Impulse is a community newsletter produced by the Northern California Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology (NCSPP) and distributed electronically to subscribers at no cost. We envision Impulse as an integrative source for local news, events, and thinking of interest to the psychoanalytically inclined. Our goal is to be your guide as you explore the Bay Area's rich array of analytic resources.
We invite you to become a member of NCSPP, if you are not already. And, we welcome you as a subscriber to Impulse. Join us as we highlight the exceptional diversity of psychoanalytic thought and practice in Northern California.
by Sullivan Oakley, MA
Note from Luba Palter, Editor-in-Chief:
NCSPP Board members are taking turns contributing to President’s Remarks for the rest of this year. Sullivan Oakley, MA is the Chair of the Intensive Study Group (ISG) Committee.
In these times of profound social, political, and environmental upheaval, the need for genuine community has perhaps never been more urgent. As psychoanalytic clinicians and thinkers, we are acutely aware of how isolation, disconnection, and the fracturing of shared meaning have taken a toll on the psyche—individually and collectively. The loneliness epidemic, widespread burnout, and chronic uncertainty ripple through our work and our lives. And yet, amidst this uncertainty, we continue to seek out ways of showing up for one another—of creating spaces where presence, reflection, and mutual care are possible. At NCSPP, we believe building and sustaining community is in itself a form of mental health advocacy. NCSPP hopes to be a space of refuge, dialogue, and containment for the psychoanalytic community in our ever-shifting world. In her 1964 poem, “City Psalm,” Denise Levertov invites readers to find hope and beauty not in absconding from the world or shifting our gaze, but through seeing “not behind but within.” She speaks not of some superficial or dismissive “silver lining” amidst killing and grief, but of catching a deeper glimpse into “another grief, a gleam of dew, an abode of mercy.”
by San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis (SFCP)
LISTENING INTO BEING: AN ACTOR’S INVITATION
Emmy-nominated actress Robin Weigert in conversation with Kristin Fiorella, Psy.D.
Saturday, June 14, 2025 | 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
In-person | Zoom available
444 Natoma St., San Francisco
$40 General Admission
$20 SFCP Members
FREE for Students
Register at https://www.sfcp.org/2025-06-14-dialogues
by Lorrie Goldin, LCSW
Note from Nicholas Hack, Managing Editor:
Sometimes the words of the past speak just as clearly about the present day. This month, we’re sharing an article from the Impulse archives from December, 2011. In it, Lorrie Goldin reflects on an event she had recently attended that could just as easily have been scheduled today.
COMING INTO SOLSTICE SEASON
"It may be that when we no longer know what to do we have come to our real work and that when we no longer know which way to go we have begun our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed." - Wendell Berry, 1983
Old couches, new books, hot jobs, cool internships, office rentals? List them in Impulse's Classifieds for a modest fee. Please see our submission guidelines for details.
Thinking Together about Psychoanalytic Teaching
Sun, May 18 / 10:00 am - 12:00 pm / 530 Bush St. / San Francisco
PINC / (415) 288-4050 / G. Dvorak, Psy.D.; C. Schneider, Ph.D. / $10 - $50
Community Mental Health Hike
Sat, Jun 7 / 10:00 am - 12:00 pm / 13 Pohono St. / Mill Valley
NCSPP / (415) 903-5464 / Free