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Saturday, Sep 26 - 2:00PM - 4:00PM
Topic: Graduate Society Scientific Meeting

Twenty Fourth C. Philip Wilson, MD, Memorial Lecture Rethinking Analytic Encounters with Patients Suffering from Eating Disorders: On the Need for a Specific Analytic Presence

Clinical encounters with patients whose functioning lies beyond the neurotic spectrum confront us with particular transferential and technical difficulties. Despite sustained analytic work, these situations often lead to a form of impasse. With patients suffering from eating disorders, this difficulty frequently appears as a psychic condition in which no space seems available for new experience to emerge. This raises a fundamental question: to what extent do the limits we encounter in our patients also reflect the limits of our own analytic frameworks? Drawing on more than twenty years of clinical work with patients suffering from obesity, bulimia and anorexia, this presentation explores the necessity of a shift away from models centered on lack in its classical sense. What appears as lack may in fact be understood as the effect of an excess: a toxic relational presence, a form of psychic saturation that leaves no room for differentiation. Such a reversal in analytic thinking may broaden our clinical perspective. Katryn Malvaës-Driffield, PhD, will introduce several notions, beginning with that of psychic gavage, which she proposes as a fundamental process underlying these disorders. She will then examine how certain transferential configurations call for a specific analytic stance, one that is capable of sustaining a minimal, non-intrusive psychic space without prematurely saturating it with meaning. Remaining close to clinical experience, Dr. Malvaës-Driffield will illustrate this shift through selected clinical material. The aim is to explore what becomes thinkable when analysts remain open to being affected by what initially lies beyond thought and finds expression only through pathological modes of relating. The concepts presented here have emerged progressively through long-term clinical work, shaped by the necessity of engaging with the specific countertransference induced by these patients. By confronting such clinical impasses, and by rethinking our theoretical approaches in response to them, this presentation seeks to open new pathways, both for our patients and for analytic practice itself.
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Event Location

Saturday, Sep 26 - 2:00PM - 4:00PM

About the Event.

Clinical encounters with patients whose functioning lies beyond the neurotic spectrum confront us with particular transferential and technical difficulties. Despite sustained analytic work, these situations often lead to a form of impasse. With patients suffering from eating disorders, this difficulty frequently appears as a psychic condition in which no space seems available for new experience to emerge. This raises a fundamental question: to what extent do the limits we encounter in our patients also reflect the limits of our own analytic frameworks? Drawing on more than twenty years of clinical work with patients suffering from obesity, bulimia and anorexia, this presentation explores the necessity of a shift away from models centered on lack in its classical sense. What appears as lack may in fact be understood as the effect of an excess: a toxic relational presence, a form of psychic saturation that leaves no room for differentiation. Such a reversal in analytic thinking may broaden our clinical perspective. Katryn Malvaës-Driffield, PhD, will introduce several notions, beginning with that of psychic gavage, which she proposes as a fundamental process underlying these disorders. She will then examine how certain transferential configurations call for a specific analytic stance, one that is capable of sustaining a minimal, non-intrusive psychic space without prematurely saturating it with meaning. Remaining close to clinical experience, Dr. Malvaës-Driffield will illustrate this shift through selected clinical material. The aim is to explore what becomes thinkable when analysts remain open to being affected by what initially lies beyond thought and finds expression only through pathological modes of relating. The concepts presented here have emerged progressively through long-term clinical work, shaped by the necessity of engaging with the specific countertransference induced by these patients. By confronting such clinical impasses, and by rethinking our theoretical approaches in response to them, this presentation seeks to open new pathways, both for our patients and for analytic practice itself.

About Our Speaker.

Katryn Malvaës-Driffield, PhD

"Katryn Malvaës-Driffield, PhD, is a French psychoanalyst and clinical psychologist whose work focuses on severe eating disorders and early forms of psychic disorganization. For more than twenty years, her clinical work with patients suffering from obesity, bulimia and anorexia has led her to develop an original theoretical and clinical framework centered on the notion of psychic gavage, describing the effects of early relational saturation on psychic development. More recently, this work has expanded toward broader questions concerning archaic psychic functioning, analytic presence, and the emergence of subjectivity. She has taught psychoanalysis and clinical psychopathology at the Universities of Reims and Paris Nanterre, and previously taught French language and literature at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is the founder and director of CLIPSYA (Center for Clinical Research, Training, and Intervention in Mental Health), where she conducts psychoanalytic practice, supervision, teaching, and clinical research. Her work has been published in several psychoanalytic journals, including the International Forum of Psychoanalysis, Topique, Carnet Psy, and the Revue Française de Psychanalyse. She has also published interviews with Thomas Ogden and Howard Levine, co-authored with Nicolas Gougoulis. Her forthcoming French book, L’Informe et le Vivant: Concevoir autrement les troubles alimentaires, will be published by Érès in October 2026. Her work is currently being translated into several languages, and an English edition is under consideration."

Learning Objectives.

1. Participants will deepen their understanding of how early breaches of trust create disordered eating and disorders of self-regulation in the body and in relatedness to others.

2. Participants will increase their understanding of the impact that patients’ increased access to the analyst’s private life (via Google, social media) has upon the frame--the containing structure of the analytic home— becoming a metaphorically binge of sorts that mirrors their relationship to food from deprivation to excess. 

3. Participants will be able to describe how an eating disordered patient’s relationship with food mirrors their relationship to relationships.

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CME/ CE Statement.

ACCME Accreditation Statement

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 2 AMA 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.

CME/ CE Credits Available: 2
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Citations.

1. IFP Article (2026)

a) Malvaës-Driffield, K. (2026). From Thalassa to Amniotic Transference: Towards a Matricial Listening of Disorganized Clinical States. International Forum of Psychoanalysis.
b) Malvaës-Driffield, K. (2026, forthcoming). Cliniques de l’irreprésentable : de nouveaux concepts pour penser un impensé du transfert. Revue Française de Psychanalyse.
c) Malvaës-Driffield, K. (2026). L’Informe et le Vivant : Concevoir autrement les troubles alimentaires. Toulouse: Érès.

How to Prepare.

Location: NYU Langone Health

550 1st Avenue

New York, NY 10016

 

IN-PERSON ATTENDEES:

Note: Current Photo ID required to pass security.

As the line for the security desk can result in a wait time, we recommend in-person attendees arrive at least 15 minutes early.

 

NYU Langone Health requires a security badge for entrance to the buildings.

In order to access the event, you must check-in using a valid photo ID with the security desk in the NYU Tisch Hospital main entrance at 550 1st Avenue.

 

Directional signage will be posted throughout the building to help guide you on a walk from the Tisch Hospital Building lobby to the event space.

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