Back to Psychoanalytic Basics: Contemporary Perspectives on Early Theoretical Structures

PINC/SBCPS Extended Study Series for 2023-24

online via Zoom, Wednesdays 10am - 11:30, beginning Sept. 13, with one Saturday in March

We are excited to once again present the South Bay/PINC Extended Study Series for 2023-24, “Back to Psychoanalytic Basics: Contemporary Perspectives on Early Theoretical Structures.” Every day we face our practices with energy and curiosity. Each new hour is an open book, a blank palette, a fresh view. Our internal worlds link with our patients’ internal worlds and with luck, we discover ways to help them face pain, deal with trauma, sort through complex feelings and find ways to grow and love. To do this, we must hold endless ways of thinking, knowing and feeling. Our analytic field has grown in so many fascinating and complex ways starting with the pioneering work of Sigmund Freud giving us tools to think. It is important to hold those basics but to also view and analyze our work through a broad, rich and complex contemporary lens. We will study basic premises, e.g., Freud’s neurotic and perverse thinking, transference, Winnicott’s holding, regression to dependence, transitionality, object relating, holding, to Lacan’s use of the imaginary, symbolic and the real. We will then discuss how these ideas land in our diverse and complicated culture which shows up in our offices, virtual and real. So please join us in another year of fresh discussion, exploration and clinical growth.

SECTION I — September 13, 20, 27; October 4, 11, 18, 25

Helene Issa, Ph.D.

Transference from Freud to Lacan

Who are we as analysts in the psychoanalytic ACT? What is our position? Are we mere mirrors? Object of projection for the patient's thoughts and emotions? Objects of displacement? The Ideal Ego or the Ego Ideal? Are we object of desire? Or are we nobody, somebody supposed to know? Etc. 
These questions lead us to a profound reconsideration of our position as analysts, with a particular focus on the phenomenon of transference and countertransference. Starting from the pioneering work of Sigmund Freud, we traverse the realms of psychoanalysis, encountering the contributions of Jung, Klein, and ultimately reaching a transformative upheaval with Lacan. Encompassing the later structural model (Imaginary, Symbolic, Real) of the psyche in order to determine the impasse that the imaginary position might create.
Through interactive sessions and case studies, participants will exam, use, compare the different theories starting with the Demand of the analysand and the offer of the analyst.

SECTION II — November 1, 8, 15, 30; December 6, 13

Julie Gerhardt, Ph.D.

Back to Basics: Internal States of Shame, Guilt and Emptiness

Human contact is haunted by sequences of emotions which reflect troubling internal states. Such states, in part, determine our behaviors and thus shape our worlds, yet they can be quite opaque, confusing and draining in their unexamined repetitiveness. This short seminar will examine some contemporary thinking/readings on the nature of the affective/psychic states of shame, guilt and emptiness as states which underlie behavior. Although no reading is required for the class, suggested reading will be distributed with the syllabus. 3 films will also be suggested which beautifully capture/ convey the playing out of these states dynamically in the characters’ lives.

SECTION III — January 10, 17, 24, 31; February 7, 14, 21

Lee Grossman, M.D.

Exploring the Notion of “Basics” in Psychoanalytic Therapy

Learning psychotherapy – unlike, say, learning philosophy or plumbing – involves doing the same job as the experts when you are still a beginner. This peculiarity means that students start practice before they fully grasp the underlying premises of what they are doing. Furthermore, the field has become so complex and changed so rapidly that our fundamental assumptions may be lost in the shuffle. This course is not designed to teach the basics, but to try to deconstruct current practice and revisit some of those premises to see how they are (or are not) integrated into our work.

SECTION IV — March 2 (five hour Saturday session)

Joyce Slowchower, Ph.D.

Winnicott: the evolution and impact of his work

This class explores the evolution of Winnicott’s clinical perspective and its profound effect on contemporary theory. We will focus on Winnicott’s theory of therapeutic action and the role of holding in the clinical moment.