Sequel: Can a post-therapy friendship transcend the transference?

Presenter: Joyce Slochower, PhD, psychologist and acclaimed psychoanalytic writer

April 26, 2022, at 7pm – 9pm Central time, via Zoom. 

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Therapeutic sequels—post-termination friendships between therapist and patient—are an open secret.  Although they are hardly uncommon, sequels are rarely named, much less explored.  Using the unfinished story of a good treatment and its yet-to-be-defined ending to illustrate, I query and unpack the complexities of treatment sequels for both patient and therapist.

Joyce Slochower PhD, is one of the most outstanding psychoanalytic writers, thinkers, and presenters, and has become a favorite in Chicago.  In addition to over 100 articles on various aspects of psychoanalytic theory and technique, she has written two influential psychoanalytic books: Holding and Psychoanalysis: A Relational Perspective (1996) and Psychoanalytic Collisions (2006).  Second editions of both were released in 2014 by Routledge.  Joyce is Co-Editor, with Lew Aron and Sue Grand, of De-idealizing Relational Theory: A Critique from Within and Decentering Relational Theory: A Comparative Critique (Routledge, 2018). She is Professor Emerita of Psychology at Hunter College & the Graduate Center, CUNY.  She serves as faculty and supervisor at the NYU Postdoctoral Program, the Steven Mitchell Center, the National Training Program of NIP (all in New York), Philadelphia Center for Relational Studies in Philadelphia, and the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California in San Francisco.  

After attending this session, participants should be able to:

1. Define the termination ideal and examine its utility and problematic elements;
2. Elucidate the power dynamics inherent in analysis—when, whether, and how they might shift toward a more mutual and egalitarian connection, and when such power dynamics remain in ways that are problematic and contaminating for both parties.