TRISP's 1998-1999 Continuing Education Program, The Many Faces of Self Psychology, features 21 exciting presentations on selected Saturday mornings from October, 1998 through May, 1999
• TIME: Saturdays 10AM to 12 Noon
• PLACE: The Trinity School, 91st Street and Columbus Avenue, New York City
• REGISTRATION FEES: $30 per presentation, $25 per presentation for 3 or more sessions, $250 to register for the entire series of 21 presentations
• HOW TO REGISTER: We will be pleased to send you a brochure and registration form if you phone TRISP at 212-663-3508 or request one in an e-mail message to trispnyc@email.msn.com. You may also pay at the door.
THE MANY FACES OF SELF PSYCHOLOGY
The 1998-1999 TRISP Continuing Education Series celebrates self psychology as a growing, evolving, multifaceted theoretical amalgam. Not only do the presentations offered this year demonstrate the increasingly varied application of self-psychological theory to clinical issues, they reflect the rich diversity of approaches within self psychology. For example, some presenters emphasize Kohut’s ground-breaking discoveries while others stress the benefits of incorporating the theory of intersubjectivity. Very different issues are examined in the presentations on the treatment of trauma survivors: self-trust disturbance and self-blame. The issues of vulnerability and recurring cycles of conflict in couples therapy are dealt with by two clinicians with quite different approaches. Other exciting topics include: the clinical use of humor, the meaning of self, the concept of truth, a new approach to supervision, self-revelation, risk-taking by analysts, contact-shunning patients, the development of the dyad, hypnotherapy, an alternative to oedipal theory, spirituality, the nature of psychoanalytic cure, the abandoned child archetype, and revolutionary aspects of Kohut’s theory. Attend all 21 presentations at a substantial discount and discover the many faces of self psychology.
1. October 17, 1998
The Building Blocks of Self Psychology and Intersubjectivity
Peter B. Zimmermann, PhD
To fully appreciate the elaborations and innovations in theory and practice presented by the contributors to the TRISP 1998-1999 series, a sound understanding of fundamental concepts is needed. In this presentation, Dr. Zimmermann provides a comprehensive overview of the basics of self psychology and the theory of intersubjectivity. He offers many case examples to illustrate how these concepts translate into clinical practice.
2. October 31, 1998
Open House • Free Admission
Celebrating TRISP’s Diversity
Doris Brothers, PhD
Richard B. Ulman, PhD
Peter B. Zimmermann, PhD
One of the distinguishing features of the TRISP certification program is the rich assortment of approaches to self-psychological theory and practice endorsed by different members of the faculty. For example, some instructors adhere closely to Heinz Kohut’s teachings in their classes while others incorporate other contributions to self-psychological theory. And, the extent to which the theory of intersubjectivity is blended with self psychology varies from instructor to instructor. Because the diversity of TRISP’s faculty accurately reflects the field as it now stands, candidates are well prepared to enter practice with a sophisticated understanding of the basics as well as the latest developments in the field. Come and sample some of the different approaches of the TRISP faculty. Peter Zimmermann will discuss the analyst as a receiver of all of the patient’s experience, Richard Ulman describes a fantasy-based approach to self psychology and the theory of intersubjectivity, and Doris Brothers offers a self-trust approach. TRISP candidates, graduates, and faculty members will be on hand to answer your questions about the TRISP certification program during a question-and- answer period that follows the presentations.
3. November 7, 1998
One Day in a Girl’s Life: Treating an Adult Survivor of a Pre-Adolescent Rape
Marc Miller, PhD
Mary was a naive 12-year-old when she went to visit her girlfriend Cathy. The terrifying events that occurred in Cathy’s house that day changed her life forever. But her decision to tell no one what had happened to her was at least as great a psychological catastrophe. In this presentation, Dr. Miller explores the impact of these events on the development of Mary’s sense of self and self-trust. He also examines related treatment issues which have emerged in the course of her therapy.
4. November 14, 1998
Trauma and Self-Blame
Lawrence Josephs, PhD
Patients often consciously or unconsciously blame themselves for the traumatic experiences that they have suffered. They also tend to become self-critical of the ways in which they have attempted to cope with trauma. Self-blame may be unconsciously enacted in treatment if the therapist unwittingly confirms the patient’s self-blame, thereby adding insult to injury. Dr. Joseph’s workshop will sensitize clinicians to the dynamics of self-blame in the therapeutic situation and offer strategies for ameliorating its intensity.
5. NOVEMBER 21, 1998
Vulnerability and the Experience Of Selfobject RelationshipIn Couples Psychotherapy
Martin S. Livingston, PhD
By focusing on each member of a couple’s self-experience and underlying narcissistic vulnerability, the therapist greatly enhances the deepening of the curative process. After briefly outlining a self-psychological view of curative process with its stress on empathic immersion and the interpretation of selfobject transferences, Dr. Livingston pays particular attention to tenderness, and to couples’ experiences of selfobject relationships with each other. The concept of the "vulnerable moment" and its significant role in this process will be highlighted. Implications for treatment and a clinical illustration will be presented.
6. December 12, 1998
The Self in Self Theory: Clinical Considerations
Charles B. Strozier, PhD
Heinz Kohut’ s contributions to psychoanalysis evolved from somewhat fragmentary notions about narcissism to a complete theory of the self. Along the way he redefined empathy and formulated the selfobject transferences. He also developed many useful clinical ideas such as the vertical split, the transformations of narcissism, the nature of the countertransference reactions to certain self states of troubled patients, new meanings of rage and sexualization, etc. What is this self Kohut talked about? Can one reconcile his differing definitions? Why the changes? Is the idea useful clinically, and how? Dr. Strozier explores these questions with reference to case material that participants are encouraged to bring for discussion.
7. January 9, 1999
Supervision: A Self-Psychological Approach
George Hagman, LCSW
Viewing the self-experience of the analyst as the principle "instrument" of self-psychological therapeutic practice, George Hagman contends that the aim of supervision is the improvement and elaboration of the candidate’s capacity to use his or her self in the clinical interaction. The more fully the supervisee’ s subjectivity is explored, the more deeply the patient is understood. According to Hagman, the supervisee’s experiences of selfobject failure in the treatment relationship are followed by the "restructuring" of relatedness and self-experience in the supervisory interaction. Using empathic attunement, the supervisor helps to restore, maintain, and enhance the supervisee’s capacity for mature selfobject experience in the therapeutic relationship. Participants are taught this innovative approach to supervision through the liberal use of illustrative clinical examples.
8. January 23, 1999
The Elusive "I"
Phyllis Grosskurth, PhD
It is highly unusual for a biographer to turn the searchlight on herself. As Dr. Grosskurth notes, she is accustomed to probing into every nook and cranny of other people’s lives. Yet, she has discovered that she acts as a self-censor in every sentence she writes. Her examination of the fears and fantasies that have prevented her from revealing the secrets of her own life is enormously relevant to the struggles with self-disclosure that vex so many clinicians these days. In this presentation, Dr. Grosskurth explores the ways in which keeping a daily journal, which she has done faithfully for the past ten years, represents a search for a developing self.
9. January 30, 1999
Self-Psychological Analysis and the Contact-Shunning Patient
Michele Schwartz, MA, ACSW
Discussant: Lynn Preston, MA
In 1978, Kohut and Wolf identified contact-shunning personalities as the most frequent of the narcissistic character types. Because of Kohut’s reluctance to treat such patients, whom he also described as schizoid, a deep understanding of work with such patients in a self-psychologically informed analysis has not been developed. Ms. Schwartz presents a clinical case that illustrates the adaptive nature of the contact-shunning defense in a traumatically intrusive family. The patient’s elaboration of the defense into a personality style and her profound dread of repetition served as a major resistance to the formation of a selfobject transference. Ms. Schwartz explains how she blended a self-psychological approach with concepts from British object relations theory (particularly the work of Harry Guntrip) in treating this patient.
10. February 6, 1999
The Development of The Dyad: A Bi-Directional Re Visioning of Some Self-Psychological Concepts
Lynn Preston, MA
ELLEn Shumsky, CSW
Self-psychological psychoanalytic process may be viewed as a bi-directional phenomenon. Using "the development of the dyad" as a metaphor that refers to the evolution of the analytic partnership, Ms. Preston and Ms. Shumsky examine four clinically useful self-psychological concepts: selfobject experience, optimal responsiveness, rupture and repair, and therapeutic impasse. For each of these concepts, they show how patient and analyst co-create the interactional field. They also contrast a unidirectional and bi-directional organization of psychoanalytic process.
11. FEBRUARY 20, 1999
Questions of Truth
Jan Crawford, CSW
Selfobject experience is often viewed as the central aspect of self-psychological treatment. Jan Crawford asks if another vital curative factor is the presence of truth. In this presentation, Ms. Crawford investigates the relationship between selfobject experience and truth. She also examines the following provocative questions: What is the felt sense of truth? Is it an individual or shared experience? What truths do analysts have difficulty accepting about themselves? How does the analyst’s adherence to theory affect truth in the therapeutic relationship? Clinical cases serve as the basis for her explorations.
12. February 27, 1999
A Self-Psychological Exploration of Chronic Cycles of Conflict in Couples’ Relationships
Nancy R. Hicks, PsyD
Couples in troubled relationships often challenge their therapist to help them with impasses that repeatedly arise between them. These recurrent cycles of conflict and misunderstanding often result in chronic rage, dysphoria, or emotional enfeeblement on the part of one or both partners. Using a self-psychological perspective, Dr. Hicks pays particular attention to the role of unconscious selfobject fantasy as it shapes the assumptions of individual partners and thereby influences their mutual behavior. Strategies for therapeutic intervention will be explored through clinical examples.
13. March 13,1999
Taking Risks Together: Emotional Availability and the Deepening of Therapeutic Process
Louisa Livingston, PhD
Recent writings in self psychology have gone beyond Kohut’s essentially "one person" model of psychoanalysis and have stressed a "two person" model in which the exchanges between patient and analyst create new self-selfobject experiences. Most of these recent writings do not convey the analyst’s internal struggle in attempting to be emotionally available to the patient. In order to illuminate the importance of this inner struggle, Dr. Livingston presents a case in which both the patient and analyst took risks in therapy, which led to a deepening of the therapeutic process. While becoming connected with one another, both became more fully human.
14. March 20, 1999
Contemplating the Death of Oedipus: Survival Tips for Self Psychologists
Doris Brothers, PhD and
Ellen Lewinberg, CSW
With each step Kohut took in developing self-psychological theory, he moved the Oedipus complex further and further away from the heart of psychoanalysis.Yet in his last writings, Kohut affirmed "the near ubiquity" of the Oedipus complex, and retained his belief in the existence of an oedipal stage of development. In this presentation, Brothers and Lewinberg first examine the many problematic assumptions embedded within oedipal theory. Then they support their position that it is time to abandon oedipal theory with research findings on gender and child development, as well as with advances in theory. They present an alternative understanding of oedipal phenomena as manifestations of the imposition of dichotomous gender. Finally, they explore the deleterious effects of oedipal theory on the clinical situation. Two case studies written by contemporary self-psychologists are re-examined–one describing the treatment of an adult, and one the assessment of a child–in an effort to demonstrate new understanding of oedipal issues.
15. April 3, 1999
A Self-Psychological View of the Sexual Fantasies of Lesbians
Arleen Bandler, CSW, CASAC
Discussant: Doris Brothers, PhD
What do sexual fantasies tell us about the state of the self in relation to the selfobject? Is there any correlation between the unconscious domain of sexual expression and the conscious realm of sexual choice? What are the unconscious meanings of the presence or absence of men in the sexual fantasies of lesbians? In addition to exploring these questions, Ms. Bandler examines the different contexts or settings of sexual fantasies (masturbatory, love-making, daydreams, and dreams), the different types (rape, seduction, and dominatrix), and the three kinds of selfobject or narcissistic functions that these fantasies may provide (mirroring, idealization, and twinship). Clinical material from four different lesbians and a case involving the "gender-bender" fantasy, a specific type of sexual fantasy, will be presented.
16. April 17, 1999
Personal Encounters with Sinai: The Spiritual Dimension of Healing
Maxwell S. Sucharov, MD
Postmodern influences on both psychoanalysis and religion have created an atmosphere in which these two hitherto separate domains of discourse can be useful partners in the investigation and understanding of the human condition. A clinical vignette will describe the emergence and resolution of a pivotal therapeutic crisis that had the structural/dynamic features of the Sinai myth and the story of the Golden Calf. The importance of religious myths as powerful concretizations of experiential truths that can represent and/or resolve both general and personal dilemmas will be discussed. Insofar as Dr. Sucharov intends this workshop to be highly interactive and collaborative, he invites participants to bring clinical material and/or suggestions concerning the development of this new perspective in psychoanalysis.
17. April 24, 1999
From Selfobject Tie to Cure: Two Case Studies
Donna Lynn Fellenberg, LCSW, NcPsyA
Diana Lunt, LCSW, NcPsyA
Ms. Fellenberg and Ms. Lunt present their self-psychological perspective on the nature of analytic cure. Although both analysts share an approach that emphasizes the curative aspects of the analytic relationship, the way a schizoid man established a tie to Ms. Fellenberg and the way a woman with multiple personality disorder established a tie to Ms. Lunt were strikingly different. The importance of trust, the working through of selfobject transferences and other aspects of Kohutian theory are examined in these detailed treatment studies.
18. May 1, 1999
Hansel’s Skeleton Hand: The Abandoned Child Archetype in Self-Psychological Treatment of Children at Risk
Claude Barbre, MDiv, MPhil
People whose core sense of self is compromised by trauma and developmental arrest, according to Claude Barbre, resemble characters in fairy tales and myths who have been bewitched. The restoration of the self from the curse of destructive and self-destructive behavior found throughout Grimm’s fairy tales provides a powerful analogy for the therapeutic journey, especially as it is viewed by self psychologists. In this presentation, Mr. Barbre focuses on the archetype of the abandoned child in light of Kohut’s wisdom that the developing self needs empathic selfobjects in order to release creative self-cohesion. Using the lens of self psychology, Mr. Barbre examines Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, and Rapunzel as archetypal guides toward breaking the spell of trauma in children at risk.
19. MAY 8, 1999
Self Psychology and the Widening Scope of Hypnotherapy
Jane Wilkins, PhD
Hypnosis is gaining increasing recognition as a potent adjunct to psychotherapeutic and psychoanalytic treatment. In this presentation, Dr. Wilkins provides an orientation to the fundamental principles, practices, and tools of clinical hypnosis. Contending that hypnosis provides a permissive context for the growth and active cultivation of self and selfobject experience, she explains how clinicians can use trance for therapeutic ends. With special emphasis given to developmental pathology, Dr. Wilkins offers clinical vignettes and demonstrations of hypnotic methods.
20. may 15, 1999
The Leading Edge: Kohut’s Chicago Institute Lectures
Donna Orange, PhD, PsyD
The publication of Kohut’s Chicago Institute Lectures (1972-1976) has provided another chance to assess and honor what Kohut gave us. Dr. Orange does this by asking: if Kohut had lived longer, what would he be saying and writing today? In the belief that Kohut’s pioneering work was not at all finished when he died, she suggests that these informal lectures provide some hints about the direction, and even more about the flavor, that his thinking might have taken. She emphasizes aspects of Kohut’s evolving thinking that most profoundly challenged the Cartesian underpinnings of psychoanalysis such as its search for certainty, its reductionism, and above all, its isolated-mind thinking. She also explains her reasons for believing that Kohut’s ideas would have become even more revolutionary.
21. MAY 29, 1999
The Use of Humor in the Intersubjective Field
Joyce McFadden, CSW
Discussant: Richard B. Ulman, PhD
The use of humor in the intersubjective field will be explored by analyzing its use on three levels: the psychoanalytic, the self-psychological, and the intersubjective. Clinical examples representing the use of humor in both intersubjective conjunction and disjunction will be examined for ways in which they facilitate or interfere with the treatment.
TRISP 1998-1999 CONTINUING EDUCATION FACULTY
Arleen Bandler, CSW, CASAC is a graduate of TRISP. She is a supervisor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Substance Abuse Service. Private practice, Nyack, NY and Manhattan.
Claude Barbre, MDiv, MPhil is managing editor of The Journal of Religion and Health, and assistant director, child psychotherapist, and training and supervising analyst of The Harlem Family Institute. Author of prize-winning poetry and articles, he has recently edited two books by Dr. Esther Menaker entitled The Freedom to Inquire (Jason Aronson, 1995) and Separation, Will and Creativity:The Wisdom of Otto Rank (Jason Aronson,1996). Private practice, New York City.
Doris Brothers PhD is a founding member, member of the Board of Trustees, and senior faculty member of TRISP. She is an author and co-author of presentations and publications including The Shattered Self: A Psychoanalytic Study of Trauma (The Analytic Press, 1988) and Falling Backwards: An Exploration of Trust and Self Experience (Norton, 1995). Private practice, New York City.
Jan Crawford, CSW is a graduate and faculty member of TRISP. She has presented papers at national meetings in self psychology and presented in other TRISP workshop series. Private practice, New York City
Donna Lynn Fellenberg, LCSW, NcPsyA is a faculty member and supervisor at TRISP. She is the author of presentations on eating disorders and women’s issues. Private practice, Verona, NJ.
Phyllis Grosskurth, PhD is Professor Emeritus of English, University of Toronto. She is the author of seven books including award-winning biographies of John Addington Symonds, Havelock Ellis, and Melanie Klein. Her latest book, Byron, The Flawed Angel, was published by Houghton Mifflin in 1997.
George Hagman, LCSW is a faculty member and supervisor at TRISP and NPAP. He is the Director of the F. S. Dubois Center in Stamford, CT. He has published a number of articles on bereavement, addiction and self psychology. His chapter, "Mature Selfobject Experience,"appears in volume 13 of Progress in Self Psychology. Private practice, New York City and Stamford, CT.
Nancy R. Hicks, PsyD is a recent graduate of TRISP. She is currently in private practice in New York City and in Metuchen, NJ.
Lawrence Josephs, PhD is a senior member of the TRISP faculty, and associate professor at the Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies of Adelphi University. He is the author of Balancing Empathy and Interpretation (Jason Aronson, 1995) and forthcoming articles on the psychology of self-criticism. Private practice, New York City.
Ellen Lewinberg, CSW is on the TRISP faculty, the director, faculty member, and supervisor at the Institute for the Advancement of Self Psychology in Toronto, and supervisor at the Toronto Child Psychotherapy Program. She is author of presentations and publications on self psychology and the treatment of children. Private practice, Toronto
Louisa Livingston, PhD is a recent TRISP graduate. She is a member of the program committee and the coordinating committee of the Association for Psychoanalytic Self Psychology. She is co-author of an article on group therapy. Private practice, New York City.
Martin S. Livingston, PhD is a member of the faculty of TRISP, The NY Institute for Psychoanalytic Self Psychology and The Postgraduate Center. He is the author of Near and Far: Closeness and Distance in Psychotherapy (Rivercross Publishing, 1991), and has published several articles on couples therapy, countertransference, and the "concept of the vulnerable moment." He is the editor of Issues in Group Psychotherapy and the co-chair of the Association for Psychoanalytic Self Psychology. Private practice, New York City.
Diana Lunt, LCSW, NcPsyA is a member of the TRISP faculty. She is a member of the International Society for the Study of Dissociation (ISSD) and a founder of the New Jersey Association for Self Psychology. Private practice, Metuchen, NJ.
Joyce McFadden, CSW is a TRISP graduate. Private practice, New York City.
Marc L. Miller, PhD is senior member of the TRISP faculty, the faculty of the Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis at Adelphi University’s Derner Institute, and the Suffolk Institute for Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. His chapter, entitled "The Nondifficult Patient and the Nondifficult Analyst: Resolving the Impasse of Intersubjective Pseudoconjunction," appeared in Progress in Self Psychology, Volume 13 (The Analytic Press,1997).
Donna M. Orange, PhD, PsyD is a faculty member of TRISP, a faculty member and supervising analyst at the Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity in New York City, and the author of Emotional Understanding: Studies in Psychoanalytic Epistemology (Guilford Press,1995) and co-author of Working Intersubjectively: Contextualism in Clinical Practice (The Analytic Press,1997). Private practice, Highland Park, NJ and New York City.
Lynn Preston, MA, MS is on the faculty of TRISP and The Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy. She is the author and co-author of presentations and publications on psychoanalytic mutuality and the bidirectional nature of growth. Private practice, New York City.
Michele Schwartz, MA, ACSW is a recent graduate of TRISP and co-founder of the Center for Integrative Approaches to Psychotherapy. Private practice, New York City.
Ellen Shumsky, CSW is on the faculty of TRISP, the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Study Center, and The Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy. She is the author and co-author of presentations and publications on self psychology and intersubjectivity theory and technique. Private practice, New York City.
Charles B. Strozier, PhD is a training and supervising analyst at TRISP and a professor of history at John Jay College, CUNY. He collaborated with Heinz Kohut on Self Psychology and the Humanities (Norton,1985), is the author of Lincoln’s Quest for Union (Norton,1982) and Apocalypse: On the Psychology of Fundamentalism in America (Beacon Press,1994), and the co-editor of The Year 2000: Essays on the End (New York University Press, 1997). He is currently writing the first biography of Heinz Kohut (Farrar, Strauss & Giroux). Private practice, New York City.
Maxwell S. Sucharov, MD is a board member of The Western Canada Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Society and Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia. He is an author of presentations and publications including a chapter entitled "Psychoanalysis, Self Psychology and Intersubjectivity" in The Intersubjective Perspective (Jason Aronson, 1994). Private practice, Vancouver, B.C.
Jane Wilkins, PhD is a faculty member and supervisor at TRISP and the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Study Center. She integrates clinical hypnosis within a broad array of medical and psychological conditions. Private practice, New York City.
Richard B. Ulman, PhD is a founding member, president of the Board of Trustees, and senior faculty member of TRISP. Dr. Ulman is an author and co-author of publications including The Shattered Self: A Psychoanalytic Study of Trauma (The Analytic Press, 1988) and Narcissus in Wonderland: The Self Psychology of Addiction and Its Treatment ( forthcoming). Private practice, Croton-on-Hudson and New York City.
Peter B. Zimmermann, PhD is a founding member, vice president of the Board of Trustees, and senior faculty member of TRISP. He is also a senior faculty member, supervisor and training analyst of NPAP. Dr. Zimmermann is an author and co-author of presentations and publications on select topics in self psychology and intersubjectivity, including "The Case of Ms. M" in Psychoanalysis Today: A Case Book (Charles C. Thomas, 1991). Private practice, New York City.