Looking back over the serpentine path that carried me from degrees in biology and anatomy, through nursing and on to counseling psychology followed by a second doctorate in clinical and depth psychology and finally psychoanalytic training, I know that nothing we do across our life-span is without value. Clearly I didn’t set out to become a psychoanalyst, but the universe took me there nevertheless.
Three Wednesday evenings: January 13, 20, and 27
Three Wednesday evenings: January 13, 20, and 27
Three Wednesday evenings: January 13, 20, and 27
We will be reading the book, Toward an Emancipatory Psychoanalysis: Brandchaft's Intersubjective Vision. Exploring and interpreting patterns of pathological accommodation is considered an important component of any successful trauma treatment in order to move the patient from a pattern of acquiescence and accommodation to assertiveness and individuality. We will integrate pathological accommodation patterns with projective identification and learn how to intervene accordingly in order to move the treatment.
Three Fridays: January 15, 22, 29
Metaphor is inherent in every patient hour, including the first one. There is always deep unconscious meaning. Understanding the deeper levels allows the therapist to know the developing relationship to the transference. The transference contains, among other things, anxiety that begins even as the patient thinks about making their first appointment.
Our goal as depth psychotherapy practitioners is to help clients bring unconscious material into conscious awareness. Because unconscious material is always in symbolic form, it is essential that we are able to perceive what seems to be concrete in our client's narrative as symbolic. It's not always an easy task! This study group is an opportunity for us to not only expand our theoretical understanding of symbolic formation, but also practice interpreting the concrete into the symbolic. We will be reading Winnicott, Segal, and Lacan.