Writing and Righting and Selling the Cow for Beans: The Case of Tad

Presenter: Jeffrey Stern, PhD 

May 24, 2022, at 7pm – 9pm Central time, via Zoom. 

View Recording (Passcode: m!Tk?u*5)

Jeffrey Stern introduces us to his patient Tad.  In working with Tad, Jeffrey found himself stalled, but he made an extraordinary journey into his own inner world with the result that he found a bridge from his personal experience to a deeper understanding of Tad.  The presentation provides an example of how a therapist’s encounter with himself can make the difference in his treatment of his patient.

Jeffrey Stern, PhD, a psychoanalyst and psychoanalytic psychotherapist, is a former President of the Chicago Psychoanalytic Society, a faculty member at the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute, and Associate Editor of the Annual of Psychoanalysis.  He has taught at the University of Chicago and Rush University.  Many consider his educational background to be the ideal one for a psychoanalyst; he received a PhD in English literature at the University of Chicago and wrote a dissertation on Shakespeare.  He has written some of the most intriguing and creative papers published in recent years, such as “Cyclones, Bi-cycles, and Psychoanalysis: The witch-of-us? Complex and the Wizard of OZ” (2003); “Psychoanalysis, Terror and the Theater of Cruelty” (2009); and “The Pilgrims’ Progress: A Therapist and Patient Journey to London” (2020).

After attending this session, participants should be able to:

1. Appreciate how therapists’ understanding of themselves can be the central factor in their being able to connect with a patient;
2. Define how “resistance” may stem not from the patient but from the therapist.