Can the psychoanalytic session be thought of as a shared dream? Starting from this evocative question, this event offers a reflection on clinical work through the lens of field theory, exploring the interplay between interpretation and conversation. All material brought into the session – nighttime dreams as well as everyday narratives – can be understood as an expression of an unconscious co-created by analyst and patient.
While adopting a dreamlike internal stance, the analyst remains attuned to the patient's realism, narrative, and personal history. The analytic conversation thus unfolds as a mutual search for recognition, in which symbolic meaning emerges through emotional attunement rather than abstract metapsychology. The session becomes a theater of transformation, where storytelling and witnessing foster the development of subjectivity and relational intimacy.
General Registration:
- Members | $165
- Non-Members | $215
- *Early Career Professionals | $95
Inclusive Pricing Registration:
**Inclusive Pricing Offered
*Early Career Professionals: Three years of practice or less (including candidates). Inclusive Pricing will also be offered for this event
**Inclusive Pricing: To ensure this experience is accessible to all, we’re offering inclusive pricing—a pay-what-you-can option designed to remove financial barriers and welcome broader participation. While we have standard registration fees based on membership levels, we understand that cost can be a challenge for some. Inclusive pricing allows individuals to contribute what they’re able, ensuring that no one is excluded from this enriching opportunity. This model reflects our commitment to equity, inclusion, and community, and we hope it encourages everyone to join us for this exceptional event
General Registration | Inclusive Pricing
Learning Objectives:
- Understand the model of the session as a shared dream within field theory, recognizing clinical material – both dreams and everyday narratives – as an expression of an unconscious co-created by the analytic dyad.
- Develop the ability to integrate the analyst's dreamlike internal stance with attentiveness to the patient's realism and history, fostering the emergence of symbolic meaning through emotional attunement in the clinical conversation.
About the Speaker: Giuseppe Civitarese M.D. Ph.D.
Giuseppe Civitarese, MD, PhD, is a psychiatrist and training and supervising analyst (SPI, APsaA, IPA). He lives in Pavia, Italy. Among his last books are: Sublime Subjects: Aesthetic Experience and Intersubjectivity in Psychoanalysis, 2018; Vitality and Play in Psychoanalysis (with A. Ferro), 2022; On Arrogance: A Psychoanalytic Essay, London 2023; Psychoanalytic Field Theory: A Contemporary Introduction, 2022; The Hour of Birth: Psychoanalysis of the Sublime and Contemporary Art, 2025; The Limits of Interpretation: Essays on Bion and Field Theory, 2025; The Horse’s Eye: Animality, Humanity, and the Unconscious in Renaissance Art, 2026, in press. In 2022, he received the Sigourney Award.
