Love and Embodied Countertransference in Contemporary Psychoanalysis
This presentation revolves around the role of love in psychoanalysis and how our love is conveyed in the analytic setting. This has been an erasure in our understanding of the way we work and is certainly reflected in the scant literature on the subject. Contemporary psychoanalysis is immersed, involved, yet asymmetric.
Presenter: Andrea Celenza, PhD Program Committee Chair: Marina Mirkin, MD
Andrea Celenza, Ph.D. is a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute and Assistant Clinical Professor at Harvard Medical School. She is also Adjunct Faculty at the NYU Post-Doctoral Program in Psychoanalysis and The Florida Psychoanalytic Center. She has written numerous papers on love, sexuality and psychoanalysis and is on the Editorial Board of JAPA. She has two online courses and is the recipient of several awards. Her writings have been translated into Italian, Spanish, Korean, Russian, Chinese and Farsi. Her third book, entitled, Transference, Love, and Being: Essential Essays from the Field, was published in 2022 by Routledge and she has two forthcoming works, Erotic Transferences: A Contemporary Introduction (Routledge, July, 2024) and a co-edited volume (with Murray Schwartz) of American Imago on Perverse Scenarios. Dr. Celenza is in private practice in Lexington, Massachusetts, USA.
This presentation revolves around the role of love in psychoanalysis and how our love is conveyed in the analytic setting. This has been an erasure in our understanding of the way we work and is certainly reflected in the scant literature on the subject. Contemporary psychoanalysis is immersed, involved, yet asymmetric. The role our love plays is not sentimental or oversimplified, as in a corrective emotional experience, but in the way Loewald meant – to paraphrase a famous passage: It is through our sustained attention and moments of deep analyzing that we experience and reflect our love for our patients. I add another dimension to this - our willingness to take in, to receive the unconscious projections and emanations of our patients, our willingness to suffer these, reflect our deep commitment and love for our patients. The parallels to maternal eroticism are obvious as well.
As a result of participating in this presentation, the attendees will become able to:
1) To identify and explore aspects of erotic transferences and countertransferences, especially as these relate to the multiple meanings underlying erotic transferences in its defensive and adaptive aspects.
2) To explore the waysin which the analyst’s countertransference can foster the emergence of the full intensity of erotic transferences at different phases of the treatment.
3) Acquire greater comfort in the identification and exploration of their own countertransference.
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 and Psychoanalytic Association of New York. 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 2AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. 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.
Psychoanalytic Association of New York (affiliated with NYU Grossman School of Medicine) is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0112.
Psychoanalytic Association of New York, affiliated with NYU School of Medicine is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0124.
Psychoanalytic Association of New York is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychoanalysts #P0064.
Psychoanalytic Association of New York is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0304.
December
PRELUDE TO TRAINING
Seminar | Saturday December 7, 11:45AM - 1:15PM
Location: In-Person - 1 Park Ave, 8th Floor or Virtual: Zoom Videoconference
Barriers to Closeness: Is Race an Obstacle? Or a Bridge?
Dr. Shirke conceptualizes racism and prejudice as the consequence of intergenerational transference of experiences and attitudes about the identities of self and of others. Two analytic theories of mind can be applied to grasp this intellectually, prior to integrating emotionally this sensibility.
1.5 SW / Psychology / MHC / LP CE Credits available
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.
Dr. Shirke conceptualizes racism and prejudice as the consequence of intergenerational transference of experiences and attitudes about the identities of self and of others. Two analytic theories of mind can be applied to grasp this intellectually, prior to integrating emotionally this sensibility.
From an object-relations point of view, our experiences of ourselves in relation to others are initially within our family of origin, and eventually are of ourselves (usually within the family unit) relating to the outside world. The speech and behavior of those around us regarding concrete aspects of identity, such as skin tone, class or perceived ethnicity (religion, race, culture, nation of origin), are internalized most often via non-verbal experiences, but also at times by explicit verbal instruction. These early experiences are transferred on top of current experiences. And analytically, we can understand that the template of our formative experiences were themselves transferred from what was experienced by people in previous generations.
From a self-psychological point of view, our subjective self-estimation is transferred from what was 'mirrored' to us by those around us, starting with parents and growing to include others in our community. This mirroring includes what we think is esteemed subjectively as good or bad by those others. Analytically, what is mirrored as valuable by those others is also transferred from what was mirrored as good or bad to them in previous generations.
A particular set of objective and subjective experiences of African-Americans is distinguishable from that of other people who have been targets of prejudice, such as voluntary immigrants. The fact of slavery, the relatively recent history of the ownership of a group of people as a form of capital in early industrial farming, has left an impression that can be better understood both from the object-relations point of view and also a self-psychological perspective.
1. Students should be able to describe a connection between a particular person's early experiences of identity and how that has become internalized into the way they relate to others.
2. Students should be able to describe a connection between a particular person's subjective sense of themselves and how that self-estimation is the result of what they sensed was subjectively valued by those in their developmental years.
3. Students should be able to discuss what, if anything, is analytically distinct about the African-American experience.
Psychoanalytic Association of New York (affiliated with NYU Grossman School of Medicine) is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0112.
Psychoanalytic Association of New York, affiliated with NYU School of Medicine is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0124.
Psychoanalytic Association of New York is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychoanalysts #P0064.
Psychoanalytic Association of New York is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0304.
December
PRELUDE TO TRAINING
Seminar | Saturday December 14, 11:45AM - 1:15PM
Location: In-Person - 1 Park Ave, 8th Floor or Virtual: Zoom Videoconference
Dreams in Theory and Practice
Since Freud's opus of 1900 the dream and the process of dreaming remain the royal road to the heart of our work. To know how to work with dreams is tantamount to knowing how to do psychoanalysis. This lecture will review the core discoveries of mind, starting with Freud, which explains the why and wherefore of dreaming with the goal of underscoring how to work with them in the office to enrich and deepen the therapeutic exchange.
1.5 SW / Psychology / MHC / LP CE Credits available
Douglas Van der Heide, MD is a Board-Certified Psychiatrist and Psychoanalyst practicing on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. His work is grounded in the seminal discoveries of Sigmund Freud as well as later contributors including Klein, Lewin, Winnicott, and Meltzer. Dr. Van der Heide trains psychiatric residents, fellows and psychoanalytic candidates. He has numerous publications in the field
Since Freud's opus of 1900 the dream and the process of dreaming remain the royal road to the heart of our work. To know how to work with dreams is tantamount to knowing how to do psychoanalysis. This lecture will review the core discoveries of mind, starting with Freud, which explains the why and wherefore of dreaming with the goal of underscoring how to work with them in the office to enrich and deepen the therapeutic exchange.
Psychoanalytic Association of New York (affiliated with NYU Grossman School of Medicine) is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0112.
Psychoanalytic Association of New York, affiliated with NYU School of Medicine is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0124.
Psychoanalytic Association of New York is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychoanalysts #P0064.
Psychoanalytic Association of New York is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0304.
March
PRELUDE TO TRAINING
Seminar | Saturday March 15, 11:45AM - 1:15PM
Location: via Zoom videoconference
Group Psychoanalysis: Who Knew?
In this 90 minute offering, Dr. Attwell will introduce the class to the didactic similarities and differences between individual and group psychoanalysis as well as how they can work in effective tandem. He will then run a 30 minute experiential group to illustrate the key principles in a here-and-now focus on growth of the interpersonal ego and meaningful affective communication. In closing, the class will wrestle to link the didactic and experiential portions of the class to illuminate future directions of learning.
1.5 SW / Psychology / MHC / LP CE Credits available
Individual psychoanalysis offers a host of pitfalls and opportunities for psychological growth through the use and analysis of transference, unconscious fantasy, dream analysis, interpretation, and a strong working alliance. Few candidates in training know that group psychoanalysis offers unique windows into the understanding and treatment of the pre-Oedipal character, early life trauma, addiction disorders, and other difficult-to-formulate, unconscious, persistent struggles.
In this 90 minute offering, Dr. Attwell will introduce the class to the didactic similarities and differences between individual and group psychoanalysis as well as how they can work in effective tandem. He will then run a 30 minute experiential group to illustrate the key principles in a here-and-now focus on growth of the interpersonal ego and meaningful affective communication. In closing, the class will wrestle to link the didactic and experiential portions of the class to illuminate future directions of learning.
Psychoanalytic Association of New York (affiliated with NYU Grossman School of Medicine) is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0112.
Psychoanalytic Association of New York, affiliated with NYU School of Medicine is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0124.
Psychoanalytic Association of New York is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychoanalysts #P0064.
Psychoanalytic Association of New York is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0304.
Psychoanalytic Association of New York NYU Department of Psychiatry One Park Avenue, 8th Floor New York, NY 10016
Telephone: 646-754-4870 Fax: 646-754-9540 Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
