Presented by Cornelia Muth

• Oct 26, 2025

• 1:00 - 3:00pm ET

• Location: Virtual

• Source/ Event Link: New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy

“In Gestalt therapy, Martin Buber’s dialogical principle is the guiding model for social interaction between the participants. Its central focus is the personal and intersubjective perceptual event in the present, which makes this approach phenomenological from a theoretical and clinical perspective.

Buber’s critical concept of the “in-between” as the meeting place of the I and the Thou is an essential place from where everything reveals itself or becomes clear to our world of experiences. The in-between is the background of contacting without which the mutuality of a healing encounter, dialogue, is not possible. This mutuality is at the heart of Buber’s I-Thou meeting in contrast to Emmanuel Levinas’s emphasis on non-mutuality of self-Other dialogue.”

• Oct 26, 2025

• 9:00am - 1:00pm ET

• Location: Virtual

• Source/ Event Link: Center for Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis of New Jersey

“Contemporary Psychoanalysis finds itself at a crossroads, with clinicians and scholars debating the centrality of attachment and the therapeutic relationship versus the relevance of culture, identity, and politics in psychoanalytic treatment. This "confusion of tongues," notable across psychoanalytic training, scholarship, and social media, has resulted in heated debates on the role of the cultural and political in psychotherapy.

This presentation will bridge this gap between "the relational" and the "sociocultural" by reviewing theory, research, and practice from a decolonial psychoanalytic point of view. Drawing on Fanonian conceptions of development, traditional attachment and relational theory based accounts of development will be challenged and of necessity repositioned to better account for a broader conception of human subjectivity. This integrative, sociogenic theory of development posits two core unconscious systems with attendant motivations—a "horizontal" system of attachment, affiliation, and closeness, and a "vertical" system of status, hierarchy, and positionality.

Using case illustrations and extant research, the presentation will outline how we can better listen to different dimensions of the patient's experience in ways that do not require us "choose" between the relational and "the political," but understand human subjectivity as organized by both. Implications for integrating these dimensions in case formulation and treatment will be discussed, with examples from the presenter's practice.”

• Oct 24, 2025

• 7:30 - 9:00pm ET

• Location: Virtual or In Person (NYC)

• Source/ Event Link: William Alanson White Institute

Presented by Elizabeth Lunbeck

“The AI therapist is rapidly becoming a dominant figure in the psychotherapeutic landscape, embraced by the public and even more intriguingly by some clinicians—if not as a licensed therapist, then as a companion, a tool with which to better understand patients, or a therapeutic ally.

Professor Lunbeck suggests that the appeal of ChatGPT “therapists” is to be found, in part, in their resolution of a longstanding problem for the field:  the analyst’s personality, which has long prompted attempts to standardize and mechanize practitioners in the interest of reliability, replicability, and the demands of science. 

She suggests that Generative AI is the latest in a long series of innovations that not only achieves these goals but also does so in an improvisational and idiosyncratic register. Although observers routinely situate these new clinicians in therapy world’s CBT wing, they come just as much from the heart of the psychoanalytic enterprise.”

• October 23, 2025

• 8:00pm-9:30pm ET

• Location: Virtual

• Source Link: Houston Psychoanalytic Society

“Please join us whether or not you have read the book. Some people want to read and discuss the book; others want to learn more before deciding if they want to read it. All are welcome!

This book discussion is dedicated to filling a hole in the history of women pioneers of psychoanalysis. Their groundbreaking contributions to the nascent field notwithstanding, their biographies have been largely and systematically erased from the historical narrative. Klara Naszkowska will draw on the anthology that she edited, Early Women Psychoanalysts: History, Biography, and Contemporary Relevance (Routledge, 2024), to provide an introduction to their lives and legacies as a collective force. Her lecture will be illuminated by an in-depth exploration of the story of Sabina Spielrein. The emphasis is on the sociopolitical circumstances and historical developments that affected these women psychoanalyst’s lives, career choices, and paths, centering on the themes of gender, Jewishness, women’s education, the rise of autocracies, and forced migration. Following the lecture, commentary will be provided by Rosemary Balsam, a psychiatrist-psychoanalyst who has written extensively about gender, early women psychoanalysts, and their contributions.”

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• Oct 18, 2025

• 7:00 - 9:30pm ET

• Location: In Person NYC - 247 E 82nd St., NYC 10028

• Source/ Event Link: New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute

“Please join us for a special screening of the award winning film Outsider.Freud directed by Yair Qedar. Outsider.Freud is a journey into the life and work of Sigmund Freud in four acts, combining animation, dreams, and insights from leading psychoanalysts. It explores Freud’s life of marginalization as a Jew in Vienna during Hitler’s rise to power and how these experiences shaped his theories and personal life. Through an intimate lens, the film reveals new dimensions of Freud’s legacy, focusing on his impact on psychoanalysis, Judaism, and the power dynamics of being an outsider.

After the film, Philip Herschenfeld, M.D. will present on whether there is, as some in the psychoanalytic community feel, a need for a “new Freud.” Although Freud served as an identificatory example for the field, his thinking evolved over time and our understanding of it continues to change. Psychoanalysis has evolved over time to meet the changing needs of society. The evolution of evolution of classical psychoanalytic thinking all too often assumed to have remained fundamentally static. Dr. Herschenfeld will explore the need for a “new Freud” and if this is a proper way to conceptualize this evolution in psychoanalysis.”

• Oct 11, 2025

• 10:00 - 12:00pm ET

• Location: Virtual

• Source/ Event Link: Jordan Dann, LP-D

“Because the real work of therapy is not about solving the fight over dishes—it's about helping two nervous systems learn how to find each other again.

What happens when your couple is locked in the pursuer–withdrawer loop? When one partner shuts down the moment you lean in, or another becomes demanding, insisting you give them "the answer"?

On the surface, it looks like conflict about dishes, money, or parenting. But underneath, it's the nervous system replaying its earliest attachment patterns—implicit somatic dynamics that are out of awareness, unconscious, and driving behavior into patterns of rigid repetition.

Too often, we get pulled into the content—debating fairness, refereeing arguments, problem-solving logistics. If you stay at the surface level with the words that are being said, you will just get pulled into the pattern that they're already experiencing.

This isn't theory. This is live, experiential practice designed to get you underneath the words and behavior. You'll learn interventions that put each individual in touch with these implicit dynamics—because once someone becomes aware of the somatic dynamics running the show, they can move out of repetition of the past and into the present where they have more choices.”

• Sept 27, 2025

• 12:00 - 3:00pm ET

• Location: Virtual

• Source/ Event Link: Psychoanalytic Center of California

“This program is designed to introduce participants to the intellectual legacy of Jean Laplanche by studying an important paper by one of his prominent students, Dominique Scarfone. Jean Laplanche was the author of the classic psychoanalytic dictionary, The Language of Psychoanalysis. He was also the chief translator of the complete works of Sigmund Freud from German into French.

In this seminar, Dr. Scarfone will read the key lecture that he presented to the 51st Congress of the International Psychoanalytic Association in 2019. The paper is titled "The feminine, the analyst and the child theorist." In this paper Scarfone relies upon the conceptual legacy of Jean Laplanche to reflect upon the fundamental role of gender in shaping the unconscious. In the Laplanche/Scarfone model, the unconscious is not a constitutional endowment granted to human being by way of their biological inheritance, but rather it arrives after birth as the infant struggles (and fails) to translate the enigmatic messages about sex and gender that it receives from its caregivers.

Following the presentation, Phillip Lance will facilitate a conversation with Dr. Scarfone and PCC Member Robert Byer to allow for deeper engagement and understanding of the richly dense text. The seminar will include ample time for audience discussion with Dr. Scarfone and the panelists.”

“Can the narratives that organize psychoanalytic exchanges be conducted without words? The answer according to the presenters in this conversation is a resounding “yes!” They offer different perspectives on how both verbal and nonverbal communication in psychoanalysis takes narrative form.

Together they demonstrate the crucial importance of understanding the embodiment of narratives in therapeutic relationships.”

Source/ Event Link: William Alanson White Institute

• Sept 27, 2025

• 10:00 - 5:00pm ET

• Location: Virtual

• Source/ Event Link: Dallas Psychoanalytic Center

“The conference will be divided between exploring four different psychoanalytic models and their relevance to the treatment of major primitive psychopathologies. Dr. Panajian will discuss Freud’s understanding of two principles of mental functioning, thinking, negation, disavowal, and delusions as an attempt to recover psychic functioning. Klien’s paranoid schizoid position, depressive position, manic and obsessive defenses will be discussed. Depressive position and capacity to tolerate paradoxes will be viewed by clinical examples. Winnicott’s psych-soma and the relation to the mind, transitional phenomena, and fear of breakdown will be explored. Bion’s model of complexity, theory of thinking, and various types of transformations and disturbance of time and space will be discussed. Dr.Panajian will discuss Piaget’s model of cognitive development of concrete operation and their significance in understanding schizoid, borderline, and psychotic functioning. The significance of space centered interpretations will be illustrated in primitive pathological functioning.

Dr. Panajian will demonstrate clinical examples of the treatment of narcissistic, borderline, schizoid, psychotic personality, bipolar psychotic and a schizophrenic patient. Such concepts as negation, the work of the negative, negative hallucination, infinity and emotional experience, the emergence of the body in time and space will be discussed. Furthermore, infantile psychic withdrawal, chaotic analytic field, vertical and horizontal splitting will be discussed clinically.  The notion of time and space continuum, sensory-motor schemas and their role in developing internal and external space will be demonstrated in borderline and psychotic patients.”

• Sept 20, 2025

• 11:30am - 3:45pm ET

• Location: Virtual

• Source/ Event Link: Object Relations Institute

“This four-hour seminar will introduce the attendees to Fairbairn’s metaphor of the human psyche as it applies to personality disorders: Borderline, Narcissistic, Obsessive, and Hysterical. Fairbairn’s model departs from classical drive theory and instead conceptualizes psychopathology as rooted in early relational trauma, dissociation, and developmental arrest.

Fairbairn proposed that the psyche forms through internalized experiences with primary caregivers — some growth-promoting, others rejecting or hostile. To preserve a bond with a rejecting parent and avoid the psychological devastation of abandonment, the child unconsciously splits off traumatic experiences, forming dissociated internal structures: the antilibidinal ego (associated with rejection and criticism) and the libidinal ego (associated with hope and idealization). These ego states remain unknown to the central ego, and under specific conditions, one or both may emerge to dominate conscious experience and behavior.”

• Sept 18, 2025

• 8 - 10pm ET

• Location: Virtual

• Source/ Event Link: Houston Psychoanalytic Society

“Black Film Through a Psychodynamic Lens delves into the nuanced character development and narrative themes within the struggles and successes presented in Black films over the last five decades. In this pioneering book, Katherine Marshall Woods looks at Black cinema from a psychological and psychoanalytic perspective. Focusing on a decade at a time, she charts the development of representation and creative output from the 1980s to the present day. She deftly moves from analyzing depictions of poverty and triumphs to highlighting the importance of cinema in shaping cultural identity while considering racial prejudice and discrimination. Adopting theoretical viewpoints from Freud to bell hooks, Marshall Woods examines the damaging effect on cultural psychology as a result of stereotypical racial tropes, and expertly demonstrates the healing that can be found when one sees oneself represented in an honest light in popular art. From Do The Right Thing, The Color Purple and Malcolm X to contemporary classics like 12 Years a Slave, Black Panther, and American Fiction, this book is an essential read for those interested in the intersection between psychology, psychoanalysis, film theory and African American cultural identity.”

• Sept 13, 2025

• 12:00 - 2:00pm ET

• Location: Virtual

• Source/ Event Link: Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas

“Drawing on classical psychoanalytic frameworks, Dr. Wiggins will trace the theoretical history of countertransference, highlighting the key contentions surrounding its applications and the multiple, often conflated interpretations of its utility. By clarifying how countertransference has been understood—as obstacle, as diagnostic tool, and as intersubjective cocreation— and emphasizing its gendered dimensions, this session sets the stage for a more nuanced understanding of how clinicians may encounter, enact, and work through or with transphobic countertransference.”

“In this presentation, the author, Andrew Smolar, MD, considers long-term psychodynamic treatments: How do they develop? In what circumstances are they an outgrowth of treatments that should have ended? When is it beneficial for the patient to continue working with the same therapist for a long period of time? And what are indications for return to therapy during the lifecycle? The author reviews pertinent literature on termination, stalemates, and effectiveness of long-term treatments. He describes the therapist confronting five clinical situations that raise questions about how and whether to end treatment. He concludes with several guiding principles: (1) paying attention to treatment goals and certain transferences prevents impasses; (2) self-analytic capacity is necessary but not sufficient for readiness to end; and (3) the patient’s forming an intimate primary relationship with a person other than the therapist facilitates ending.”

Source/ Event Link: Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia

“In this workshop, participants will explore how we come to know what we know. We will  explore philosophy, psychology, and epistemology to understand how knowledge is shaped by experience, power, and the unconscious mind. Designed for any level of therapist, this discussion will introduce ideas from epistemology, phenomenology, and critical theory in a manner that is accessible, thought-provoking, and relevant to clinical work. Participants will have the opportunity to consider their own “ways of knowing,” including how this impacts the practice of psychoanalytic psychotherapy.”

Source/ Event Link: Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas

“In this presentation, Dr. Merskin explores Jung and Freud’s foundational theories of projection — a psychological defense mechanism where individuals attribute their own unconscious feelings, thoughts, or desires onto others. Drawing on her expertise in media, identity, and representation, Dr. Merskin delves into how Freud and Jung conceptualized projection as a crucial tool for understanding human behavior, relationships, and even broader cultural phenomena, including how enemies are constructed and how we view nature and animals.”

Source/ Event Link: Pacifica Graduate Institute

“Narcissism has become a catch-all phrase, referring to an almost sociopathic lack of care. The psychoanalytic literature, however, helps us distinguish between individuals who lead with their grandiosity and those who lead with their vulnerability. Whether the presentation is libidinal or aggressive, narcissistically-organized individuals pose particular problems in the treatment because of their difficulty in tolerating or even imagining an actual relationship with the analyst as a separate person because of the threat to their own subjectivity. Clinical illustrations will highlight some of the complexities of working with individuals whose development has been waylaid by the trauma of insufficient parental attunement.”

Source/ Event Link: Austen Riggs Center

“This 2-hour Grand Rounds event introduces Functional PsychoNeuroBiology®, an interdisciplinary framework that bridges neuroscience, psychoanalysis, developmental psychology, and spirituality. Through this lens, we explore how spiritual practices — both secular and religious — shape the brain and psyche, influence mental health, and support resilience, integration, and healing.”

Source/ Event Link: Objects Relations Institute

“The postpartum period, often referred to as the “fourth trimester,” is crucial for both the mental and physical health of new parents. Unfortunately, many parents do not adequately prepare for this challenging phase, which can lead to mental health issues, such as postpartum depression and anxiety, and physical recovery struggles. As a practitioner, you can play a vital role in helping your clients craft a personalized postpartum care plan to navigate this period successfully.”

Source/ Event Link: Therapists of New York

“To allow for depth of clinical discussion and a true sense of our formal coursework, participation will be capped at 30 therapists.

The writing of this paper was inspired by observations that public discourse, political policymaking, internet barking, and even conversation within psychoanalytic institutes too often relies on signaling affiliation at the expense of dialogue and discovery. Such flag waving stops rather than promotes conversation. Too many of us seek safety and resonance within familiar groups, where a kind of intellectual inbreeding can limit growth. "Penetrating Language" argues that foundational principles of psychoanalytic listening and engagement continue to offer an attitude and an orientation to finding out sorely needed in so much of today's fraught communication.”

Source/ Event Link: Westchester Center for the Study of Psychoanalytic and Psychotherapy

“It is widely accepted that psychiatric medications exert their effects through a broad range of mechanisms, some mediated biologically through their actions at various receptor sites, and others mediated symbolically, through the meanings they carry. While most clinicians are aware of the potential benefits of meaning-based placebo effects, the field of psychiatry is considerably less focused on its harmful counterparts. It is only recently that the phenomenon of the nocebo response has begun to enter into the psychiatric literature. As the mirror image of the placebo response, nocebo responses occur when expectations of harm result in physical or psychiatric symptoms.

This presentation will review the evidence base for harmful meaning effects in psychiatry and some of the common dynamics by which the meanings of medication cause harm. We will explore some of the ethical dilemmas posed by mechanisms of harm and efforts to avoid harm. We will also consider the role of an empowering, patient-centered alliance and of basic psychotherapeutic skills in ameliorating harm that is mediated by meanings assigned to medications.”

Source/ Event Link: Austen Riggs Center

“Dreams help us to work collaboratively with our patients and can be a path to a deeper understanding of waking life. The deciphering of dream images and stories from dreams help us to better understand a patient's inner world. In clinical work, dreams may be a part of paving the way to change. This workshop will help clinicians to appreciate, elicit and work with dreams. Participants will: 1) understand dreams as an expression of the primary process, 2) be introduced to the concept of dreams as a wish fulfillment, as well some other aspects of the dream work, and functions of dreams, and 3) have an opportunity to discuss dream material, and how to use dreams clinically.”

Source/ Event Link: Metropolitan Institute for Training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy

“After Freud, Michel Foucault was the most important 20th century figure in shaping our current understanding of human sexuality. In this three-hour course, we will study his The History of Sexuality (1976 – 84).

In the first volume of this work, he argues – contra Freud - that sexuality must be understood as a social and historical construct, rather than an extra-social phenomenon of ‘biological drives’. We will explore his account of the emergence at the end of the 19th century of our contemporary experience of ‘sexuality’ – highlighting the role he sees psychoanalysis as playing in this process.

We will review the debate over his thesis that ‘homosexuality’ (and ‘heterosexuality’) are specific to contemporary Western culture, and explore his analysis (in the later volumes) of the very different experience of ‘sexuality’ that he finds in his studies of the cultures of ancient Greece and Rome.”

Source/ Event Link: Freud Museum London

“In Gestalt theory, an introject is a belief or norm unconsciously absorbed from our environment without being fully assimilated. Participants will briefly examine how gender assigned at birth can become an introjected construct—a heteronormative expectation imposed by caregivers and society—which may conflict with an individual’s authentic gender identity.

Through theoretical framing and focused experiential exercises, participants will reflect on how these introjects can lead to internal conflicts such as feelings of incongruence or self-negation when one’s true self does not align with assigned labels. Emphasizing Gestalt principles such as contact at the boundary, awareness, and organismic self-regulation, this session will briefly introduce an affirmative therapeutic approach to working with gender diversity.”

Source/ Event Link: Gestalt Therapy Institute of Los Angeles

“Different psychoanalytic models express their philosophies of humankind and its development in metaphors. This interactive seminar will introduce the attendees to Fairbairn’s metaphor of the human psyche. Fairbairn’s model belongs to a group of relational models that see the child’s early experiences with his mother/caregiver as critical to his development and wellbeing. Fairbairn saw structuralization of the psyche as a consequence of real interactions with external objects that are either growth enhancing, or frustrating of the child’s normal and legitimate needs."

• Source/ Event Link: Object Relations Institute for Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis

“Stockholm Syndrome is often referred to in the lingua franca, yet a deeper understanding of this issue can be elusive. This workshop will elucidate the history of and theory behind this commonly misunderstood phenomenon. How Stockholm syndrome typically presents in mental health practitioners’ work will be outlined and examined. Additionally, the intersection of Stockholm Syndrome and Abusive Traumatic Bonding ( ATB), child abuse, and domestic violence will be examined. Case studies will be provided and tools on how to apply the lessons presented in the webinar will be given. The workshop will be a dynamic combination of concrete instruction, powerful examples from literature and practice, and active discussion. The experience of refugees in the light of Stockholm Syndrome will also be examined.”

Source/ Event Link: Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Study Center

“Join Mark L. Ruffalo, M.S.W., D.Psain an exploration of the psychodynamic theory and treatment of narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). Participants will gain an understanding of the psychodynamic mechanisms underlying NPD, including problems in the individual's sense of self and other. Strategies for the theoretically-informed and compassionate treatment of patients with NPD will be presented.”

Source/ Event Link: Hudson Valley Professional Development

“We will attempt to read this documentary as a narrative representation of the imaginative world of the home’s occupants, returning to cyclical memories of loss, thwarted ambition, and an aching desire for security and love. We will also focus on the ways in which humor and intimacy create opportunities to both connect with and wound others. Participants will additionally be invited to link these observations and insights to their own work with patients contending with overly fused relationships, attempts at individuation, decay, and the precarity of the lifespan.”

Source/ Event Link: New Orleans - Birmingham Psychoanalytic Center

“Dreams bring us back into contact with that original imagery. They send us into an immersive virtual world, a seemingly mind-independent "reality," in which the stories behind our ordinary language -- ancient, cultural and personal -- take concrete shape around an active protagonist adapting to a metaphoric world generated by their own mind. By acting within these condensed fictional parables, we are able to evolve the narrative schemas or storylines behind our current problems in living.”

Source/ Event Link: San Diego Psychoanalytic Center

“Can the existing English translation by James Strachey of Freud’s Psychological Works be salvaged and updated, or is a completely fresh start called for? This is the question that confronted Mark Solms, the editor of the Revised Standard Edition, when he began his massive task thirty years ago. In this presentation, he will provide the answer that he came to, and explain why. This will entail an interesting consideration of the widespread accusation that Strachey ‘falsely scientized’ Freud. The talk will also entail a birds-eye overview of the many ways in which the Revised Standard Edition differs from the old one.”

Source/ Event Link: Freud Foundation U.S. and New York University

“What do psychoanalysts and actors have in common? Both are always listening for something to emerge — a character coming to life, a story taking shape, a feeling taking form.  But what happens when we direct this form of listening toward one another? Following  the recent publication of her essay, “Listening Into Being” (in Psychoanalytic Inquiry), Emmy-nominated film and television actress Robin Weigert (Deadwood, Big Little Lies) will join us at SFCP to discuss profound resonances  between the actor’s and the analyst’s practices of listening.”

Source/ Event Link: San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis