Community Events (non-Alliance)

One way we defend ourselves against the persecutory superego is by identifying with it and targeting various scapegoats. Heinrich Racker referred to people who have a “mania for reproaching.” Today the totalitarianism of the right is echoed on the left, often aided and abetted by “woke” centrists willing to stifle any qualms in favour of a “moral” consensus.

Talk #1 - Ethical Issues in Treating LGBT Patients

Our political and social moment seems destabilized by an increased emphasis on racial difference.  Freud, upon witnessing the horrors of World War I, first recognized within human subjects a drive toward aggression that he argued must be repressed for the sustainability of civilization.  But, ending only a few decades before Freud’s writings, slavery fully manifested this psychic drive toward aggression belatedly recognized by Freud; and what’s more, slavery emerged as a stabilizing foundation for central aspects of American society.  Through recourse to Lacanian theory, this

This paper introduces the concept of moral injury – a betrayal of what is right.

On November 7th, three models of mother-infant trauma will be presented. Thie first is a treatment case; the 2nd and 3rd are based are based in research studies in community samples.

On November 14th, Dr. Beebe will explore processes of nonverbal communication in adult treatment through a project, "Videotaping the Therapist's Face."

In April, 2006 an 88-year old Austrian artist met with a journalist and recounted a consultation she had with Sigmund Freud 70 yeare before, when she was 18 years old. "It changed my life!" The story of this meeting is astonishing. In these two days of workshops we will tell you this story.

 Dr. Panajian will discuss the most crucial areas that are required for healing to become possible in analytic therapy. The significance of consciousness, attention, and intuiting psychic reality will be discussed. The ability to let go of oneself, the danger of trusting one's perception, the capacity to keep being surprised, and the relationship of the negative and passionate connections between patient and therapist will be explored. 

During these trying times, remaining balanced in our responses to the crises we face regarding the pandemic and emerging social issues can be challenging and exhausting. Anxiety tends to erode spacious thought and discernment. Outrage may cause us to slip into polarized positions of certainty about right and wrong, us and them. At these times, we need all the internal balance we can muster. Dialogue amidst an atmosphere of respect and tolerance can help to regain the internal space and balance needed to restore our capacities for wide-ranging thought.

The Relationally Focused Psychodynamic Therapy Certificate is a 2 year post-graduate certificate program designed to deepen a psychotherapist’s capacity to work directly in therapeutic relationships as the primary instrument of change.  The instructors are Roy Barsness, PhD; Bryan Nixon, MA, LPC; Clarissa Hill, MA, LMHC and Krista Law, MA, LMHC 

An important question that has attracted significant attention in contemporary psychoanalysis is how the mind meets the world. What does this mean? How does it occur? What bridges the mind’s nascent existence to the world around? And how does one learn of the world? By extension, how does a patient meet a therapist and a therapist a new patient? Arguably the experiences that come under the name ‘superego’ have much to do with these questions.