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SPSI Scientific Sessions - Margaret Crastnopol, PhD

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SPSI Scientific Sessions - Margaret Crastnopol, PhD

Tuesday, February 21, 2017 7:30pm to 9:00pm
SPSI
4020 E Madison St Ste 230
Seattle, WA 98112
Sponsored by: 
SPSI

Will “What Doesn’t Kill You” Really Make You Stronger? - On Micro-traumatic Engagement in Elena Ferrante’s Fictional World and in Psychoanalytic Work with Margaret (Peggy) Crastnopol, Ph.D.

This presentation examines the interplay between large-scale, major trauma and smaller scale “micro-trauma,” the latter being a cumulative pattern of minor-seeming psychic injury that builds up subtly and erosively over the life course. We’ll look at this within the context of the brilliant Italian novelist Elena Ferrante’s depiction of the lives of two complex women, Elena and Lila, who grow up in a shared, “big T” traumatogenic environment of poverty, privation, and abuse. As an outgrowth of this toxic situation, a particular type of micro-traumatic relationship develops between the two women that I call “connoisseurship gone awry.”  In conjunction with certain other destructive elements, this form of relatedness ends up resulting in grandiose posturing, perfectionistic cross-identification and merger, and masochistic surrender, whose ill effects each of the two women must struggle to overcome. The presentation provides an ample introduction to Ferrante’s world vision and concerns--no prior familiarity necessary! Afterward, it moves into the clinical arena, applying the insights gained from studying Ferrante to clinical examples of toxic dynamics within certain analytic and supervisory relationships. The talk concludes by illustrating ways of avoiding or mitigating these damaging dynamics.

Margaret Crastnopol (Peggy), Ph.D. is on the faculty of the Seattle Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, and is a supervisor of psychotherapy and faculty at the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis and Psychology in New York City. She is also an associate editor, Psychoanalytic Dialogues, and on the editorial board of Contemporary Psychoanalysis. Dr. Crastnopol was a founding member of the board of directors of the International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. She currently sits on its Executive Committee. She is the author of Micro-trauma: A Psychoanalytic Understanding of Cumulative Psychic Injury, Routledge, 2015. Dr. Crastnopol is in private practice for the treatment of individuals and couples in Seattle, WA.

Discussant: Karol Marshall, Ph.D., ABPP

Karol Marshall, Ph.D., ABPP is a Seattle area psychoanalyst and psychologist. She is the founding president of the Northwest Alliance for Psychoanalytic Study, a founding member of the International Forum for Psychoanalytic Education, faculty member of Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy in Seattle and a former member of the Seattle Psychoanalytic Institute.

Educational Objectives:

  • Participant will be able to define and explain “micro-traumatic functioning” in general, and the term “connoisseurship gone awry” in particular.
  • The attendee will be able to describe ways in which a traumatic background environment might contribute to the development of micro-traumatic character tendencies and modes of relating.
  • The listener will be able to apply the understandings gleaned from the fictional and clinical examples presented to reduce the likelihood of toxic relating in their own analytic and supervisory experiences.

SPSI Scientific Sessions are free to attendees, but seating may be limited.

CEs: 
1.50
Contact Person: 
Peggy Swenson
Email: 
peggy@spsi.org
Phone Number: 
(206) 328-5315
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