FOUNDATIONS:
American Relational Theory
This class will offer an overview of Relational Theory as it is used in both psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. Broadly speaking, a Relational perspective holds that the primary source of therapeutic action is the relationship between therapist and patient, not something created through it. Or, as R.D. Laing (1967) wrote, psychoanalysis (and by implication, psychotherapy) is “an obstinate attempt of two people to recover the wholeness of being human through the relationship between them.” After tracing the origins of Relational Theory in object relations, interpersonal psychoanalysis, second-wave feminism, and post-modernism, we will look at some of the fundamental concepts used by Relational thinkers: intersubjectivity, dialectical thinking, social constructivism, dissociation, and enactment. We will then turn our attention to clinical examples of a Relational sensibility, and compare and contrast that with other contemporary psychoanalytic perspectives. Readings will include papers by Stephen Mitchell, Jody Davies, Irwin Hoffman, Lew Aron, Philip Bromberg, and Daniel Stern.
- Participants will be able to assess the differences between models of the mind that see the self as unified as opposed to those that see it as multiply constituted.
- Participants will be able to describe the role of enactments in our understanding of therapeutic change and how a clinician might use this idea in their clinical work.
- Participants will be able to evaluate the claim that “the first distortion of truth in the analytic situation is that analysis is an interaction between a sick person and a healthy one” and how it may be applicable to a case.
- Participants will be able to define the term dialectical constructivism and apply its ideas to their clinical work.
- Participants will be able to delineate the ways in which the assumption of the therapist’s co-creation of the therapeutic encounter differs from an objectivist stance toward the patient.
- Participants will be able to describe the benefits and limitations of empathy as defined as “vicarious introspection.”
- Participants will be able to explain how the creation of an “analytic third” enables movement through an impasse.
- Participants will be able to elucidate how dissociated self-states in both patient and therapist are enacted in the therapeutic relationship.
- Participants will be able to assess the ways in which implicit relational knowing is foundational to therapeutic action.
Diener, M. J. and M. M. Pierson (2013). Technique and therapeutic process from a supportive-expressive relational psychodynamic approach. Psychotherapy, 50(3), 424–427. doi: 10.1037/a0032404.
Ilene Philipson, Ph.D., holds doctorates in sociology, clinical psychology, and psychoanalysis and has taught at UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, and NYU. She is a training and supervising analyst at the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles. In addition to On The Shoulders of Women: The Feminization of Psychotherapy, her books include Married to The Job; Ethel Rosenberg: Beyond the Myths; and Women, Class, and the Feminist Imagination (Ed.). Dr. Philipson is in the private practice of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis in Oakland.
This course is for clinicians with beginning, intermediate, and advanced clinical experience and a basic understanding of psychoanalytic theory.
Enrollees who cancel at least SEVEN DAYS prior to the event date will receive a refund minus a $35 administrative charge. No refunds will be allowed after this time. Transfer of registrations are not allowed.
For program related questions contact Morgan Lloyd, LCSW at morganlloyd.lcsw@gmail.com or 510-852-9013.
For questions related to enrollment, locations, CE credit, special needs, course availability and other administrative issues contact Michele McGuinness by email or 415-496-9949.
Education Committee
The Education Committee is responsible for the development of a variety of courses and workshops given throughout the year in San Francisco and the East Bay.