Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy: Four Organizing Themes

This seminar introduces four broad themes that inform the psychoanalytic psychotherapist’s clinical thinking. First, we will consider the concepts that most distinguish psychoanalytic thinking from thinking in other fields: unconscious mental life, psychological causation, mental conflict, transference, and defense. Second, we will discuss the thinkers, models of the mind, and notions of mental development that most influence the contemporary practice of psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Third, we will begin to define the task of formulation, which applies psychoanalytic theories to the understanding of individual patients. Fourth, we will focus on what can change in psychoanalytic psychotherapy, and on how treatment works to promote change.

Beth Steinberg, Ph.D., Member and Faculty, SFCP
Tuesdays: September 6, 13, 20; October 4, 11, 18, 25; November 1, 8, 15, 29; December 6, 2011
18 CME/CE credits available

Educational objectives:

1. Trainees will be able to define and describe the concepts that most distinguish psychoanalytic thinking from thinking in other fields: unconscious mental life, psychological causation, mental conflict, transference, and defense.
2. Trainees will be able to describe and comparatively differentiate the analytic theories, models of the mind, and notions of mental development that most influence the contemporary practice of psychoanalytic psychotherapy.
3. Trainees will be able to describe an approach to psychoanalytic formulation which applies psychoanalytic theories to the understanding of individual patients.
4. Trainees will be able to describe different models of therapeutic action in psychoanalytic psychotherapy and articulate how a treatment works to promote change.

Beginning Treatment

This seminar focuses on the process of evaluating new patients, and beginning psychoanalytic psychotherapy. We will focus on special issues that arise when conducting initial sessions; on how (or whether) to take a history; on getting a feel for the patient’s underlying level of personality disturbance; on deciding whether to treat a given patient; and on setting up a useful psychoanalytic frame.

Elizabeth Simpson, L.C.S.W., Member and Faculty, SFCP
Tuesdays: December 13, 2011; January 3, 10, 17, 24, 31; February 7, 21, 28, 2012
13.5 CME/CE credits available

Educational objectives:

1. Trainees will be able to articulate strategies for evaluating new patients for psychoanalytic psychotherapy such as how to assess a patient’s level of personality disturbance and how to decide whether to treat a given patient.
2. Trainees will be able to describe the advantages and disadvantages of various approaches to conducting initial sessions, such as whether (and how) to take a history.
3. Trainees will be able to describe the psychoanalytic frame and articulate how to set up a useful psychoanalytic frame in a treatment.

Fundamentals of Technique in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy

This seminar will focus carefully on the practice of psychoanalytic psychotherapy. We will begin by considering the therapist’s use of his or her intellectual and emotional faculties to apprehend unconscious experience. We will then spend several weeks looking at the tasks of listening and intervening, focusing on ways in which these tasks may be adapted to the patient’s level of psychopathology. We will explore multiple perspectives that guide our work, focusing in particular upon moment-to-moment tracking of resistance, defense, developmental themes, object relations, and the transference-countertransference matrix. Finally, we will discuss ways of working towards greater treatment frequency by engaging deeply with patients.

Adam Goldyne, M.D., Member, SFCP
Tuesdays: March 6, 13, 20, 27; April 3, 10, 17, 24; May 1, 8, 15, 22, 29; June 5, 12, 2012
22.5 CME/CE credits available

Educational objectives:

1. Trainees will be able to describe ways to use their intellectual and emotional faculties to apprehend unconscious experience.
2. Trainees will be able to articulate different approaches to listening and intervening with patients, and describe how to adapt interventions to the patient's level of psychopathology.
3. Trainees will be able to articulate different technical approaches to conducting a psychoanalytic psychotherapy, including moment-to-moment tracking of resistance, defense interpretations, and psychoanalytic formulation based on developmental themes.
4. Trainees will be able to define and comparatively describe the differences between an object relations-based vs. drive theory-based approach to treatment.
5. Trainees will be able to articulate different models of the transference countertransference matrix.
6. Trainees will be able to describe technical approaches which engage more deeply with patients and promote greater treatment frequency.