On behalf of the Chicago Psychoanalytic Society, we would like to welcome you to our website and introduce the “Spring” portion of our 2011-2012 Scientific Program. This year we have been very proud to feature presentations by a diverse and stimulating group of psychoanalyst-scholars. We conclude this year’s series with three extraordinary presentations that illustrate the relevance and reach of contemporary psychoanalysis.
In April we are proud to host psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Dr. Judith Broder, Founder and Director of The Soldiers Project, an award winning program that provides free, confidential, unlimited psychological counseling to members of our Armed Forces who have served in the conflicts in Iraq or Afghanistan and to their loved ones. In “The Hidden wounds of war: Psychoanalytic Understandings,” Dr. Broder will discuss the ways in which the listening perspective of psychoanalysis provides an orientation that deepens the understanding of what is commonly called ‘post traumatic stress disorder’. She will focus on the centrality of ‘loss’ as the organizing principle of this wound and talk about what is required of the therapist for optimum healing to take place. Dr. Prudy Gourgechon, past president of the American Psychoanalytic Association, will discuss Dr. Broder’s presentation.
In May, our speaker will be Dr. Usha Tummala-Narra. Dr. Tummala-Narra is currently the chair of the Multicultural Concerns Committee and Member-at-Large for Division 39 (Psychoanalysis) of the American Psychological Association, a member of the Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs (CEMA) in the American Psychological Association, and a member of the APA Presidential Task Force on Immigration. She will speak with us about the state of cultural competence in psychoanalysis, and how psychoanalytic theory can contribute to broader discourse on diversity and the practice of psychotherapy. Dr. Frank Summers, incoming president of APA Division 39, will be our discussant.
And in June we will finish our year with a presentation by Dr. Irwin Hoffman, one of our the most creative and influential contributors to contemporary psychoanalytic thinking, and author of “Ritual and Spontaneity in the Psychoanalytic Process.” Dr. Irwin Hoffman will present “Willing to be willing; willing to be good: New developments and reflections on a work in progress.” He has has offered this preview in advance of his talk:
“As analytic therapists, particular those of us with a relational perspective, our conviction has grown that we are closer to being the good-enough object to the very extent that we reflect on the ‘bad’ or less than optimal aspects of our participation. In tandem with that awareness, however, perhaps a new embarrassment has emerged in association with reporting proactive efforts to be a good, loving object in a patient’s life, one that does battle with the patient’s self-loathing. In this paper, an example of ‘therapeutic passion in the countertransference’ is described in which reciprocity of love and caring is combined with the essential asymmetry of the analytic arrangement to foster hope in a patient afflicted with a history of abuse and with a life-threatening eating disorder.”
As context for this paper, attendees are strongly encouraged to read:
Hoffman, I.Z. (2009) Therapeutic passion in the countertransference. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 19:617–637. (Plenary address: Division of Psychoanalysis (39) American Psychological Association. Toronto, April 22, 2007).
We hope that these brief descriptions will entice you to look further into the world of psychoanalysis and our Chicago Psychoanalytic Society.
Neal Spira, MD President
Norman Kohn, MD Program Chair