Curriculum
Each course meets for twelve weeks for ninety minutes per session.
First Year
Second Year
Third Year
Fourth Year
101 - Development of Psychoanalytic Theory: An Historical Overview
This seminar will focus on the development of psychoanalytic thought beginning
with the major discoveries of Freud with an emphasis on the unconscious, dreams,
fantasies, and symbolism. The significant contributions of Freud's
contemporaries and later theoreticians will also be a focus. The primary
objective will be to provide an understanding and appreciation for the analytic
tradition from which Kohut's work emerged.
102 - Psychoanalytic Process I: Technical Issues
This course will introduce the student to the psychoanalytic situation. Emphasis
will be upon the beginning phases of treatment, with particular focus on the
experience-near empathic treatment stance. The course will also deal with major
clinical issues such as transference, resistance, and free association. Other
technical issues such as the use of the couch and the differentiation between
psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy will also be discussed.
First Year, Spring
103 - Introduction to the Work of Heinz Kohut I
This course is a continuation of course 101. It will follow the development of
psychoanalytic thought, culminating with the early writings of Kohut. These
include readings on empathy, narcissism, self, and selfobject. In particular,
emphasis will be on the fundamental switch from a biological-based drive/defense
psychology to a psychological need-based relationship psychology. The writings
of Goldberg, Ornstein, Rowe and MacIsaac, Schwaber, Wolf, etc., will be reviewed
to further clarify Kohut's work.
104 - Psychoanalytic Process II: The Empathic Stance
This course is a clinical seminar that will focus on the technique of
psychoanalytic self psychology. Emphasis will be upon helping students to
develop their abilities to utilize the experience-near empathic treatment stance
as the method for data-gathering within the analytic setting. Case material will
be examined from this perspective.
201 - Works of Heinz Kohut II
In this course the students will examine Kohut's gradual evolution from the
traditional psychoanalytic model (id, ego, and superego) to the concept of the
self as a supraordinate structure. Kohut's 1977 work, The Restoration of
the Self, will be the primary text of this course.
202 - Models of Development
This course will focus on normal and pathological development throughout the
life cycle. Traditional models of development, i.e., Freud, Hartmann, Erickson,
Jacobson, Mahler, etc., will be studied in light of the findings of recent
infant research and Kohut's theory of the self.
Second Year, Spring
203 - The Works of Heinz Kohut III
This course will examine the later writing of Heinz Kohut. His posthumously
published monograph, How Does Analysis Cure?, will be the primary
text. Defense and resistance, constituents of the self, the process of cure, and
the place of empathy in cure are some of the topics that will be explored. The
self psychological perspective will be compared to the traditional view.
204 - Psychoanalytic Process III
This course will focus on the middle and terminating phases of treatment.
Emphasis will be upon defense and resistance, working through, and the
development of the selfobject transferences from their early development to more
mature forms. Emphasis will be on the importance of the ambient process and the
disruption-restoration sequence as the two processes that lead to structural
change. Case material will be utilized to illustrate the progression of
treatment through the middle and terminating phases.
301 - Theory of Psychopathology I: The Higher Level Self Disorders
This course will examine psychopathology from a self psychology perspective. The
focus will be on the symptomatology as it relates to the narcissistic
personality disorder, narcissistic behavior disorder, and the Oedipal level self
disorder. Issues of analyzability related to higher level self disorders and
what constitutes cure in the analytic process will be explored.
302 - Processes of the Unconscious: Fantasy, Dreams and Symbolism
This courses will highlight the central role of fantasy, dreams and symbolism in
psychoanalytic treatment. The similarities and differences between the self
psychological perspective and traditional view will be explored. Freud's The
Interpretation of Dreams will be studied in depth.
303 - Theory of Psychopathology II: Severe Self Disorders
This course is a continuation of course 301. It will focus on the
psychopathology of borderline and psychotic self disorders. It will examine the
archaic nature of the selfobject transferences typical of these disorders.
Symptoms such as anxiety, phobias, conversions, obsessions, compulsions, and
perversions will also be examined in relation to these disorders.
304 - Kohut and the British Object Relations School
This course will examine the works of the British Object Relations Theorists, eg.,
Fairbairn, Guntrip, Balint, Winnicott, etc. These authors' contributions will be
reviewed in light of the similarities and differences to self psychology.
401 - Continuous Case Seminar I
In this seminar the students will follow the progress of clinical cases in order to experience in detail the unfolding of the psychoanalytic process. The experience-near mode of data gathering will be emphasized as the basis for understanding and interpreting in the clinical setting.
402 - Contrasting Views in Self Psychology
This course will review the writings of those contemporary authors who have
contributed different perspectives to self psychology.
Fourth Year, Spring
403 - Continuous Case Seminar II
This seminar will be a continuation of course 401.
404 - Advanced Clinical Seminar on Dreams
This seminar will examine the dream in clinical practice. The dream and its
interpretation from a self psychology perspective will be examined within the
treatment situation. In addition to Kohut's writings, other authors who have
contributed to the literature on dreams in self psychology will be discussed.
An Experiential Workshop
This workshop will be an ongoing group meeting in which students of the
Institute will have an opportunity to develop their empathic abilities. Various
exercises will be employed to assist participants in attaining this goal. This
workshop will meet at planned intervals over the course of training.