Impulse is a community newsletter produced by the Northern California Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology (NCSPP) and distributed electronically at no cost to subscribers. 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 Danni Biondini, LMFT
I came to psychoanalysis, as most things, with opposition.
Hailing from a line of San Francisco garbage men, I was committed to my family’s working class rebellion. I was a teenage anarchist, back before the tech takeover, when people in San Francisco still believed in stuff. I was vegan. I read Foucault for fun! I entered graduate school problematizing everything, spouting phrases like, “psychology as a normalizing discourse!”, and had a vague idea that becoming a therapist would help. All my notions were theoretical, though; I had yet to discover the purpose of people.1
The psychoanalysis I learned was one that aligned with my opposition. I learned about Freud’s free clinics, about psychoanalysis as a subversive practice, radical in the etymological meaning of radical: to the root. I was drawn to psychoanalysis for its marginal position, for its promise of providing change on a structural level. Unlike its more mainstream, norm-enforcing nemesis, the psychoanalysis I learned was not concerned with mere symptom reduction, or helping people adjust to an unjust society. I was drawn to a psychoanalysis that took a critical stance toward the status quo.2
by Molly Merson, MFT
How Do These Curtains Make You Feel? The Science Of Therapists’ Offices. An exploration into different therapist office styles and how spaces influence patient projections.
If we want a different politics, we need another revolutionary: Freud. How can we bring back Freud the radical, and how might it help us know ourselves more honestly?
Philosophy feuds: On the 13 hours Freud and Jung spent talking about sex, psychoanalysis and the depths of the unconscious. Some notes on the split between Freud and Jung.
by Jeremy Mintz, PsyD
SCIENTIFIC MEETING
We have a very exciting Scientific Meeting coming up on March 17, 2019. Adam Blum, PsyD, will take us through a deep exploration of identification as the channel through which the erotics of sameness enrich and animate the sexuality of difference. Along the way he will shed new light on Freud’s notion of the “oceanic feeling,” while also weaving together artifacts of contemporary culture, such as William Finnegan’s surfing memoir, Barbarian Days, and musical works by John Luther Adams and Frank Ocean. Dr. Blum will be joined in a dialogue by Francisco Gonzalez, MD. If you like thinking about music, sexuality, and oceanic oneness, you should definitely spend your St. Patrick’s Day at this event. Here are the details:
BACK INTO THE OCEAN: Music, Identification, and the Oceanic Feeling
Sunday, March 17, 2019
1:00 PM – 4:00 PM
San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis (SFCP)
444 Natoma Street, San Francisco, CA 94103
To register, go to https://www.ncspp.org/events/scientific-mtg-2019
BEAUTIFUL SPACIOUS OFFICE at great location on Union Street. Available Wednesdays & Fridays. $600/mo for both days, or add Tuesday mornings for $750/mo. See pics here: https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/off/d/spacious-therapy-office/6760892730.html. Joshua Wylie, MFT, jwylie@lmi.net.
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.
Speaking the Unspoken: Creating a Supervisory Field
Sat, Feb 2 / 9:00 am - 4:00 pm / 668 13th St / Oakland
TPI / (510) 548-4407 / S. Chin, PhD, et al. / $115 - $165
A Discussion of Clinical Approaches in Couple Therapy
Sat, Feb 2 / 9:30 am - 12:30 pm / 444 Natoma St / San Francisco
SFCP / (415) 563-5815 / D. de Marneffe, PhD, et al. / $25 - $65
Focus On – Sexuality Now
Tue, Feb 5 / 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm / 3824 Grand Ave / Oakland
PINC / (415) 288-4050 / M. Rundel, PhD / $100 - $220
Trauma-Informed Case Management: Supporting Women with HIV
Wed, Feb 6 / 6:30 pm - 9:00 pm / 444 Natoma St / San Francisco
SFCP / (415) 563-3366 / UCSF Women’s HIV Program Social Work Team / $15 - $20
Second Fridays – Waiting for PoPo
Fri, Feb 8 / 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm / 530 Bush St / San Francisco
PINC / (415) 288-4050 / S. Herlekar, PsyD, et al. / free - $40
A Personal View of the Theoretical Shifts at SFPI/CP
Mon, Feb 11 / 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm / 444 Natoma St / San Francisco
SFCP / (415) 563-3366 / J. Dunn, PhD, et al. / free
Paving Paradise: The Inability to Learn from Experience
Thu, Feb 14 / 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm / 2837 Claremont Blvd / Berkeley
NCSPP / (707) 625-0878 / R. Cowan, PsyD / $135 - $315
Focus On – Couples on the Couch
Tue, Feb 19 / 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm / 530 Bush St / San Francisco
PINC / (415) 288-4050 / S. Nathans, PhD / $125 - $275
Shadows, Ghosts, and Chimaeras
Thu, Feb 21 / 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm / 530 Bush St / San Francisco
PINC / (415) 288-4050 / J. Sekoff, PhD / free - $15
The Psychosomatic Symptom: Integral Medicine & Psychiatry
Fri, Mar 1 / 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm / 1453 Mission St / San Francisco
CIIS / S. Von / (510) 295-4711 / free
The Late Lacan and Beyond: School+Clinic=Sclinic
Sat, Mar 2 / 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm / 1453 Mission St / San Francisco
CIIS / S. Von / (510) 295-4711 / $20 - $40
Focus On – Interrogating Psychoanalysis with Color in Mind
Sat, Mar 2 / 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm / private office / Berkeley
PINC / (415) 288-4050 / M. Muralidharan, PsyD; S. Herlekar, PsyD / $75 - $170