Stop in and say hello.

What might contribute to our subjectively feeling at home in the world? What leads to the loss of one’s psychic sense of home which in turn results in us feeling psychically unmoored in the world? These are some of the questions we will ponder together. Focus will be on the psychic loss of home even though the structural (literal) loss of home will be addressed by looking at the impact of immigration on the sense of belonging.

1. Describe the reasons for our patients’ subjective feelings of homelessness.
2. Describethe impact of immigration on our patients’ sense of belonging.
3. Describe the concept of “Familial Self” for immigrants from Asia.

Robert Calcaterra, MD

PANY Faculty

Self-defeating behaviors are present to some degree in every psychodynamic treatment. We will explore ways in which sadomasochism manifests, particularly in the transference/countertransference arena. The developmental roots and psychodynamic underpinnings will be illuminated through clinical examples. The goal will be to fortify practitioners for what are often long and difficult treatments.

1. Recognize characteristic sadomasochistic patterns as seen in patient relationships, and especially in the transference

2. Describe the psychodynamic underpinnings of sadomasochism as a form of adaptation, defense, and gratification.

3. Appreciate the role of the patient's underlying omnipotent fantasies, and how to incorporate this into the treatment.

Marilyn Charles, PhD, ABPP is a psychologist and psychoanalyst at the Austen Riggs Center, Chair of the Association for the Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society (APCS) and Scholar of the British Psychoanalytic Council. Affiliations include Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis; Universidad de Monterrey; Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis; and Harvard Medical School. A contributing editor of Psychoanalysis, Culture, and Society, she is actively engaged in mentoring and promoting socially relevant research. Research interests include creativity, psychosis, resilience, reflective function, and the intergenerational transmission of trauma. Marilyn is also an artist, a poet, and a writer.

Books include Patterns; Constructing Realities; Learning from Experience; Working with Trauma; and Psychoanalysis and Literature. Edited volumes include Introduction to Contemporary Psychoanalysis; Fragments of Trauma and the Social Production of Suffering (with Michael O’Loughlin); Women and Psychosis and Women and The Psychosocial Construction of Madness (with Marie Brown); and The Importance of Play in Early Childhood Education (with Jill Bellinson). Forthcoming from APA Press: Trauma, Development, and Identity: A Clinician’s Guide.

In this era of increasing recognition that most individuals who enter our consulting rooms are struggling with symptoms that mark developmental impasses, we encounter bright individuals who appear to have the capacity for reflective thought but there is often insufficient grounding in integrating thoughts and feelings to learn from experience. In that context, adaptive efforts that fail to resolve the underlying dilemma tend to become addictive. Such difficulties have been traced to inconsistent parenting that leaves the child insufficiently able to mindfully attend to internal and external cues, impeding the symbolization of experience so essential for interpersonal communications and relationships.

From this perspective, eating disorders become addictive because the behaviors cannot resolve the underlying deficits. These deficits can be traced to parental failures across the generations that cannot be recognized and worked with, leaving subsequent generations inhibited in the development of self-regulatory functions and the progressive differentiation of self from other so crucial to maturation. Eating disorders mark early disturbance in relation to what it means to take in and make use of what is offered by another. We will note commonalities and differences in the anorexic versus the bulimic dilemma, recognizing that each position may be seen as a waystation along the road to self-development in relation to overly intrusive and/or neglectful parents.

Explorations into the metacognitive and affective difficulties associated with eating disorders can provide useful anchors for our efforts to create space for development in our consulting rooms. Case examples will explore some of the dynamics underlying such difficulties and the value of interactive modeling of reflective capacities and of creative, playful engagement in effecting change.

As a result of participating in this presentation, the attendees will become able to:

TBD

ACCME Accreditation Statement for Joint Providership  

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 the American Psychoanalytic Association and the Psychoanalytic Association of New York (PANY). The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

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.

IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE INFORMATION FOR ALL LEARNERS: None of the planners and presenters for this educational activity have relevant financial relationship(s)* to disclose with ineligible companies* whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.

*Financial relationships are relevant if the educational content an individual can control is related to the business lines or products of the ineligible company.

Dr. Aneil M. Shirke, M.D., Ph.D, is on the faculty of PANY and NYU. He is a board-certified psychiatrist and graduate psychoanalyst. He has worked for the Visiting Nurse Service of NY, and has taught at Columbia University and Mt. Sinai. He has a private practice in the West Village. He enjoys conversing between different psychoanalytic theories of mind to understand better the experiences of patients and trainees alike.