co-sponsored by: The Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute
Toward a Conceptualization of Nuisance
Presenter: Steven Cooper, PhD
Tuesday, March 17, 2026, at 7:00 - 9:00 PM Central time
By Zoom Only
Steven Cooper is a Clinical Professor at Columbia Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research and Clinical Professor at the New York University Postdoctoral Training Program in Psychoanalysis. He is a Training and Supervising Analyst at both the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute and the Columbia Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. He served as Joint Editor-in-Chief of Psychoanalytic Dialogues from 2007-2012 and is now Chief Editor Emeritus. In 1989 he received the best paper prize from the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association. He is the author of numerous articles in psychoanalysis and has written five books and co-edited two books. His most recent books are “Playing and Becoming in Psychoanalysis” published by Routledge in 2023 and Psychoanalysis in Play: Expanding Psychoanalytic Concepts from a Play Perspective, published by Routledge in June, 2025. Also in August, 2025 a book that he co-edited with Christopher Lovett will be published: “Winnicott ’s 1967 Letter to Bion: Playing, Dreaming and Beyond.” He is in private practice in New York City.
Description:
Winnicott (1945) suggested that some types of aggressive behavior of the returning child from sustained separation from parents may be regarded as an expression of hope, one in which they can yield their forms of defensive self-sufficiency to trust a parent again. In this presentation, Dr Cooper will parse Winnicott ’s later various approaches to understanding both instinctual and reactive aggression and how applying his later views can obfuscate the particular meaning of aggression in nuisance-making behavior. A contemporary interpretation of Winnicott's views on nuisance, a specific definition of nuisance in the analysis of adults, and how it manifests itself in the analytic context is offered. In the adult patients he describes, anger and hostility have become institutionalized as expressions of grievance or greed regarding earlier ruptures in recognition. Dr Cooper considers two clinical contexts involving the conscious reluctance to agree with the analyst ’s interpretations as well as making demands on the analyst outside the setting as forms of nuisance. He explores how the analyst's needs to hold two psychic realities, the patient ’s hope that is expressed in their nuisance-making as well as the analyst ’s limits in absorbing the patient ’s self-destructive hostility helps to transform the patient's self-destructive bids for recognition into an opportunity for mourning.
Approximate breakdown of time:
First Hour: presentation
Second Hour: discussion with audience
Learning Objectives
After attending this session, participants should be able to:
- Participants will be able to identify a contemporary interpretation of Winnicott's views on nuisance and how it manifests itself in the analytic context.
- Participants will be able to describe two psychic realities that the analyst must hold onto and understand how this helps transform the patient's self-destructive bids for recognition into an opportunity for mourning.
Continuing Education Credits are offered exclusively to Society members in all membership categories and those intending to join.
The presenter, Steven Cooper, PhD, and the organizer, Lisa Karaitis, PsyD, have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to report.
Participants are asked to be aware of the need for privacy and confidentiality throughout the program.
ACCME Accreditation Statement: This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of American Psychoanalytic Association (APsA) and the Chicago Psychoanalytic Society. The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
AMA Credit Designation Statement: The American Psychoanalytic Association designates this live activity for a maximum of 2 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Disclosure Statement: The APsA CE Committee has reviewed the materials for accredited continuing education and has determined that this activity is not related to the product line of ineligible companies and therefore, the activity meets the exception outlined in Standard 3: ACCME's identification, mitigation and disclosure of relevant financial relationship. This activity does not have any known commercial support.
Accreditation Information for Professionals Other Than Physicians. The Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute maintains responsibility for this program and its content, in relation to accreditation for CE credits for non-physicians. CPI is licensed by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation to sponsor continuing education credits for (license numbers in parentheses): Social Workers (159.000122), Professional Counselors (197.000202), Marriage and Family Therapy Therapists (168.00204), and Clinical Psychologists (268.000091).
Eligible professionals will receive 2.0 continuing education credits for attending the entire program. To receive these credits an evaluation form must be completed online. Learners must claim the amount of time spent in the educational activity and that will be the amount of credit they will earn.
