Chicago Psychoanalytic Society

The Purveyor of Truth: A Discussion of K’s Case of Mia

Tuesday, January 26, 2021, 6:30 – 8:30pm CST

Presenter: Jeffrey Stern, PhD

Discussant: Marcia Dobson, PhD

After the presentation we will have time for a discussion, during which you can send in questions or comments for the speakers to answer.

In the talk Stern will recount the case of a self psychologically oriented treatment of a young woman with a disfiguring facial scar caused by a fire at her school when she was a child. The therapist believes that honesty is always the best policy, and when the patient asks if he thinks her ugly, he nods. Neither speaks of the incident for six months during which the therapist builds a theory around the importance of not speaking of sensitive matters until the therapist deems the time right.

Jeffrey Stern, PhD, is a Shakespeare scholar and psychoanalyst. He is a faculty member at the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute, and past President of the Chicago Psychoanalytic Society. He writes on self psychology, literature, and film. A volume of his papers is forthcoming next year from Routledge.

Educational Objectives:

After attending this session, participants should be able to:

1. Analyze the differences between a false-self resolution in a clinical case and a true one.
2. Discuss the pressures the therapist’s countertransference places on the patient in a clinical case.