This event will be held virtually on Zoom. The event will not be recorded.
This paper takes a contemporary object relations view of the nature of psychoanalysis emphasizing the goal of facilitating the patients’ growth, their capacity to feel, and be fully alive. This psychoanalytic perspective originated in Bion’s and Winnicott’s radical revision of psychoanalysis focusing on the patient’s being rather than on either symptom relief or adaptation to the demands of external reality. A brief history of this transformation is presented describing its development from early concepts of projective identification, to communicative uses of countertransference, enactment, unconscious communication to current views of the psychoanalytic relationship as a field in which it is difficult to separate the analyst’s unconscious participation from that of the patient. While simultaneously being affected by the unconscious ‘forces’ of the field the analyst attempts to symbolize and organize the forces and experiences mobilized in the analytic relationship. A brief clinical vignette involving a severely traumatized patient who presented and experience of overwhelming deadness which was experienced by her analyst and the analyst’s supervisor is presented to illustrate the complex and concrete unconscious experiences that were encountered as the three participants worked to emerge from the world of the dead, returning across the River Styx.
Learning Objectives
At the conclusion of this program, participants will be able to:
Describe the development of the contemporary psychopathology of extreme dissociative disorders which results in the experience of deadness in the psychotherapeutic relationship.
Utilize treatment strategies which prioritize symbolization of unverbalized experiences of dissociation and deadness.
Compare psychotherapeutic approaches which incorporate Bionian Field Theory with more traditional approaches which emphasize the differentiation of historically past and present experiences
Bio
Joseph Newirth is a Professor Emeritus who had been a Professor at the Derner School of Psychology at Adelphi University for over 40 years. He was the Director of the Postdoctoral Program in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy at Adelphi University. He is currently a supervisor at the N.Y.U. Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis New York University, and on the faculty and a supervisor at the National Training Program at the National Institute of the Psychotherapies, New York, NY. He received his BA from the City College of New York, his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts and his psychoanalytic training at the William Alanson White Institute. He encourages dialogue, critical thinking, and opportunities for students and supervises to deepen their understanding of how psychoanalytic theories relate to the practice of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. He has published numerous articles in professional journals and frequently presented papers at national and international conferences. His first book, Between Emotion and Cognition: The generative unconscious (2003) received the Gradiva prize for critical analysis and interpretation in 2004. His second book, From Sign to Symbol: Transformational Process in Psychoanalysis, Psychotherapy and Psychology (2018) was published by Lexington Books which received the annual book award from the American Board and Academy of Psychoanalysis. He maintains a practice in Psychoanalysis, Psychotherapy and Supervision in New York and works largely remotely.
References
Levine, H. (2015) The Transformational Vision of Antonino Ferro. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 35:451–464, 2015
Ferro, A. (2012) Creativity in the Consulting Room: Factors of Fertility and Infertility. Psychoanalytic Inquiry 32:257-274
Civitarese, G. (2016) Masochism and Its Rhythm. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association 64:885-916
Eshel, O. (2016) The “Voice” of Breakdown: On Facing the Unbearable Traumatic Experience in Psychoanalytic Work. Contemporary Psychoanalysis 52:76-110
Ogden, T.H. (1995). Aliveness and deadness of the transference-countertransference.., Int. J. Psychoanal., 76:695-710.
Blechner, M.J. (2015). Dreams: How Neuropsychoanalysis and Clinical Psychoanalysis Can Learn from Each Other. Ann. Psychoanal., 38:142-155.
Fellenor, J. (2011). The unpredictability of metaphor: Ignacio Matte-Blanco's bi-logic and the nature of metaphoric processes. Int. Forum Psychoanal., 20(3):138-147.
Flabbi, L. Pediconi, M.G. (2014). Unconscious and Game Theory. Int. J. Appl. Psychoanal. Stud., 11(4):339-359
Mancia, M. (2006) Implicit Memory and Early Unrepressed Unconscious: Their Role in the Therapeutic Process (How the Neurosciences Can Contribute to Psychoanalysis)1. International Journal of Psychoanalysis 87:83-103
Mancia, M. & Baggott, J. (2008) The Early Unrepressed Unconscious in Relation to Matte-Blanco's Thought. International Forum of Psychoanalysis 17:201-212