The Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, Inc.: psa

Program in Psychoanalytic Studies

Jane Hanenberg, EdD and
Alan Pollack, MD; Co-Chairs

The Program in Psychoanalytic Studies offers courses to the mental health, professional, and academic communities that teach, explore and develop areas of psychoanalytic understanding. The goal of the Program is to enrich our understanding of clinical and theoretical psychoanalysis as well as to explore the interface between psychoanalysis and intellectual and social issues of concern to the community.

The enrollment fee is waived for all BPSI Trainees and Members. If you are a BPSI Trainee or Member, please call or email the Administrative Office to enroll in a course:
office@bostonpsychoanalytic.org
(617) 266-0953

Course Offerings 2011-2012

COUNTERTRANSFERENCE PHENOMENA: A CLINICAL CASE SEMINAR ON THE TREATMENT OF BORDERLINE STATES AND OTHER DISORDERS OF THE SELF

STEPHEN SCHLEIN, PhD
6 Sessions: October 26, November 2, 9, 16, 30, December 7, 2011
7:00 – 8:30 PM
Location: 3 Wallis Court, Lexington, MA
Course Fee: $175

The treatment of patients with severe psychopathology gives rise to challenging and often dreaded countertransference dilemmas. Essential technical modifications must be made to insure survival of the ongoing treatment. One is encouraged to turn to countertransference data as a critical feature of this encounter to enhance the therapeutic process and add depth and vitality to the unfolding experience. Countertransference introspection is an essential feature.

This seminar will establish a solid foundation for an interpersonal-relational clinical technique by creating a therapeutic climate that has as its centerpiece the analyst’s use of self as an interpersonal presence and as the psychotherapeutic agent of change. This actualizing experience encourages distinct changes in self-esteem and the natural unfolding of human capacities for relating and mutuality. This seminar is designed as a clinical practicum focused on the refinement of psychotherapeutic technique and the centrality of the evolving interpersonal relationship and its transformative impact.

LOSS OF A PATIENT TO SUICIDE: UNDERSTANDING, PROCESSING, AND MOVING ON

ELSA RONNINGSTAM, PhD & IGOR WEINBERG, PhD
8 Sessions: November 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, December 6, 13, 20, 2011
edit: this course will begin on November 8, not November 1
8:00 – 9:30 PM
Location: BPSI
Course Fee: $225

This course is specifically for psychotherapists who have lost a patient to suicide. A patient’s suicide is usually a painful and shocking experience that is hard to come to terms with. This psycho-educational process course aims to promote knowledge and understanding of suicide as an objective risk factor and potential event in psychotherapy. The course promotes a close and realistic assessment of patients’ suicides with the aim of moving towards acceptance, learning, and professional growth. Specific emphasis is given to the clinician’s self-evaluation and reactions to their patients’ suicide.

PSYCHOANALYTIC UNDERSTANDING AND TREATMENT OF ADDICTION

LANCE DODES, MD
1 Session: December 13, 2011
8:00 – 10:00 PM
Location: BPSI
Course Fee: $50

Addiction has been widely misunderstood and inappropriately treated in our society for virtually all of our history because of failure to understand its psychological nature. Even psychoanalysts have not been immune to believing the same assumptions about its nature and proper treatment as our non-psychologically-trained professional brethren and the lay public. In this minicourse we will consider the nature of addiction, the relative importance of psychological and non-psychological (neurobiological, physical, genetic) factors, the relationship of addictions to compulsions, and implications of psychoanalytic understanding for psychotherapy of people with addictions. As time permits, we will also address the psychology of self-help groups and commonly held myths about addiction.

IDENTIFYING AND TREATING THE NARCISSISTIC TRAUMA

ELSA RONNINGSTAM, PhD
6 Sessions: edit: this course will no longer begin on January 10, it will now start on January 17th. The updated schedule is as follows:
January 17, 24, 31, February 7, 14, 21 2012
8:00 – 9:30 PM
Course Fee: $175
Location: BPSI

People with disordered narcissism or narcissistic personality disorder have extreme vulnerability, and even relatively well-functioning individuals can, in certain situations, experience an acute loss of self esteem, ideals, and supportive or protective functions. Overwhelming internal narcissistic trauma may remain unrecognized due to an individual’s clinical presentation, absence of depression, and limited disclosure. This course focuses on identifying the nature and treatment of narcissistic trauma, such as the acute internal subjective state that threatens an individual’s sense of self-worth, self-agency, self-sufficiency, and sustaining ideals. Implications for treatment and risk for suicide will be discussed in the course of this seminar.

SUPERVISION OF PSYCHOTHERAPY

PAUL DAVID, MD
8 Sessions: February 1, 15, 29, March 14, April 4, 11, 25, May 9, 2012
5:30 – 7:00 PM
Location: 1093 Beacon St. Suite 303, Brookline, MA
Course Fee: $250

Open to licensed clinicians in supervisory roles only

Supervision is central to the teaching and learning of psychotherapy; however, supervisors often do not receive any formal training in effective supervision. This seminar is intended for psychotherapy supervisors, both experienced and new, and will explore interpersonal, theoretical, and technical issues in the supervisory process. The seminar will include readings as well as brief presentations by the instructor. The emphasis will be on group discussion of supervision vignettes provided by the instructor and students as well as the problems that arise during the course of supervision.

Topics that will be covered include: the history of supervision, the opening phase, the supervisory frame, the learning assessment, models of supervision, supervisory interventions, authority, mutuality, intersubjectivity, the supervisor’s mode of involvement, affect and boundaries in supervision, self-esteem in the supervisory relationship, and the closing phase of supervision.

MUD, MAGIC, AND MONOPOLY: THE LANGUAGE OF PLAY IN CHILD TREATMENT

JANE HANENBERG, EdD & DAVID LEVOY, MD
4 Sessions: April 3, 10, 24, May 1, 2012
8:00 – 9:30 PM
Location: BPSI
Course Fee: $125

Open to licensed clinicians only

As children experience the freedom to play in treatment, a complex array of expressions is evoked. In this class we’ll consider play as an expression of conflict, as transference, and as a component of enactments. Clinical material will be used and, if they like, students are invited to present their own cases.

DIMENSIONS OF RELATEDNESS, ENGAGEMENT, AND ACTIVATION: INVESTIGATING ERIK ERIKSON’S INTERPERSONAL-RELATIONAL METHOD OF PSYCHOANALYSIS

STEPHEN SCHLEIN, PhD
6 Sessions: April 4, 11, 18, 25, May 2, 9, 2012
7:00 – 8:30 PM
Location: 3 Wallis Court, Lexington, MA
Course Fee: $175

This seminar will honor Erik Erikson’s transforming contributions to the field of psychoanalysis. We will examine his clinical method and therapeutic technique from a systematic survey of his clinical writings, unpublished papers, and notes from his psychotherapeutic case studies at the Austen Riggs Center. My thoughts for this seminar have been generated by the excitement I experienced while collaborating with Erikson, as the editor of a volume of his selected papers, A Way of Looking At Things. Erikson’s writings will illuminate essential ingredients of an interpersonal method and articulate particular interactional –actualizing dimensions that facilitate growth and have restorative potential.

This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the Essential Areas and Policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint sponsorship of the American Psychoanalytic Association and the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians and takes responsibility for the content, quality, and scientific integrity of this CME activity. The American Psychoanalytic Association designates this educational activity for a maximum of 1.5 or 2 hours per session per course description in Category I Credit towards the AMA Physician’s Recognition Award. Each physician should claim only those hours of credit that he/she actually spent in the educational activity. The Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute maintains responsibility for this program and its content. Each session fulfills 1.5 or 2 hours per course description of CE. Please contact the BPSI Administrative Office about continuing education for social workers. The Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, Inc. (BPSI) does not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, sex, age, national origin, handicap, or sexual preference in admissions, administration of its education programs, scholarship and loan programs, and employment.