Crisis Hotlines

INTRODUCTION TO THE OBJECT RELATIONS CLINICAL THEORY
AND ITS CLINICAL EXPERIENTIAL APPLICATIONS

1st Trimester of the First Year of the One-Year, Two-Year and the Full Training in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis
(can be also taken as an individual post-graduate certificate course; no pre-requisites)

Instructor: Susan Kavaler-Adler, PhD, ABPP, NCPsyA
Date: October 4, 2018 — December 20, 2018, Thursdays, 8:40–9:55pm. No class on October 25th & November 22nd, 2018
Location: 115 East 9th Street (@ 3rd Avenue); 12P, NYC, 10003 or Virtual participation – via audio/video or audio only (with minimal technical requirements).
Post-graduate psychoanalytic education credits offered: 12.5 hours
Continuing Education Information: 12.5 CE See details here
Tuition: $450/10-week course/trimester (can be paid in 2 installments)
Registration fee: $25/course (waived for ORI’s candidates in training)

To Register for this course, please complete the Registration form

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

This course will introduce students to critical psychic structure issues related to character disorder pathology and the related developmental issues. Clinical technique will be addressed through both original readings in British and American object relations theory, as well as in “in vivo” role playing demonstrations. Through the role playing, the students will have an opportunity to experience their patients from the inside out. Various character resistances will be discussed in relation to Melanie Klein’s and Donald W. Winnicott’s contributions to this topic, as well as to some representatives of American school of object relations, such Thomas Ogden and Susan Kavaler-Adler.

Classes will consist of lecture and discussion on readings. Some classes will have an experiential component, with a role play, where a student volunteers to role-play a patient, and Dr. Kavaler-Adler plays the psychoanalytic object relations therapist.

CLASS STRUCTURE:

Classes will consist of lecture and discussion on readings. Some classes will have an experiential component, with a role play, where a student volunteers to role-play a patient, and Dr. Kavaler-Adler plays the psychoanalytic object relations therapist.

For a taste of the topics discussed in this course, please view these educational videos:

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

At the end of this course, its participants will be able to:

  • Upon the completion of this advanced level course, the participants will be able to:
  • Analyze and apply the basic terms and phenomena of the object relations theory, such as: internal psychic world, internal object relations, and the psychoanalytic dialogue;
  • Analyze and apply the basic terms and phenomena of the object relations theory, such as: Instinct, phantasy, and psychological deep structure;
  • Analyze and apply the basic terms and phenomena of the object relations theory, such as: the depressive position and the birth of the historical subject;
  • Analyze and apply the basic terms and phenomena of the object relations theory, such as: the paranoid-schizoid position: self as object;
  • Analyze and apply the basic terms and phenomena of the object relations theory, such as: transference, countertransference, erotic transference, projection and projective identifications;
  • Analyze and apply the basic terms and phenomena of the object relations theory, such as: the difference between the paranoid-schizoid and the depressive position;
  • Analyze and apply the basic terms and phenomena of the object relations theory, such as: potential space, transitional phenomena, dream space, and analytic space.

COURSE OUTLINE:

TEXTBOOKs for the COURSE:

  1. The Matrix of the Mind, by Thomas Ogden (published by Jason Aronson, 1986).
  2. The Klein-Winnicott Dialectic: New Transformative Metapsychology and Interactive Clinical Theory, by Susan Kavaler-Adler (published by Karnac, 2014). Additional readings will be emailed.

Weeks 1–6:

Readings are from T. Ogden’s book, The Matrix of the Mind:

  • 1st Week: Chapter 1, The Psychoanalytic Dialogue; and Chapter 2, Instinct, Phantasy, and Psychological Deep Structure in the Work of Melanie Klein.
  • 2nd Week: Chapter 3, The Paranoid-Schizoid Position: Self as Object.
  • 3rd class: Chapter 4, The Depressive Position and the Birth of the Historical Subject.
  • 4th class: Chapter 5, Between the Paranoid-Schizoid and the Depressive Position.
  • 5th class: Chapter 7, The Mother, the Infant, and the Matrix in the Work of Donald Winnicott.
  • 6th class: Chapter 8, Potential Space, and Chapter 9, Dream Space and Analytic Space.

Weeks 7–9:

Readings are from S. Kavaler-Adler’s book, Klein-Winnicott Dialectic:

  • 7th class: Chapter 1, Like Moses On the Way to the Promised Land: A Case of Pathological Mourning (pp. 1–26). This chapter is related to the interaction between Melanie Klein psychobiography/internal world and her major theories. The chapter focuses on the British theorist’s history, and her mother’s personality.
  • 8th class: Chapter 2, Melanie Klein’s Creative Writing Revealing Themes in Her Life and Theorizing (pp. 27–42). This chapter is about Melanie Klein’s creative writing & creative process, and her Demon Lover Complex. Klein’s internal mother becomes a metapsychological theory of the Death Instinct: Death Instinct as Demon Lover.
  • 9th class: Chapter 6, Developmental Evolution in the Work of D. W. Winnicott, Psychic and Transitional Space (pp. 115–148). This is a clinical chapter that illustrates the theory of transitional space and potential space in Winnicott and the theory of mourning in Klein. The clinical examples integrate the clinical aspects of Klein’s and Winnicott’s theories, along with Dr. Kavaler-Adler’s theory of developmental mourning.

Week 10:

Readings:

  • 10th class: a) Original paper of Melanie Klein, Mourning and Its Relation to Manic Depressive States, b) Pivotal Moments of Surrender to Mourning the Parental Internal Objects, by Dr. Susan Kavaler-Adler (Psychoanalytic Review, 2008).

Some additional readings, such as original works of M. Klein and D. W. Winnicott will be offered and distributed via email.

For more information, please contact ORI’s Programs director by email at or by phone (call/text) at 646–522‑1056.

INSTRUCTOR’S BIO:

Susan Kavaler-Adler, Ph.D., ABPP, D.Litt., NCPsyA is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst, who has been in practice in Manhattan for 45 years. She is a Fellow of the American Board and Academy of Psychoanalysis, and is the Founder and Executive Director of the Object Relations Institute for Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis.  She is a Training Analyst, Senior Supervisor and active faculty member at the Object Relations Institute for Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, a NYS Board of Regents chartered psychoanalytic training institute.

Dr. Kavaler-Adler has an honorary doctorate in literature, and she is a prolific author, with published six books and over 70 articles and book chapters in the field of object relations psychoanalytic theory. Five of her six published books related to clinical object relations theories are The Klein-Winnicott Dialectic: Transformative New Metapsychology and Interactive Clinical Theory (Karnac, 2014); The Anatomy of Regret: From Death Instinct to Reparation and Symbolization in Vivid Case Studies (Karnac, 2013); Mourning, Spirituality and Psychic Change: A New Object Relations View of Psychoanalysis (Routledge, 2003; Gradiva® Award from NAAP, 2004); The Creative Mystique: From Red Shoes Frenzy to Love and Creativity (Routledge, 1996; ORI Academic Press 2014; Gradiva® Award nomination); The Compulsion to Create: Women Writers and Their Demon Lovers (Routledge, 1993; ORI Academic Press, 2013). Dr. Kavaler-Adler received 16 awards for her psychoanalytic writing. She is also on the editorial board of the International Journal of Controversial Conversations (IJCC). In addition, Dr. Kavaler-Adler conducts ongoing groups in her practice, such as a monthly writing group, a monthly online experiential supervision group, and a monthly “Mourning, Therapy, and Support Group” with guided visualization. More information can be found at https://kavaleradler.com/.

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