study groups

STUDY GROUPS

MUSICALITY IN THE INTERSUBJECTIVE ANALYTIC DYAD--FRANCIS GRIER

An ongoing Listening Seminar on the Musicality in the intersubjective patient-analyst couple, focusing on the containing function of the analytic encounter through the non-verbal communicative aspects of both the patient and the analyst's inner worlds.

BION'S 'COGITATIONS', NICOLA ABEL-HIRSCH

This seminar is an on-going reading group and will draw from Bion's clinical lectures and supervisions.

THE BRITISH INDEPENDENT TRADITION: FROM THE CONTROVERSIAL DISCUSSIONS TO THE PRESENT--LESLEY CALDWELL

This course aims to introduce the approaches of the British Independent Group in the wider field of British object relations and its trajectory. The scope of the course will include theoretical, clinical and technical approaches and demonstrate differences in this tradition from the Kleinian tradition. This bi-monthly course will begin in September 2021 and continue as an on-going seminar.

MADNESS: THE CLAUSTRO-AGORAPHOBIC DILEMMA--HEINZ WEISS

This series of clinical seminars will focus on the Claustro-Agoraphobia Dilemma and the impact of Concrete Thinking on the Analyst’s Internal Space. These clinical presentations will focus on how the analyst’s internal space is temporarily deformed through the projection of highly condensed, non-symbolized part-object relations. These distortions create what one could call ‘intrapsychic gravitational waves’. We will examine how this deformation can gradually be restored with the onset of reparative mechanisms on the part of the analyst.

UNDERSTANDING PRIMITIVE MENTAL STATES (UPMS)

UPMS is a psychoanalytic seminar in NYC that studies British Object Relations with an emphasis on Sigmund Freud, Melanie Klein, Wilfred Bion and Contemporary London Kleinians. Susan Finkelstein is the originator and director of this group since its inception in 2009.

THE INTERNAL WORLD AND ITS OBJECTS -- DAVID BELL

A Theoretical and Clinical Seminar co-led by Susan Finkelstein (New York) and David Bell (London) 2014-2015.

TRAUMA, GUILT, and REPARATION -- HEINZ WEISS

Trauma, Guilt, and Reparation identifies the emotional barriers faced by people who have experienced severe trauma, as well as the emergence of reparative processes which pave the way from impasse to development. This seminar provides a theoretical understanding of the interplay between feelings of neediness with those of fear, wrath, shame, and guilt, and offers a route for patients to experience the mourning and forgiveness necessary to come to terms with their own trauma.