Community Events (non-Alliance)

NPSI Scientific Meeting: 'Boys and Their Muscles: The Paternal Object in Muscle Dysmorphia' with Tom Wooldridge, PsyD, ABPP, FIPA, CEDS-S

In this talk, we will discuss the psychodynamics of the paternal object for a subset of patients with muscle dysmorphia. In the formulation that I present, which I believe applies to many patients who struggle with appearance-related concerns that focus on developing a more muscular physique, there is father-child object relation in which the father maintains his own narcissistic equilibrium by keeping his son small, vulnerable, and weak.

Knowing What Psychoanalysts Think and Doing What Psychoanalysts Know: Varieties of Transference Interpretation Today with Professor David Tuckett

Using a new theoretical framework for comparative analysis in psychoanalytic work, David will explore the different ways transference is understood, detected, and interpreted by different psychoanalysts practicing today and attempt to highlight the vulnerabilities in each approach. 

The Aesthetic Dimension of the Psychoanalytic Encounter: A Close Reading Seminar of Bion's Text with Avner Bergstein

The encounter with emotional reality—with one’s own and other people's feelings—lies at the heart of psychoanalytic work. This is an encounter that inevitably stirs an emotional turbulence. While an analytic session may appear featureless or devoid of interest, the analyst, attuned to the deeper layers of the analytic experience, is aware of the presence of an intense emotional experience. However, this emotional reality often hovers just beyond our awareness – elusive and ineffable; a gut feeling or a thought in search of a thinker to think it.

A Psychoanalytic View of Forgiveness presented by Oscar Romero MD, ABPsa, FIPA (Emeritus)

We might all agree that we are living in a turbulent world. Directly or indirectly, we are suffering from trauma inflicted upon us as humans, upon all living beings, and upon our planet. Countries shift into dangerous sociopolitical positions in an effort to affirm certainty and irradicate doubt, and we suffer as a result. In Kafka’s Metamorphosis, a traveling salesman wakes up one day to find that he has become a giant, grotesque insect. The central character and his family suffer the traumatic effects of this devastating transformation.

Emotional Inheritance with Dr. Galit Atlas, Ph.D

This talk will focus on Dr. Galit Atlas’ book Emotional Inheritance. It will discuss the ways in which trauma is transmitted from one generation to the next and held in our minds and bodies as our own. We will talk about emotional material that we unknowingly carry with us: the memories, feelings, and traumas that we inherit from previous generations and the link between our parents and grandparents’ history, and our own emotional struggles. 

Speaking Relationally: From Interpretation to Complex Dialogue with Dr. Roy Barsness

Intersubjectivity understands the therapeutic relationship as one of mutual influence – two subjectivities at work. Consequently, the therapist shifts their cognitive formulations “about” the patient turning their attention and speaking “with” the patient of the interplay of deep affective states and experiences stirred within the therapist, the patient and the in-between. The work and the words we find to understand this intersubjective process is much more complex than offering an objective interpretation. 

SPSI Art Salon: The Impact on the Psyche of Not Belonging: The Recognition and Non- Recognition of Women Artists, Kara Walker

The SPSI Art Salon Committee presents the third and final installment in our series “The Impact on the Psyche of Not Belonging: The Recognition and Non-Recognition of Women Artists”. This event is FREE, in person at SPSI. Pre-registration is encouraged due to space limitations.