PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
Trauma
This course will address how trauma impacts on childhood development. Students will look at the effects of different kinds of trauma on personality development. The symptoms of trauma, theories of how trauma affects children and personality development as well as effective and necessary treatment interventions will be discussed. Students will examine how the knowledge of childhood trauma and its various manifestations in adult life is useful in working with the adult patient. Students will also examine the neurobiology of trauma, early attachment and childhood resiliency. In each session, case illustrations will be used to understand the various concepts.
Gender and Its Discontents
Gender contentedness was once equated with the acceptance of the male/female binaryas the paradigmfor mental health. This seminar will focus on "gender discontents" in children, their parents, and in the profession.
Transference and Countertransference
Course description to be published at a later date.
Learning and ADHD
This course will review and discuss the many elements that play a role in the etiology, evolution and sustenance of difficulties many children experience in learning. Students will define specific learning disabilities, dyslexia, and attention deficit disorder and explore relevant psycho-physiological and socio-psychological factors. Steps, tools and challenges in diagnosis, along with various types of intervention that have been found to be useful and effective will be examined. Neuropsychology and psychodynamic theory will be integrated to enhance students’ understanding. Readings will be discussed in an effort to apply theory to clinical encounters in a meaningful way. Students are encouraged to bring clinical examples for discussion.
Pervasive Development Disorders
This course will focus on autistic spectrum disorder, especially children with Asperger’s Syndrome. Students will consider a working model of autistic spectrum disorder as a neurobiological illness with psychological consequences which are potentially treatable. Connections among the infant’s early experience, attachment processes, and the development of the social brain will be discussed. The major focus of this course will be on developing an understanding of the inner world of the child with autistic spectrum disorder and on using these insights in individual therapy and in helping parents. In addition to discussion of selected articles and clinical material, classic and recent treatment videos will be used to both illustrate psychoanalytic approaches to working with autistic children and to demonstrate their effectiveness.
Eating Disorders
This course integrates psychoanalytic psychotherapy with other treatment modalities (cognitive/behavioral/educational, cultural/feminist, and family work) to help the patient make sense of his/her disordered eating. Students will discuss the historical and cultural origins of eating disorders and learn how to identify, assess, and treat eating disorders with both the culture and individual in mind.
Substance Abuse: Psychodynamic Perspectives
This course provides an overview of the psychoanalytic concepts and theories of substance abuse and addictive disorders. Emphasis will be on current ideas and approaches. Issues including differentiating symptomatic substance abuse vs. addiction, etiologic factors in addictive disorders, the biology/psychology interface in addictions, integration of 12-Step programs with psychotherapeutic approaches, and trauma, helplessness, and addiction will be explored.
SPECIAL TOPICS
Adoption and Foster Care
What are the differences in children raised in adoptive or foster homes from children raisedwith their birth parents? Clinical case material will highlight (illuminate) special problems in development, attachment, and later parent-child relationships. Clinical approaches to assessment and treatment with children and parents will be discussed.
Divorce and Children
A large percentage of children today live in families with divorced parents. The commonplace nature of this situation may lead us to overlook the psychological and emotional implications of parental divorce on the children and the child’s development. Using the psychoanalytic literature on the effect of divorce on children, we will explore the impact of parental divorce or children at varying stages of development, the differential impact according to gender and the long term implications for emotional development and adult intimacy. Implications for treating children of divorced families will be addressed with clinical presentations.
Adolescents in Transition to Adulthood
This course will examine what makes young adults a particularly lively, compelling and dynamic population to work with, as they present their therapists and analysts with a unique opportunity to observe, engage and learn from the complexities of their ever-fluxuating internal and external worlds. With childhood waning and the freedoms and anxieties of adulthood beckoning, young adults are often engaged in a complicated dance of neophyte ego strengths commingled with unresolved conflicts and traumas. This makes for a complicated picture of enlivened or painfully inhibited hopes, dreams and ambition; yearning and desire; mourning and loss; and conflict over the past vs. the future, fantasy vs. reality and unbridled potential vs. inevitable defeat and compromise.
Pre-latency / Latency Continuous Case Conference
In this class the case of a pre-latency or latency aged child will be presented. Developmental history and history of the treatment to date will be provided by the presenter followed by a session by session description of the treatment. Discussion will cover both theoretical and technical aspects of the case.
Adolescent Continuous Case Conference
In this case conference, one of the participants presents an ongoing therapy with an adolescent. Everyone in the class discusses psychodynamic theory and technique as it pertains to this patient.