Betsy Kassoff, Ph.D.

September 7, 14, 21, 28; October 5, 12, 19, 26
 

In traumatic relationship, the abusive caretaker is internalized in different attachment configurations, all of which come to be known in the therapy relationship through mutual projections, enactments, impasses, and power struggles. In this section, we will review relational psychoanalytic literature on the dynamics of “bad” objects in both the therapist and the patient and how to bring them into consciousness and dialogue. Some of the authors we will read may include Benjamin, Bromberg, Davies, Fairbairn, Goldner, Hoffman, Mitchell, Shaw, and Suchet. We will also apply some of these ideas to the phenomenon of splitting good and bad in race, gender, and culture. 

 

Israel Katz, M.D.

November 2, 9, 16, 30; December 7, 14; January  4, 11

 

The negative can lead to desire and elaboration, as well as a deadly quest for non-existence and destruction, which challenges us to the limit. We will grapple with different vertices of the negative and examine its manifestations in clinical practice through reading and discussing negation, disavowal, foreclosure, negative therapeutic reaction, the death drive, negative narcissism, and the work of the negative in Freud, Lacan, Green, and Winnicott. We will also discuss the potential therapeutic effects on the negative through the work of the therapist’s mind, along with her/his availability, hospitality, presence and absence, and interventions within the clinical setting.

 

Era Loewenstein, Ph.D., and Diane Borden, Ph.D.

January 18, 25; February 1, 8, 15, 22; March 1, 8

 

In this segment, we will explore contemporary psychoanalytic views of perverse states of mind. Perverse states and relationships are often saturated with invasive verbal and non-verbal communication, innuendoes, secrets, and visual provocation. The medium of film captures this perverse signature well. In each meeting we will discuss a film and an article demonstrating some of the following topics: perversion and destructive narcissism, trauma, sadomasochism, and the deformation of the Oedipal constellation. Among the authors that we will read are Janine Chasseguet-Smirgel, Franco De Masi, Marvin Glaser, and Herbert Rosenfeld. Among the films we will discuss are The Piano Teacher, Damage, Exotica, and Gods and Monsters.

 

Drew Tillotson, Psy.D.

March 15, 22, 29; April 5, 12, 19; May 3, 10

 

This course examines the impact of characterological and perverse mental structures on analytic space. Collapses, ruptures, emptiness, retreats that impede analytic collaboration and that strain the analytic relationship are among the most difficult experiences we face. Traumatic histories present labyrinthine terrain, asking much of patients and clinicians to heal the un-healable. We will explore bearing the unknowable, the unbearable, while holding analytic space in the presence of narcissistic, obsessional, hysterical, perverse attempts to hold the treatment hostage by preventing intimate contact. Readings will integrate evolving British Object Relations and American Relational ideas, including, among others, Benjamin, Bromberg, Bollas, Gerson, Mitchell, Ogden, Stein, Steiner, and Winnicott.