In This Issue
NPS Board of Directors
Letter from the President
Letter from the Director of Training
Letter from the Candidate President
Regional and International News
EBOR 2014 Call for Papers
NPSI Society News
NPSI Institute News
Candidate News
Members in Action
Winter Issue Deadline
Quick Links
Selected Facts
Newsletter of the Northwestern Psychoanalytic
Society and Institute Fall 2013
Greetings!

Caron Harrang

Welcome to the fall edition of Selected Facts: Newsletter of the Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. The first thing you'll notice is that the organization has a new name! As you'll see in reading David Jachim's Letter from the President, this change clarifies that we are both a membership organization and an established psychoanalytic training institute. Related to the latter, we enthusiastically note the beginning of a new candidate class described in the letters from Director of Training Maxine Anderson and new Candidate President Nicole Wiggins.

 

As you may recall from the spring issue, a sizable number of our candidates and members planned to attend the IPA/IPSO biennial congress held this past summer in Prague. In this issue (International News) we share several essays written by our members on what it was like to attend this scientific gathering of psychoanalysts and candidates from around the world.

 

We  also want to draw your attention to the Call for Papers for NPSI's International Evolving British Object Relations Conference scheduled for October 2014. We hope that some of you may feel inspired to write and submit a paper for the conference and that many of you will join with us in attending this celebratory tenth EBOR.

 

Caron Harrang, LICSW FIPA

Managing Editor

 

Maxine Nelson, LICSW

Assistant Managing Editor

NPSI Board of Directors

 

Officers:

President: David Jachim

President-Elect: Caron Harrang

Recording Secretary: Naoko Oguchi

Treasurer: Marianne Robinson

 

Directors:

Maxine Anderson

Dana Blue

Adriana Prengler

Maxine Nelson (candidate representative/non-voting)

 

Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society and Institute is a non-profit corporation dedicated to educational and scientific activities based in Seattle, Washington. The primary mission of the organization is to provide the highest quality psychoanalytic education and training for individuals seeking to become psychoanalysts and psychoanalytically informed psychotherapists. The organization also supports the ongoing professional growth and development of our psychoanalyst, candidate, and community members. In so doing, the organization aims to contribute to the current regional, national, and international psychoanalytic understanding of mental life and to the emotional health, creativity, and well being of those treated through the practice of psychoanalysis.

Letter from the President

David Jachim

From Seattle to Prague and Back Again

 

Our Members returned from the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA) Congress in Prague this last summer with renewed enthusiasm and energy. IPA, under the new administration of President Stefano Bolognini and Vice-President Alexandra Billinghurst, is now moving forward with several new initiatives, including an increase in component society involvement with IPA and creative programs to bring the message of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic thought to other professional disciplines, e.g. psychiatry, as well as to the general public.

 

The zeal generating within IPA parallels the energy growing within our own organization. Part of this verve includes a decision to change our name to the Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society and Institute (NPSI). This change is intended to clarify the bi-dimensional aspect of our make-up and especially to highlight the training component of our organization. In that regard, a new candidate class has begun analytical training this fall. We are also moving ever closer to application to and eventual accreditation by the American Council for Psychoanalytic Education (ACPE). This accreditation will place us in a good position when licensure becomes a reality for analysts but will also highlight our Institute as having one of the most thoroughly vetted, premier psychoanalytic training programs in the country.

 

NPSI and its society members continue to grow in many other directions. Our Scientific Meetings program has begun its yearly programming with our first event being held this September. At that meeting, several NPSI members discussed their experiences at the IPA Congress in Prague, including a presentation on three models of psychoanalytic training and the mechanisms behind the "Working Groups" program sponsored by IPA. Also, planning for the next Evolving British Object Relations (EBOR) Conference, to be held October 17-19, 2014, is well underway and already generating a great deal of international interest. Additionally, one of our senior training analysts, Robert Oelsner, has just published a book that he edited entitled Transference and Countertransference Today. Furthermore, we are happy to announce the graduation of one of our senior candidates, Barbara Sewell, who now holds all the rights, privileges, and responsibilities of the title "analyst." Finally, we are grateful to David Schoolcraft, attorney and NPSI Community Member, for his skillful pro bono legal consultation to NPSI over the past year. David was awarded the Outstanding Community Member Service award this year as a gesture of our deep appreciation for his contributions to NPSI.

 

Finally, I would like to recognize the NPSI Board for their hard work and unfailing commitment to our organization. Our Board continues to govern with care and grow with the recent elections of Caron Harrang to the office of President-Elect and Adriana Prengler to the position of Board Director. I look forward to working with these two bright, talented individuals over the next year. Also, with both sadness and thankfulness, we bid adieu to Judy K Eekhoff, who completed her term as Past-President in September and is stepping off the Board after serving tirelessly as a board member for many years.

 

I've often wondered what drives our Board members, as well as many other NPSI Members, Candidates, and Community Members, to contribute so much of their energy and time to the care and continuance of NPSI. They are not paid, not often recognized and, unfortunately, often not appreciated enough. My only conclusion is that they do all that they do as an act of love--love of psychoanalysis and the attendant gratitude in sharing that love with others. Please join us in that effort by visiting us at our new website address: www.npsi.us.com.

 

David Jachim, PhD FIPA

President, Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society and Institute

Letter from the Director of Training

Maxine Anderson

As we begin a new academic year, it is a pleasure to see such enthusiasm for sharing and learning at NPSI.

 

One impetus is the new class of candidates begun in September, comprised of four seasoned clinicians coming to us from Seattle, Bellevue, Marysville, and Vancouver, BC. The variations in location and experience promise to be enriching for the cohort and also for the Institute.

 

Another source of invigoration is our cohort of established candidates, who are engaged in clinical seminars and ongoing learning within NPSI and the wider community, consolidating their own points of view from their accruing experience.

 

Speaking of vitalizing points of view, several NPSI faculty and candidates attended the IPA Congress in Prague this past summer, where over 2000 people, from different geographic locations and many psychoanalytic perspectives, engaged in the five days of panels, papers, and study groups. To many of us, it was a feast, but one which, at times, felt nearly overwhelming. The NPSI Scientific Meeting on September 18, 2013, offered some highlights of members' experience at this Congress.

 

We are continuing our application to the Accreditation Council for Psychoanalytic Education (ACPE). One benefit of this process is the clarification of our policies and procedures--in general, strengthening our infrastructure. In responding to the application process, representatives from all aspects of NPSI (the Society, the Institute, and Community Members) bring an added sense of coherence and mutual understanding to our community.


Maxine Anderson, MD FIPA

Director of Training

Letter from the Candidate President

I'm pleased to write my first letter for Selected Facts as candidate president. Julie Hendrickson has stepped down after serving her two-year term as president. We are grateful for her leadership and look forward to her ongoing participation in the candidate group.

 

Fall offers a natural backdrop for reflection and noticing changes. The candidate group is an example of the shifts and growth that are taking place within NPSI. Barbara Sewell's graduation on September 3rd was inspiring for our own journeys as candidates. While we will miss her as part of the group, she has not gone far, as she has begun co-teaching the infant observation course. Another significant change is our new class of four candidates who have joined us this fall. They are Margaret Bergmann-Ness, Becky Jackson McGuire, Kerry Ragain, and Carolyn Steinberg. Their presence adds new energy and vitality that is very enriching to the Institute as a whole. This fall also marks the shift of my own cohort into "post didactic" status, which means that we have completed the five-year portion of our training concentrated on theory and technique and are now focusing on finishing our clinical work and control cases.

 

Having a new class join NPSI in the same year that we've had a graduation is evidence that our institute continues to evolve. I'm excited to see what unfolds this year as we come together in a new constellation of candidates. No doubt we will continue to nourish the Institute while being nourished by our training.

 

Nicole Wiggins, MA LMHC

Candidate President 

Regional and International News

Prague Congress Logo 2   

 

"Facing The Pain: Clinical Experience and the Development of Psychoanalytic Knowledge"

 

Several members of the NPSI community participated in the IPA/IPSO Congress in Prague this past summer. Here are reflections from some of them:

 

48th IPA Congress - Prague, Czech Republic

Ecumenical, Transparent, and Transcendent

 

By David Jachim, PhD FIPA

 

The adjectives ecumenical, transparent, and transcendent describe, in a general way, my experience in attending the IPA Congress this past summer.

 

First: Ecumenical. I was thirteen in 1962, struggling with both the shackles and freedoms offered by a Catholic school education, when Pope John XXIII announced the convening of the Second Vatican Council in Rome. It was being called to address the relations between the Catholic Church and the modern world and it was to be an ecumenical gathering. It was the first time I had heard the word ecumenical, and I thought little of it, only later having the erroneous idea that the ecumenical meeting meant only that I no longer had to speak Latin at Catholic mass. Of course, since that time I have come to understand one of the true meanings of the word: a representation of diversity.

 

Click here to read the full essay.

 

48th IPA Congress - Prague, Czech Republic

Beyond Plurality - The IPA Committee on Conceptual Integration: Werner Bohleber, Peter Fonagy, Juan Pablo Jimenez, Dominique Scarfone, Sverre Varvin, and Samuel Zysman

 

By Judy K Eekhoff, PhD FIPA

 

For me, attending an international congress where presenters approach differing versions of concepts that are seemingly familiar to me is a continual stretch. First I must listen, then I must attempt to understand and then compare what I think I understand with what I think myself. Needless to say, doing this with many presentations over the four days of the congress was an intellectual and emotional feast. I am therefore grateful to have discovered a model for approaching my listening and comparing. Creating such a model and using a concept to demonstrate was the focus of this committee. The work they presented was a summary of four years of research and collaboration. This committee on conceptual integration has created a method for analyzing psychoanalytic concepts across psychoanalytic theories. The steps of this methodological model are as follows:

  1. the history of the concept, which includes a literature review;
  2. the phenomenology or how it presents clinically;
  3. a methodological analysis of the construction of the concept;
  4. the main dimensions of the various meanings of the concept so as to comparedifferent versions of the concept;
  5. a determination as to whether the various meanings of the concept can be integrated.

In an IJP article (June, 2013), the committee used the concept of enactment to elaborate their methods of comparison. At the IPA congress in Prague, the committee, minus Fonagy and Varvin, used the methodology to analyze the concept of unconscious phantasy (fantasy).

 

Click here to read the full essay.

 

48th IPA Congress - Prague, Czech Republic

Prague Conference Summary

 

By Maxine K Anderson, MD FIPA

 

What I wanted to focus on in this summary of the 48th IPA Congress in Prague were the different views of the "presentational" aspects of experience. We are used to thinking of presentational, sensory-based nuggets of the "now" experience as being subjected to alpha function (Bion), thus capable of becoming re-presented--that is, symbolizable, or thinkable. But it was intriguing to consider other ways of viewing these pre-symbolic experiences that are often lived but inexpressible. Several authors mentioned Suzanne Langer's notion of presentational symbolism, first mentioned in her work Philosophy in a New Key (1941). My understanding of this concept is that the fantasy experience is made up of sensory/visual images stored as memory, not to be abstracted into less saturated words or thoughts that could accrue new meanings. Here the "hardness" in the presentation of "hardness of the rock" would be the live and enduring message.

 

Lea Pistiner de Cortina, in the plenary on symbolism, presented a case of a massively traumatized woman who lost a brother amidst the era of the "disappeared ones" in Argentina and indeed whose father had been a member of the military junta. Coming from a Kleinian/Bionion background, the author suggested that the patient had to dismantle her experience, as Meltzer would say the autistic does, to avoid unbearable emotional pain. Pistiner de Cortina's experience of deadness, a deep sleepiness or emptiness in the analytic space, was then understood in terms of the result of an autistic withdrawal or dismantling, a kind of autistic retreat from the unbearable pain and trauma of the patient's early experience. Symbolic functioning was not possible in this circumstance, and the analyst had to endure and keep her mind as alive as possible until more symbolic functioning, in the form of containment and dreaming, became available. Slowly, with her analytic persistence and containment, the patient's affects could be labeled and she could express her grief about her brother, eventually being able to recall her dream about his shirt, as a symbol of him but also as representing a separation from him. Symbolic function thus became available; the "detention of projective identification," to use the author's phrase, could be altered and the flow of her life could resume.

 

Click here to read the entire essay.

 

48th IPA Congress - Prague, Czech Republic

A Candidate's Perspective

 

By Lynn Cunningham, LICSW

           

Now that the heat of Prague has cooled and the excitement of attending an overseas IPA conference has ebbed, I realize that this beautiful European city has left a mix of impressions on me. In this faraway place, I was reminded of how seasoned architecture, where surfaces have been weathered and sharp edges have been softened by time, nourishes my soul--from the red tiles crowning exquisite buildings to the artful sidewalks crafted from small black-and-white granite squares. Juxtaposed with this splendid grandeur and spirited dynamism were the synagogues, cemeteries, and cultural artifacts of a Jewish people no longer living. As a personal homage to this lost humanity, I visited Terezin, where I experienced, among other distressing sights, the echoes of prisoners and poignant drawings by fated children, all slaughtered before fruition. Here, I was offered a secondhand, not even a primary, exposure to atrocity. It was unavoidable that the contrast between the intense beauty of Prague and the remains of abject horror would radically affect my emotional equilibrium. The internal jostling set off by these contrary intentions was a brusque reminder of how the human capacity to create hovers over both ends of the spectrum.

 

Then, on opening the conference catalog, "Facing the Pain," I encountered the anticipated array of intellectual delights. Right away, I felt a strong sense of obligation to the candidate who has much to learn about listening to her patients' unconscious, but, at the same time, I wanted to indulge the less disciplined part of me who is lured by a curious title, the promise of an innovative clinical or theoretical attitude, or the chance to listen, in person, to a creative psychoanalytic thinker and writer. And so, I did attend a number of sessions with analysts such as Virginia Unger and Evelyne Schwaber, who offered their insights into close listening and instructed me on attending to emotions tied to language and deliverance, gestures large and small, all of which add nuance to shared discovery. Both analysts emphasized how countertransference, sometimes palpable, sometimes subtle, can be experienced, given thought, and become informing. I came away from these sessions feeling encouraged that I can learn, and I am learning to allow the patient's narrative to form a metaphor in my mind and to notice something but, perhaps, say nothing at all. I am learning to open my mind to the motivated communicative content of the patient's unconscious wish to have the analyst join in a concordant model of the world and to recognize together where reality lies.

 

Click here to read the full essay.

EBOR 2014 - Call for Papers 

 

 

 

Tenth International Evolving British Object Relations Conference

Seattle, Washington (USA)

 

October 17-19 2014

 

Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society and Institute is hosting its tenth international conference on:

  

From Reverie to Interpretation: Transforming thought into the action of psychoanalysis  
 

We are pleased to announce plenary presenters David Bell, MD, from London, England, and Giuseppe Civitarese MD, from Pavia, Italy.

 

The conference will also feature concurrent individual sessions of peer-reviewed full-length (10-12 page) papers reporting on original work related to the conference theme, with ample time for discussion.

 

The conference invites the submission of papers of original and unpublished research relating to the theme of reverie in clinical practice. Submissions should be prepared according to the format outlined below and submitted no later than May 1, 2014.

 

Instructions for submissions:

 

Each paper must be accompanied by a cover letter. The cover letter should be the first page of your paper submission. The cover letter must state the following:

  • The name and email address of the corresponding author
  • The title of the paper
  • That the submitted paper contains original, unpublished work, and is not currently under consideration for presentation elsewhere
  • That all co-authors concur with the contents of the paper

To guarantee a blind review of each submission, please avoid including the author's name in the body of the paper.

 

Submitted papers are limited to a maximum of twelve (12) pages with 1.5 line-spacing (not including the cover letter) in Word document format. Submissions will be judged on relevance to the conference theme, clarity, originality/ innovativeness, significance, and contributions to theory and practice. Multiple reviewers will evaluate each submission. 

 

Questions about the submission process should be directed to Dana Blue, LICSW FIPA, at dana@dana-blue.com.

 

Completed submissions (cover letter and full paper) should be emailed to NPSI Administrator Naoko Oguchi at admin@npsi.us.com.

NPSI Society News

 

EBOR 2014 Committee - Dana Blue and Caron Harrang

 

Dana Blue 2

Margaret Bergmann-Ness

Dana Blue (Co-Chair)

Lynn Cunningham

Caron Harrang (Co-Chair)

Maxine Nelson

 

The EBOR 2014 Committee is meeting monthly and eagerly at work preparing for the conference scheduled for October 17-19, 2014.

 

By the time this newsletter is published, we will have launched our Pre-Conference Reveries series of study sessions on the conference theme: From Reverie to Interpretation: Transforming thought into the action of psychoanalysis. Each session will examine a carefully selected paper on the evocative and clinically useful concept of reverie from the perspective of different psychoanalytic authors. Papers will be emailed to those who register for a single session or for the entire six-session series and are also available from our website (www.npsi.us.com). Discussion of each paper will be facilitated by NPSI analysts and, taken together, offer an excellent way to prepare for the conference. Sessions will be held at NPSI on October 23, 2013, and January 22, February 26, March 26, April 23, and May 28, 2014. For additional information, contact series coordinator Maxine Nelson at 425.637.8844 or maxinenelson1@gmail.com.

 

Click here for more about EBOR.

 

Outreach Committee - Caron Harrang

 

Maxine Anderson

Dana Blue

Caron Harrang (Chair)

David Jachim

Maxine Nelson (candidate representative)

 

Outreach efforts since the last issue have focused on promoting our psychoanalytic training, with great success thanks to the efforts, particularly, of Director of Training Maxine Anderson and Dean of Students Dana Blue. The proof, as they say, is in the pudding, with a highly qualified candidate cohort that began psychoanalytic training in September.

 

Other outreach efforts over the summer centered on promoting NPSI activities to colleagues attending the IPA/IPSO Congress in Prague. Specifically, Caron Harrang and Maxine Nelson organized an EBOR 2014 breakfast meeting for invited plenary presenters and members of the present and past EBOR organizing committees. We were delighted that past plenary presenter Gisela Klinkwort (Germany) was able to attend and contributed to a meaningful discussion about the upcoming conference.

 

Although the EBOR Conference is NPSI's most high profile outreach effort, it is not the most important. Just as significant is the attitude each and every candidate, analyst, and community member holds about "standing up for psychoanalysis"--to quote IPA Vice-President Alexandra Billinghurst--and being part of a psychoanalytic community.

 

The importance of outreach as an integral part of psychoanalytic identity is being recognized and embraced by the leadership of the IPA. Similarly, the Outreach Committee will be discussing with the NPSI Board of Directors at our Annual Retreat in November how we want to define and pursue meaningful outreach at the local level and link to new initiatives coming from the IPA.

 

Publications Committee - David Jachim

 

Lynn Cunningham (candidate representative)

Caron Harrang

David Jachim (Chair)

Maxine Nelson

 

The Publications Committee continues to nurture its two main projects: the NPSI website and the Selected Facts newsletter. One exciting development has been the change of our website address to www.npsi.us.com. This new address corresponds to our new organization name: the Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. If you go to our old website address, you will be directed to our new address.

 

Our house organ or newsletter, Selected Facts, continues to be successful under the able stewardship of Caron Harrang, Managing Editor, and Maxine Nelson, Assistant Managing Editor. The popularity of Selected Facts is reflected in its readership, i.e. the number of recipients who open and read any portion of the newsletter. Over the past year Selected Facts has achieved a readership of 44%, far above the average readership of 20% for electronic newsletters! Clearly, something is happening within Selected Facts, and you may want to find out what it is.

 

Finally, the Publications Committee continues to look into the possibility of establishing an NPSI journal. There are many pieces that go into establishing and maintaining a professional journal, the most important being manpower. If you are an NPSI Member, Candidate, Community Member, or just interested in writing or editing and would like to join us in this project, please let me know. If you would like to contribute something that you have written, please contact Caron Harrang at mail@caronharrang.com or Maxine Nelson at maxinenelson1@gmail.com.

 

Building Committee - Dana Blue and Caron Harrang

 

Dana Blue (Co-chair)

Lynn Cunningham (candidate representative)

Caron Harrang (Co-chair)

 

The NPSI Building Committee will complete its cycle of improvements within the next few months. This will include retrofitting chairs with seat cushions, adding signage and additional art to the space, and continuing to develop the library. Note that we are continuing to seek a volunteer librarian to help with this project.

 

One library goal is to collect a complete set of all the books we use for training to remain on reserve in the library. If you would like to donate to our book drive or funds to purchase books, please contact either member of the Building Committee, Dana Blue or Caron Harrang. We also invite any of our faculty who has published to consider donating a copy of his or her book to the library. We will keep them in a special section and display them with pride!

 

Scientific Meetings - Jeffrey Eaton

 

Jeff Eaton

Jeffrey Eaton (Chair)

Barbara Sewell

 

The Scientific Meetings are a regular opportunity for faculty, candidates, and community members to gather to hear and discuss topics relevant to clinical practice by practicing psychoanalysts.

 

I am pleased to report the details of the Scientific Meetings Schedule for 2013-2014. This year, every meeting will feature an original paper presented by an NPSI member or guest analyst. We are fortunate to have a variety of compelling topics to choose from:

 

October 16, 2013

Maxine Anderson, MD FIPA,  

and Marianne Robinson, PhD FIPA

Bion's Caesura: Two Views:

"Violence at the Caesura" and "Mapping the Caesura"

 

November 20, 2013

Ladson Hinton, MD

"The Enigma of Time and the Analytic Process"

 

December 2013

No meeting

 

January 15, 2014

Jeffrey Eaton, MA FIPA

"Further Thoughts on Obstructive Object Relations"

 

February 19, 2014

Judy K Eekhoff, PhD FIPA

"Introjective Identification: The Analytic Work of Evocation"

 

March 19, 2014

Shierry Nicholson, PhD FIPA

"Enactment, the Actual, and the Question of Symbolization"

 

April 16, 2014

Caron Harrang, LICSW FIPA

"Turn! Turn! Turn! The patient's contribution to the interpretive process in the termination phase of analysis"

 

May 21, 2014

David Jachim, PhD FIPA

To be announced

 

I would like to acknowledge the consistently reliable help of Barb Sewell and others she recruits (including Julie Hendrickson, Anna Delacroix, and Lynn Cunningham) in setting up the meeting space, providing refreshments, and greeting people at the door. Thanks to their input, the atmosphere of the meetings is both cordial and creative. I am also grateful to each of the presenters for making the commitment to sharing their work with the NPSI community.

NPSI Institute News

 

The Education Committee consists of the Director of Training, Dean of Students, Candidate President, and committee chairs from Curriculum, Faculty Development, Progression, Outreach, and Training Analysts. The Director of Training chairs the EC and is head of the NPSI Institute. The first report below pertains to the EC as a whole. Subsequent reports are from each of the subcommittees.

  

Education Committee - Maxine Anderson

 

Maxine Anderson (Chair and Director of Training)
Mirta Berman-Oelsner (Training Analysts)

Dana Blue (Dean of Students)

Caron Harrang (Outreach)

Esti Karson (Faculty Development)

Marianne Robinson (Progression) 

Barbara Sewell (Curriculum)

Nicole Wiggins (Candidate President)

 

For an overview of the Education Committee's recent activities, see the Letter from the Director of Training (above).

 

Curriculum Committee - Barbara Sewell

 

Joshua Cohen (candidate representative)

Maxine Nelson

David Rasmussen

Barbara Sewell (Chair)

 

Barbara Sewell assumed the position of Chair of the Curriculum Committee beginning October 1, 2013. David Rasmussen will continue on the Committee as a committee member. Joshua Cohen joined the Curriculum Committee (CC) as a Candidate Representative in April 2013.

 

Primary Tasks of the Committee:
  1. To arrange teaching assignments for the Institute, including the didactic and clinical seminars.
  2. To periodically evaluate the entire curriculum offered by the Institute.
  3. To review each syllabus developed for the didactic seminars and offer suggestions to faculty who are preparing the syllabus for each seminar.
  4. To review and discuss evaluation forms completed by candidates about each course and about each faculty member teaching each seminar. The committee provides written and/or verbal feedback to faculty members based on candidate feedback. 
  5. To interface with the Education Committee (EC), with the Chair of the CC being a member of the EC, and to interface with the candidates through having a candidate representative on the CC, as well as the Candidate President being a member of the EC.

In addition to carrying out our primary tasks, listed above, these issues, among others, were worked on by the Curriculum Committee in 2013:

  1. The schedule of committee meetings was revised to late November, early April, and late June/early July, so that more timely review of candidate feedback could be disseminated to faculty leading the seminars. Additional meetings may be scheduled during the year on an as-needed basis.
  2. The committee recommended to the EC that a Special Events Coordinator take the lead on communicating arrangements with guest speakers to improve the lines of communication for guest speakers. 
  3. In addition to drawing on NPSI faculty, the committee will invite faculty from other institutes to teach at NPSI, as well as distance-seminar leaders who might teach via Skype.
  4. The committee developed policies and procedures for the ACPE accreditation process that is currently underway at NPSI.

Faculty Development Committee - Esti Karson

 

Esti Karson (Chair) Esther Karson

 

The Faculty Development Committee is working on the final touches for the Deborah Cabaniss, MD FIPA, workshop on Psychoanalytic Education to take place on November 9, 2013, at the Labor Temple. Cabaniss offers an experiential process that increases awareness and sensitivity around issues connected with teaching psychoanalysis to candidates. We are sponsoring this workshop in conjunction with Seattle Psychoanalytic Society and Institute (SPSI) and are looking forward to a rich and fruitful process of learning from one another as well as learning from experience. The workshop is small and unable to accommodate everyone from either institute, but there will be a representation of faculty and candidates from both NPSI and SPSI. At NPSI, we are planning to fill in all who were unable to attend so that the learning gleaned can be shared and further elaborated.

   

In addition, Faculty Development has been considering other ways to support faculty and facilitate their growth. We are considering a faculty mentor program. Another idea is securing experts in different teaching areas who can be accessed for help while preparing and teaching courses. We hope these ideas will evolve and be further elaborated on as a result of this workshop. 

  

Progression Committee -

Marianne Robinson 

 

Dana Blue

Caron Harrang

David Parnes (candidate representative)

Marianne Robinson (Chair)

 

The mission of the Progression Committee is to monitor and support candidates' development throughout the course of psychoanalytic training at Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. The goal of this undertaking is to ensure that candidates fulfill the requirements necessary for graduation and realize their potential as psychoanalysts. The committee is composed of a chairperson and two (2) to four (4) full members of the society with appropriate experience and one (1) candidate representative. The candidate does not attend the committee's discussions regarding individual candidates. Rather, the candidate member serves as liaison between the committee and the candidate cohort on matters of policy and procedure.

 

The work on the Progression portions of ACPE accreditation application continued over the summer and we are now in the phase of integrating that material with the Candidate Handbook. We anticipate this task will be accomplished by late November. After that time, a hard copy of the Handbook will be available in the library. The semester has just started, and we look forward to the increased contact and activity with graduating candidates, control case reports, and other progression issues that come our way.

 

Training Analysts Committee -   Mirta Berman-Oelsner

Mirta Berman-Oelsner

 

Maxine Anderson

Cecile Bassen

Mirta Berman-Oelsner (Chair)

Elie Debbane

Judy K Eekhoff

Ken King

Robert Oelsner

Marianne Robinson

Oscar Romero

Don Ross

 

The Committee holds monthly meetings in which NPSI training analysts are invited to participate. It is a forum where themes and issues related to training analysis and educative consultations are discussed. The goal of these meetings is to enrich our experience and to be open and creative to the challenges that the task brings to us and to the Institute.

Candidate News

 

Lynn Cunningham, Reporter Lynn Cunningham

 

Margaret Bergman-Ness, LICSW, is offering a group entitled "Moms: Letting Go of Perfect" at Swedish Medical Center. This eight-week group offers professional and peer support for mothers experiencing postpartum distress or those identifying with the symptoms of postpartum mood or anxiety disorder (within two years of giving birth). Postpartum mood and anxiety disorders are the most common complications of childbirth, and finding emotional support and space to process the pain of a difficult transition to parenthood is a crucial step in healing.

 

David Parnes, LICSW, is co-teaching a class on Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy this fall for the Northwest Alliance for Psychoanalytic Study. This course offers an introduction to foundational elements of analytic therapy and is open to those therapists with an interest in psychodynamic thinking. Co-instructor Michael Butler brings a complementary knowledge of this broad topic. One of the more interesting subject matters to be covered centers on how to listen to the patient's unconscious, that mysterious place where the mind stores old conflicts, emotions, anxieties, and creative aspirations that await attention from both therapist and patient.

 

Carolyn Steinberg, MSC MD FRCPC, will be presenting a lecture series on children's mental health to fifteen developmental pediatricians who were chosen by the Chinese Medical Society to study in Canada. Those attending the lecture series come from various cities in China, where they are front-line clinicians. The lectures will be in early October, when the pediatricians make a two-week visit to Vancouver, BC. 

 

Members in Action

   

Maxine Nelson, Reporter Maxine Nelson

 

The second annual San Francisco Psychoanalytic Seminars (SFPS) was held in San Francisco, California, from May 3 to 5, 2013.  The SFPS group is composed of fifteen senior psychoanalysts and training analysts from around the United States, Canada, and Germany. The group is facilitated every year by training psychoanalysts Robert Oelsner, MD FIPA, and Mirta Oelsner, LMHC FIPA, both of whom are training and supervising psychoanalysts at the Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society and Institute.

 

The seminars began with a Friday evening session devoted to the topic of "Unconscious Phantasy: Then and Now: Theoretical and Clinical Considerations." Friday's theoretical discussion was followed by three case presentations on Saturday and Sunday morning. The conference seminars concluded with a summary discussion lead by the Oelsners on the topic of unconscious phantasy articulating the case material and theoretical material.

 

Dave Parnes, Reporter David Parnes

 

Marianne Robinson, PhD MSW FIPA, has contributed chapters to two books. Marianne's chapter in Battling the Life and Death Forces of Sadomasochism is titled, "Diane vs. Reality: Unconscious Fantasies at Impasse?" This book (published by Karnac and edited by Harriett Basseches, Paula Ellman, and Nancy Goodman) is part of the CIPS Book Series on the Boundaries of Psychoanalysis and was recently launched at the IPA Congress in Prague.

 

Growth and Turbulence in the Container/Contained: Bion's Continuing Legacy (published by Routledge and edited by Howard Levine and Larry Brown) came out earlier this year. It is a book of selected papers from the Boston International Bion Conference in 2009 and includes Marianne's chapter "Infant Observation: Catastrophic Change Under a Microscope."

 

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On November 16th, Jeffrey Eaton, MA FIPA, will participate in the 18th Annual Frances Tustin Memorial Lectureship, to be held at The Psychoanalytic Center of California. He will be the discussant for a paper presented by Ofra Eshel, PsyD FIPA (Tel Aviv), entitled "Black Holes, Deadness and Existing Analytically."

 

Selected Facts Winter Issue Deadline

 

The winter issue of Selected Facts will be published in late February 2014. The deadline for submissions is January 30, 2014.