One of the defining ideas of Object Relations is our life in two worlds, the waking life of consciousness and the ongoing inner life of dreams and fantasies.  It is in this inner world that values and meaning are generated for use in our waking life.  Our dreams give us brief glimpses into this complex world of stories and characters.  In the fall we will read Donald Meltzer’s Dream Life and engage directly with the experience of dreaming, bringing in patients’ dreams as well as our own.  In the winter we will read Melany Klein and her description of the complex process of grief.  It is her contention that it is in loss that our internal world collapses and in grief that we are able gradually to rebuild ourselves.  For Object Relations grief is an essential process in the work of psychotherapy.  Please contact the instructor to enroll. 

Instructor: Terry Hanson is a clinical psychologist in practice in Seattle. He has been involved in the Alliance and COR since their beginnings, and has been very active for many years with the Alliance Board and education committees and in offering classes. He has served a term as President of the Alliance.

Learning Objectives:  

Participants will be able to:

1.      Articulate Meltzer’s description of the inner world of meaning making

2.      Describe the elements of Klein’s view of grief

Fee: $350

To register, please contact the instructor.