Borderline Character
This course will attempt to integrate developments in contemporary psychoanalytic theory with the classic ego-structural approach. Concepts derived from the differing theoretical paradigms will be studied in relation to their relevant phenomenological problems within the borderline and narcissistic realms. Historic and author-focused perspective will be used along with an analytic database to address problems in the modifications of technique.
Psychoanalytic Process
The Psychoanalytic Process is the bedrock of an analysts clinical work. It is what we look for in defining psychoanalysis, cure, graduation and certification. At the same time, it is an elusive concept. Inter-rater reliability in identifying it is weak, though the stridency of various proponents is strong. Candidates in this course will study and compare different authors' views of the psychoanalytic process and note how it relates to their theories of cure. Working from the literature and detailed process notes, candidates will demonstrate on a micro level our various understandings of the analytic process. This should enrich the sense of what we mean when we describe something as psychoanalytic and how we understand psychoanalytic cure.
Relational Theory
Although the Psychoanalytic Institute has a tradition of being grounded in classical psychoanalysis with an ego-psychological emphasis, in reality can be quite eclectic. Relational concepts have been embodied in all of the technique learned so far. The purpose of this course is to focus specifically on the relational approach: on its history and relationship to the ideas and approaches of other psychoanalytic schools. The course will tend to focus on the work of Steven Mitchell, an outstanding figure in the relational school, but will include works by most of the current leaders of relational thinking.
Integration of Drive & Conflict and Object Relations
The goal of this course is to help the candidate find a more integrated appreciation of the many approaches to psychoanalysis. To do so, candidates will think together about drives and object relations and how they are both present from the start and both integral parts of psychoanalytic thinking. It is the contention of this course that Drive Theory and Object Relations Theory, rather than being opposite approaches to understanding how people function, were both firmly embedded within Freud’s original conceptualizations. The various approaches to unifying the two models will be discussed as well as the application of the approaches to different patients. Finally, candidates will consider how current psychoanalytic child research is informing our thinking about early life, which is so pivotal in our psychoanalytic conceptualizations. In addition, candidates will consider a newer model, that of complex systems models, that speaks to non-linear change.
Female Psychology
This course examines female psychology beginning with Freud's initial formulation and noting modifications and innovations within the framework of psychoanalytic theory. Recent contributions from direct infant observation are studied.
British Object Relations
Course description to be posted at a later date.
Enactment
This class will consider the place of enactments in psychoanalytic theory and practice. It will review the origins of the concept and its place in the development and history of analytic technique. Among the questions candidates will consider are: To what extent are enactments inevitable? Do enactments tend to promote or hinder analytic process? Are they best thought of as part and parcel of the analytic process or as occasional events? What factors may push toward action and enactment? How is the concept of enactment related to the concepts of neutrality and self-disclosure? How are enactments related to boundary crossings and boundary violations? Central articles from mainstream and relational analytic literature as well as clinical vignettes from participant’s experience will be discussed.
Adult Continuous Case Conference
Course description to be posted at a later date.
Homosexuality and Psychoanalysis
This course will introduce candidates to a history of psychoanalytic theorizing and practice about gender and non-normative sexualities, with special attention to the connection between theories of etiology and development, modes of pathologizing, and clinical practice. Candidates will discuss the fault lines in theory, and how major thinkers and writers have come to radically different positions on notions of sexuality and sexual object choice. Candidates will confront the biases and the history of the treatment of homosexuals by the psychoanalytic profession as an object lesson in the crucial importance of continually submitting our own theory and praxis to analysis.
Perversions
The course begins with papers on normative and neurotic concepts of love and sexuality and then traces the concept of perversion from Freud through Sacks, Greenson, Bak, etc., paralleling the development of psychoanalytic theory until the present emphasis on object relations, self-organization and intersubjectivity. The French and British contributions, as well as the literature and historical controversies over homosexuality, are reviewed.