us towards defense mechanisms that serve their interests. The didactic portion of this presentation will be complemented by recorded video of a case example to illustrate points and stir discussion.
Gather with your fellow clinicians for casual chats about psychoanalysis (or whatever's on your mind) over food and beverages. We'd love to connect with you!
Dr. Michael Garrett will challenge the validity of the concept of “schizophrenia” as a genetically determined brain disease and review research suggesting that chronic psychosis is a trauma-related disorder best characterized as a particular phenotypic form of complex PTSD. He will review research showing that childhood trauma increases the risk of psychosis and that fragmented trauma memories are often embedded in the content of psychotic symptoms. Dr. Garrett will trace the developmental origin of psychotic symptoms from implicit behavioral knowing that in infancy provides a template for relationship with caregivers, through pre-verbal fantasy, to conscious and unconscious object-related fantasy, to the emergence of florid psychotic symptoms in adolescence. Dr. Garrett will differentiate non-psychotic, near-psychotic, and psychotic manifestations of transference as seen from an object-related point of view, illustrating each form of transference with a brief clinical vignette and offer clinical suggestions about how to recognize and deal with a psychotic transference.
Regardless of conference attendance, we welcome you to join us afterward at Batch Craft Beer & Kolaches beginning at 1:00 PM.
Transference-Focused Psychotherapy (TFP) is a manualized object relations treatment developed by Otto Kernberg and his workgroup to treat a broad spectrum of personality pathology. Originally developed to treat Borderline Personality Disorder, TFP has since been adapted to treat those suffering with various types of narcissistic pathology. In this presentation, Dr. Davis will provide an overview of the TFP treatment model as a whole and its use in working with those with narcissistic pathology in particular. Central to narcissistic pathology is the operation of the grandiose self. He will provide a theoretical overview of the concept of the grandiose self and how it fits within the context of Kernberg’s object relations theory. Dr. Davis will then offer clinical illustrations of the grandiose self as it appears in treatment and offer a few clinical examples of how to intervene from a TFP perspective when indications of narcissistic grandiosity are present.