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.

Course Offerings 2009-2010

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

WEDNESDAYS, 7:00-8:30 PM
$195
October 28; November 4, 11, 18; December 2, 16, 2009
STEPHEN SCHLEIN, PhD

It seems fitting to use the 2002 centenary of Erik Erikson’s birth to honor his transforming contributions to the field of psychoanalysis. This seminar will examine Erikson’s clinical method of psychoanalysis from a systematic survey of his clinical writings, unpublished papers, and notes from his psychotherapeutic case studies from the Austen Riggs Center. This clinical material reveals a psychoanalytic method of extraordinary richness that appears to have been obscured by his other pioneering contributions. 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.

We will explore Erikson’s psychoanalytic treatment method and his interpersonal-relational perspective that emphasizes interactive phenomena, including the human spirit of personal collaboration and engagement. Erikson’s writings will illuminate essential ingredients of an interpersonal method and articulate particular interactional dimensions that facilitate growth and have restorative potential. The spirit of his ego psychological perspective— that has at its core the powerful belief in human potential— emphasizes what one person can do for another in the actualizing-interactive therapeutic process. He was ahead of his time and his remarks about the process of treatment and the therapeutic relationship were so much in tune with what we now call an interactive vision of the analytic situation. His thinking anticipated and sheds light on much of the current ferment in the field today.

Course meets at 3 Wallis Court, Lexington, MA 02421
Open Enrollment

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

TUESDAYS, 8:00-9:30 PM
$150
November 3, 10, 17, 24; December 1, 8, 2009
ELSA RONNINGSTAM, PhD

This course is specifically for psychotherapists who lost a patient to suicide. Such event is usually a painful and shocking experience, and hard to come to terms with. This psycho-educational process course aims at promoting knowledge and understanding of suicide as an objective, risk factor and potential event in psychotherapy. The course promotes an experience close and realistic assessment of patient’s suicide, aiming towards acceptance, learning and professional growth. Specific attention is on the clinicians’ self-evaluation and reactions to their patients’ suicide.
Open to Licensed Clinicians – Psychotherapists and Psychoanalysts

THE NARCISSISTIC PERSONALITY IN TREATMENT — A BALANCED STRATEGY

TUESDAYS, 8:00-9:30 PM
$195
February 2, 9, 16, 23; March 2, 9, 16, 23, 2010
ELSA RONNINGSTAM, PhD

Treatment of narcissistic personalities usually involves facing their contradictions and conflicting extremes such as superiority and inferiority, perfectionist ideals and harsh self-criticism, self-love and self-hatred, or entitlement and unworthiness. Similarly, their fluctuations in competence, interpersonal relationships and empathic ability call for specific attention to interventions and countertransference. The purpose of this course is to discuss certain narcissistic character patterns and how to address them in treatment. Special focus will be on understanding and working with their need for internal control, self-criticism and feelings of shame.
Open to Licensed Clinicians

DYNAMIC PSYCHOTHERAPY WITH THE ASPERGER’S PATIENT

WEDNESDAYS, 8:00-9:30 PM
$100
February 24; March 3, 10, 17, 2010
JANE HANENBERG, EdD
DAVID LEVOY, MD

An increasing number of psychotherapists are treating children and adults who have Asperger’s syndrome. These patients share many similar anxieties and defenses, but have different character traits. In this class, we will explore the emotional life of these patients through readings, discussion and case presentations.

In the Asperger’s community, behavioral treatments are frequent recommended. We will review some of these treatments, as well as current neurocognitive findings. However, we will primarily discuss psychoanalytically informed ideas, some of which are derived from the work of child developmentalists and drive theory. We hope to integrate these ideas through case studies, and in doing so, unite the split that so often occurs when the psychotherapy of those with Asperger’s syndrome is discussed.
Open Enrollment

SHAKESPEARE, LOVE RELATIONSHIPS, AND THE WORK OF THE UNCONSCIOUS

MONDAYS, 7:30-9:30 PM
$195
March 1, 8, 15, 22; April 5, 12, 26; May 3, 2010
WALKER SHIELDS, MD

Goethe said, “Whatever can be known in the heart of man can be found in (Shakespeare’s) plays.” In this seminar we will explore the passions, dreams, reveries, and poetry of Shakespeare’s men and women in the following: The Merchant of Venice; Henry IV, part one; Henry IV, part two; Julius Caesar; Romeo and Juliette, Measure for Measure; Hamlet; and a selection of sonnets. Of particular interest will be two characters: Falstaff and Hamlet. While our primary focus will be the plays themselves, we will explore links with commentary by Freud and other psychoanalysts as well as contributions from the tradition of literary criticism including Bradley, Goddard, Mack, and Bloom.

Our meetings will be two hours in length to allow time for reading of selections from the play or poetry chosen for the evening as well as time for our immediate associations and discussion of connections between Shakespeare’s art and our understanding of unconscious transformative processes in human relationships through psychoanalysis. This seminar is open to anyone with an interest in Shakespeare, the Unconscious, and the study of potential transformational processes in human relationships.
Open Enrollment

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.