Site Training Programme
Seminars 2017/18
Training takes place from 10.00 – 13.45
LSE. 32 LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS WC2A (South East corner of
Lincoln’s Inn Fields) Rooms G.08 G.10 G.11
AUTUMN TERM
7, 14, 21, 28 October 2017
Stephen Gee, Eric Harper, Kate Gilbert
Dreaming
Week 1: Hamlet’s problem; Freud’s diagnosis
The Interpretation of Dreams. Freud S. Chapters 6 and 7.
Every reference to dreaming in Shakespeare you can find.
Week 2: Heroic dreaming on the Royal Road to the New Age
Dreams, General Aspects of Dream Psychology; Jung C G. Routledge classics.
The Dream and the Underworld, Chapters 2 and 4; Hillman J
Dreaming outside of Ourselves; Hillman J in Where Id Was, Ed. Molino A. (scan)
Week 3: Madness and a Truce
Dream as an Object; Pontalis J B(IJP 1974 PEP)
My Body, This Paper, This Fire, Appendix 11 in History of Madness; Foucault M, Routledge 2006
Multiple Dreaming; Harper and Mwaniki (scan)
Week 4: All the Session’s a Dream; Bion and the alphabetisation of the unconscious
Learning from Experience; Bion W R, Chapters 1- 4 (PEP)
Dreams That Mirror the Session; Civitarese G (IJP 2006 PEP)
The Unconscious; Civitarese G. (IJP 2011 PEP)
4 & 5 November 2017 Training weekend
Joana Gardener, Liz Guild and other members of the Training Committee.
A complete overview of psychoanalytic practice. Building a practice. Discussion of Key concepts: Free association. Timing. What is a break? The Therapist in health and illness. Why present and how when it comes to giving an account of the experience we call ‘clinical work’.
11, 18, 25 November & 2 December 2017
Barbara Cawdron, Andie Newman
Thinking Inside and outside the Box – a Conversation about the Analytic Setting
For these four weeks I am inviting a conversation about the analytic setting, sometimes called the frame. We will explore how particular ways of theorising the “rules of the game” arise from different ways of theorising psychoanalysis; and how it functions as both a frame around and an integral part of the work.
I am proposing that the format for the morning will be some teaching related to the reading, then breaking into smaller groups to discuss different aspects of the frame. Relevant clinical experience and dilemmas would be welcome in enriching these discussions.
Week 1: The “rules of the game”
Freud Vol. XII–Recommendations to Physicians Practising Psychoanalysis (1912), and On Beginning the Treatment (Further Recommendations on the Technique of Psycho-Analysis (1913)
Discussion – Why the couch? Why not? Would Freud have used Skype?
Week 2: The analytic setting, regression and psychosis
Winnicott (1955 ) Metapsychological and Clinical Aspects of Regression Within the Psycho-Analytic Set-Up, International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 36:16-26 (available on PEP Web)
Winnicott (1949) Hate in the Countertransference (pepweb)
Bleger, J (1967) Psychoanalysis of the Psychoanalytic Frame in International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 48:511-519 (available on pepweb)
Discussion – Calling time on the session – difficulties and dilemmas around breaks and ending
Week 3: Disruptions and extensions to the frame
Thoughts and ideas around Lacan’s use of the variable length session require a bit of hunting down and in doing so its meaning and use is subject to interpretation. Here are some places that write about it and can inform our own thinking:
Lacan: Function and Field of Speech and Language in Psychoanalysis, Ecrits 310-316
Fink A Clinical introduction to Lacanian Psychoanalysis, Theory and Technique pp17-19, 213-4
Lacanonline http://www.lacanonline.com/index/2010/07/the-short-session/
For an entertaining account of an analysand’s experience of ending a Lacanian analysis I recommend Dan Gunn’s Wool-Gathering, or How I Ended Analysis
Haya Oakley (1989) Touching and Being Touched, The Negotiated boundaries and the ‘extended’ consulting room, in Thresholds between philosophy and psychoanalysis: Papers from the Philadelphia Association
Following Peter Nevins’ and James Mann’s seminars on Laing people may also be interested in Mary Barnes: two accounts of a journey through madness (1972)
Maroda, K.J. (2007). Ethical Considerations of the Home Office. Psychoanal. Psychol., 24(1):173-179 (pepweb)
Discussion – Setting and personal boundaries – how far to go.
Week 4: Further thoughts
Langs, R. (2007). One Mind or Two. Psychoanal. Psychol., 24(1):180-186 (pepweb) – a commentary on last week’s paper by Maroda
Bass, Anthony (2007) When the Frame doesn’t fit the Picture (pepweb)
The Clinical Diary of Sandor Ferenczi (Harvard University Press, Edited by Judith Dupont) is worth dipping into for those who are interested in learning more about how Ferenczi experimented with the frame in his work with patients with different presentations.
Dimen, M. (1994). Money, Love, and Hate: Contradiction and Paradox in Psychoanalysis. Psychoanal. Dial., 4(1):69-100
Discussion – money matters
SPRING TERM 2018
13, 20, 27 January and 3, 10 February 2018
Keith Armitage and Madelyn Brewer
Narcissism & “Disorders of the Self
Week 1: Narcissism: Metapsychology and Psychopathology
Freud S (1914) “On Narcissism: An Introduction” SE XIV
Cooper, Arnold M “Narcissism” in Morrison (ed.) Essential Papers on Narcissism (1986) New York: New York University Press
Jones, E (1913) “The God Complex” Essays in Applied Psycho-Analysis Volume II (1964) New York: International Universities Press
In this seminar we will distinguish the two senses of narcissism, as a metapsychological concept and a (variously described) form of pathology, and ask how these two senses relate.
Week 2: Object Relations Perspectives
Fairbairn, WRD “Schizoid Factors in the Personality” in (1952) An Object-Relations Theory of the Personality New York: Basic Books
Rosenfeld H “On the Psychopathology of Narcissism: A Clinical Approach” (1964) International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 45:332-337
Kernberg, Otto F “The Treatment of the Narcissistic Personality” (1970) Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association Vol: XVIII No.1
We will compare influential accounts of pathological narcissism and its treatment from British and American object-relations perspectives.
Week 3: Kohut’s “New Paradigm”: Self-Psychology
Kohut, Heinz “The Two Analyses of Mr X” (1979) International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 60:3-27
Wallerstein, Robert S “How does Self Psychology Differ in Practice? (1985) International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 66:391-404
Additional Reading
Kohut, Heinz “Forms & Transformations of Narcissism” in Morrison (ed.) ibid
Kohut, Heinz & Wolf, Ernest F “The Disorders of the Self and their Treatment: An Outline” in Morrison (ed.) ibid
Initially proposed as a new way of understanding and treating narcissistic disorders, Kohut’s self-psychology developed into nothing less than a radical re-writing of psychoanalytic theory, with narcissistic disturbance at the root of all psychopathology.
Week 4:
Andre Green’s Contributions.
Green, Andre “Moral Narcissism” & “The Neuter Gender” in (2001) Life Narcissism, Death Narcissism London: Free Association Books.
Coming from a very different psychoanalytic tradition, we will look at some of Green’s clinical contributions to the topic of narcissism.
Week 5: Our Narcissism.
Schumacher Finell, Janet “Narcissistic Problems in Analysts” (1985) International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 66:433-445
Finally, we will look at the ways in which our narcissism as therapists may get in the way of the clinical work.
24 February & 3, 10, 17, 24, March 2018
Val Parks, Helen Swords, Madhu Nandi
The Non-sense of an ending or why do people get stuck
The underlying idea is to address the fact that so often people come to analysis because they feel stuck in various ways, and all too often, they become stuck in the analysis too These seminars are an attempt to enquire into that.
Week 1: Repetition and time
Do we ever forget? Can we leave the past behind? We begin by looking at Julian Barnes’ brief novel which gives an account of memory and meconnaisance, and the reverberations in a life. Then we will read two perhaps less familiar late meditations by Freud on the nature and endurance of memory.
Barnes, Julian (2011) The Sense of an Ending Johnathan Cape London
Freud, S. (1925) “A note upon the Mystic Writing Pad” S.E Volume XIX, 225 – 232
_______ (1936) “A Disturbance of Memory on the Acropolis” S.E. Vol.XXII 237 – 248
Week 2: Fate, destiny and change
People are often inclined to see their lives as dogged by an inescapable fate or destiny. In this seminar, we think about Lacan’s and Zizek’s versions of Freud’s the repetition compulsion to understand this better.
Lacan, J. (1964) “Tuche and Automaton” Seminar XI The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis Penguin, London 1979
Zizek, S (1992) “Why every act is a repetition” Enjoy your Symptom! Routledge, London
Weeks 3 and 4: Death and Bereavement
In Week 3, we contrast two accounts from different time periods which in different ways try to understand and account for the experience of loss and mourning. On the one hand, loss of loved ones is an experience we all face and as such is woven into our lives. On the other, for some the death of a parent, for example, can be so shattering that recovery seems impossible. Why might this be?
Kubler-Ross, E. (1969) On Death and Dying Scribner, New York
Grigg, R, (2015) “Melancholia and the Unabandoned Object” Lacan on Madness, Yes, You Can’t ed. P. Gherovici and M. Steinkoler, Routledge Hove and New York
Week 4: We turn to another novel and to Judith Butler to explore the vulnerability common to all who love, and the possibilities for recovery from grief.
Porter, M. (2015) Grief is the Thing with Feathers Bloomsbury London. Instead of seeing a therapist, the grieving husband communes with Ted Hughes’ Crow.
Butler, J. (2004) “Violence, Mourning and Politics” Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence. In her response to the 9/11 attacks, Butler here asks famously “What makes for a grievable life?”
Week 5: The End: desire is endless, an analysis is not
Since the very beginnings of psychoanalysis, analysands and analysts alike have puzzled over how and when to end an analysis. Pursuing the Lacanian notion that the aim of analysis is for the analysand to be enabled to name her desire, these reading point us to a clarification of what is involved in the venture.
Lacan, J. (1945) “Logical Time and the Assertion of Anticipated Certainty” Ecrits trans. B. Fink, Norton 2002. A difficult paper, but includes the challenging notion that there IS a moment to conclude.
________ (1954 -5) “Desire, life and death” Seminar II The Ego in Freud’s Theory and in the Technique of Psychoanalysis trans. S. Tomaselli, Norton 1991.
SUMMER TERM
28 April and 5, 12, 19 May 2018
Joe Friedman, Douglas Gill
The Sense of a Beginning
First Sessions: Our first meetings with our patients set the tone and often even the course of their entire therapies. They determine whether the client feels safe enough to see us and shapes their expectations of what therapy can (and can’t) do for them. As analysts, we believe beginnings are crucial – so are the beginnings of analyses.
Week 1: Why First Sessions
Why are first sessions important? What do you want to know about your client? What does your client want to know about you? I would say one of the aims of initial sessions is to enable both you and the client to give informed consent to working together. How can we ensure this happens?
Week 2: Analyzing First Sessions
When you look back at first sessions from the vantage point of a therapy which has finished, you can see how much was foreshadowed in the first utterances of your client and in your first exchanges. How can we see what was foreshadowed a bit earlier?
Week 3: What’s the Deal? Contracts
Many of the problems beginning therapists face occur because they fudge or skirt over the “contract” with their clients. One big issue: money. As Armstrong puts it, “The fee is one of the most poignant areas where the therapist’s needs and desires impinge on the patient. This makes it a point of considerable anxiety for the therapist and an area which stirs our defences, impeding the work that is just beginning.” In this session, we will talk openly about money and the other areas that need to be clarified as part of the contract.
Week 4: Bion – Attacks on Linking — First sessions
One of the things I try to be aware of in the initial sessions with a client is how they sustain (or attack) the link that is being forged with me. Today we will look at this with the help of Bion’s paper Attacks on Linking.
Reading List and Suggested Practice
I’m hoping to base these seminars largely on clinical practice. I would like to use as many first sessions as possible from your practices. This means that if you don’t already do it, you really need to start keeping as close to verbatim accounts of your first meetings with clients as you can manage. (I know my seminars are in May, but do start now!)
When I say “verbatim,” I don’t mean you summarize what the client says or what you make (or remember) of what they say. In a summary, almost everything we’re interested in will vanish, or be edited out.
Just to be tediously precise, I’d like you to keep an account which is as close to the actual dialogue that takes place. For example.
P: I’m not sure what you want me to say.
T: Say whatever comes into your mind.
Etc etc. Don’t glide over the tricky or embarrassing bits – how you discuss the “contract” etc. We’re going to talk about contracts so it’s all grist for the mill.
Start your verbatim account with the first contacts with your client – whether it be by phone, email etc. What exactly does the client say they want and how do they describe themselves? How exactly do you respond?
The closer your accounts are to verbatim, the more you/we’ll learn from them.
Remembering sessions verbatim is a great skill for a therapist to develop. Do start now!
As far as reading goes, there’s remarkably little on the subject.
Two useful books which are out of print but still widely (and inexpensively) available second hand are:
Opening Gambits: The First Session of Psychotherapy by Peter Armstrong
and
The First Encounter, by William Console, Richard Simons, and Mark Rubinstein (This is basically four taped initial sessions, with a group of therapists discussing them. Fascinating, verbatim accounts of what happens in a therapy are few and far between.)
(Find both on secondhand books sites like Abebooks, Alibris, etc or with a search engine. http://www.usedbooksearch.co.uk/. They’ll usually need to be shipped from the United States, so order early!)
Finally read (and reread) Freud’s 1913 paper on “Beginning the Treatment.”And for the third and fourth of my seminars, I’d like you to read Bion’s “Attacks on Linking” Second Thoughts. I’ll also be distributing a case history from Bion’s Brazilian lectures closer to the time.
26 May 2018
Douglas Gill
Beyond Two
Venue: Draper Hall
It is fair to say that in the psychoanalytic discourse we can get caught in binary thinking which then runs the risk of collapsing into an oscillation between one determinate and another. Likewise in every day conversation where taking up a counterpoint becomes a polarised position. Whilst language is inevitably bound up in difference, after the Transgender Conference I am struck by the movement and creative potential trans thinking has to offer.
When thinking about it the list seems endless but here are a few binaries that come to mind commonly used in the field:
mother : father
male : female
homosexual : heterosexual
analyst : analysand
parent : child
psychosis : neurosis
inside : outside
you : me
self : other
illness : health
success : failure
good : bad
subject : world
Participating in the arts naturally lends itself to the unconscious coming into play, which is then open to various interpretations by the onlooker, or to put it another way, a continuum of otherness that is held in the same frame.
This all day workshop is an opportunity to work in another idiom and think about psychoanalysis. A creative space where clinical work can be explored through art, and in discussion with others think about what is beyond one’s own perception of the work as both artist and onlooker.
Art materials provided and comfortable clothes suggested.
Texts: Shiela Cavanagh, ’Tiresias and Oedipus: Bracha L Ettinger and Jaques Lacan’ – Sitegeist.
Bracha Ettinger, ‘ Matrixial Borderspace.’
2, 9, 16, 23, 30 June 2018
James Mann and Peter Nevins, Robert Weiss
Psychoanalysis Needs a Sex Change
We are living in a ‘trans’ moment that has become the next civil rights frontier. By unfixing our notions of gender, sex and sexual identity, challenging normativity and essentialism, modalities can help reorient psychoanalytic practice.
Patricia Gherovici’s work with gender-variant patients ‘Transgender Psychoanalysis:A Lacanian Perspective on Sexual Difference’ argues for a depathologising of the transgender experience while offering an original analysis of sexual difference.
We will also read Maggie Nelson’s luminous book ‘The Argonauts’.
By way of contrast we will read selected extracts from 3 other texts ;
Sexual States of Mind, Meltzer D
Three Essays on Sexuality, Freud S
Perversion is the Erotic Form of Hatred, Stoller R