2023 - 2024 San Francisco Yearlong Program
Jacqueline De Lon, MFT and Patricia Marra, MFT, Co-Directors
Ben Goldstone, LMFT, Israel Katz, MD, and Maureen Kurpinsky, PhD, Committee Members
Overlapping Worlds: What Is Shaping Us and How?
Is there enough room
for the world to penetrate?
It must go somewhere,
it cannot simply sit on the surface
— Louise Gluck
From a baby’s early experiences of itself in its mother’s countenance to the psychic reverberations and emotional turbulence we experience when encountering others, there is a space in-between, where a vital transmission occurs. Whether we think of it as the third, the field, culture, environment, or the Real unconscious, impressions of the in-between and overlapping worlds of vínculo continuously form us, giving rise to an ever-evolving, questioning self. What shapes us and how? This exploration leads us into broad psychoanalytic realms involving philosophy, literature, science, and ethical considerations.
| Dates: | Fridays, October 6, 2023 – April 5, 2024 |
| Time: | 12:00pm – 01:30pm |
| Sessions: | 21 Sessions |
| Location: | Online via ZOOM |
| Program Fee: | $ 895.00 General $ 805.50 SFCP Members Readers are not included in the program fee. See Policies tab for details. |
Minding the Gap: Exploring Interplay in the In-Between
The place where cultural experience is located is in the potential space between the individual and the environment (originally the object). The same can be said of playing. Cultural experience begins with creative living first manifested in play.
— Winnicott, D. W., The Location of Cultural Experience, 1967
Psychotherapy takes place in the overlap of two areas of playing, that of the patient and that of the therapist. Psychotherapy has to do with two people playing together.
— Winnicott, D. W., Playing: Creative Activity and the Search for the Self, 1971
This course offers a lens on how the earliest experiences between infants and their caregivers find expression through therapeutic interplay that reflects a third realm of experience — a co-constructed space with potential to facilitate creative elaboration of self in the world. We will trace the arc of the development of potential space through Donald Winnicott’s descriptions of its various vicissitudes from the earliest “period of hesitation” as depicted through his experience with infants as a pediatrician, to “transitional phenomena,” to “the location of cultural experience.”
Celeste Schneider, PhD
Fridays, October 6, 13, 20, 27, 2023
Education Objectives:
Upon completion of this activity, the learners will be able to:
- evaluate and describe Winnicott’s thoughts about the earliest primitive states and qualities of “being”
- describe Winnicott’s notion of transitional phenomena and how it contributes to a unique perspective on qualities of the ego, Oedipal dynamics, and cultural experience.
- apply Winnicott’s notions of play in clinical work and reflect on how our work and play as analysts involves a paradoxical reality where things may be real and not real at the same time
- recognize in their clinical practice WInnicott’s concept of “regression” and his unique stance on therapeutic intervention
- explicate Winnicott’s perspective on trauma and time in psychoanalysis and will identify these concepts in clinical vignettes from their practices
- describe and evaluate the arc of Winnicott’s ideas about the growth of the individual in relationship and how his lens enriches understanding of the development of depressive capacities
The Group and(in) our Patients
What … is a group? How does it acquire the capacity for exercising such decisive influence over the mental life of the individual? And what is the nature of the mental change which it forces upon the individual?
— Sigmund Freud, Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, 1922
In these questions, Freud captures the psychoanalyst’s quandary regarding groups. How do groups shape us? The psychoanalytic study of group dynamics and the individual has a long history. The Tavistock Group uses Bion’s basic assumption groups to interpret the different valences individuals have in group settings. While the Tavistock Group formed in Britain, analysts such as Pichon-Rivière and José Bleger were developing their own group theories in Latin America. These analysts — living and working in the political currents of post-war Argentina — focused more on ideas about the hidden social, economic, and power structures that are at play in people’s lives. They melded their ideas about psychoanalysis, group analysis, and social psychology to create an interwoven understanding of society and our patients.
Over our four weeks together, we will read Francisco Gonzalez’s application of Pichon-Rivière’s concepts in “Trump cards and Klein bottles.” In addition, we will explore the writings of Wilfred Bion, S.H. Foulkes, and José Bleger.
Frederick Huang, MD
Fridays, November 3, 17; December 1, 15, 2023
(no meetings no November 10, November 24, and December 8, 2023)
Educational Objectives:
Upon completion of this activity, the learners will be able to:
- apply psychoanalytic group theory to one-on-one clinical work with their individual patient in the consultation room
- describe 3 main differences between Bion’s ideas about group function with Pichon-Riviere’s ideas about operative groups
- describe how institutions contain anxieties that individuals in those institutions have towards the systems they exist in
- describe Bion’s basic assumption groups and their role in counteracting the work task of a group
- describe Pichon-Riviere’s operative groups
- apply group as a whole interpretations to a case discussion of a group process
The Spirit of Music in Psychoanalysis
The belief that music is a key element of psychoanalytic work is gaining currency in our field. But how to think about this dimension of psychical life in our theory and our clinical discussions? Through selections from our book Here I’m Alive: The Spirit of Music in Psychoanalysis (2023), this class will develop a framework and language to help us think about the foundational role that music plays in clinical work, in weaving us into the collective forms of movement and living that make us human, and without which we are forever lost in the noise.
Adam Blum, PsyD, Peter Goldberg, PhD, and Michael Levin, PsyD
Fridays, January 5, 12, 19, 26; February 2, 2024
This seminar has been awarded a total of 6 CME/CE credits.
Educational Objectives:
Upon completion of this activity, the learners will be able to:
- identify the musical dimension of being human in relation to other humans as rendered through psychoanalytic process.
- describe the essential role of music in distinguishing dead from alive and in making a human life worth living, and apply that to clinical technique.
- describe the connection between music and emotional truth and what it means for clinical technique.
- describe the role of the group, through tradition and other forms of collective care, in framing and worlding the possibility of individual expression.
- discern the contribution of music to self-development and the strengthening of social relationships.
- describe the similarity between musical rhythms and emotional fluctuations.
- describe and make clinical use of the interdisciplinary dialogue between psychoanalytic theory and existential phenomenology.
- describe and clinically apply the psychoanalytic concepts of induction, seduction, and conduction.
Vínculo Theory and Practice: Irreducible Effects of Presence
A possible definition for vínculo is an unconscious situation that links subjects, determining them based on a relationship of presence and the effects of presence — distinct from a relationship based on absence and the re-presentation of that absence — which leads to irreducible effects and encounters with excess and singularity. These encounters with the new can open access to exciting possibilities and, at the same time, also carry the potential to reduce the new to the schematized and already known.
In this four-week sequence, we will be talking about the origins, her/history, and developments of link theory, covering authors and thinkers such as Enrique Pichon-Rivière, Janine Puget, and Isidoro Berenstein — their and our attempts to grapple with the complexity of overlapping worlds, of the “intrapsychic,” the “intersubjective,” and the “transsubjective,” accounting for the crucial ongoing importance of all these realms in their articulations with social, political, economic, and other dimensions.
Israel Katz, MD
Fridays, February 9, 16, 23; March 8, 2024
(no meeting on March 1)
This seminar has been awarded a total of 6 CME/CE credits.
Educational Objectives:
Upon completion of this activity, the learners will be able to:
- discuss different definitions of vínculo
- demonstrate an application of irreducible presence in the clinical situation
- summarize Pichon-Rivière’s theory of vínculo and the three Ds
- explain Puget’s notions about the social, social subjectivity, and the pain of the social
- describe the three psychic spaces: intrasubjective, intersubjective, and transsubjective
- compare transference and interference in the clinical situation
The Shape of a Couple
One of the most striking and perhaps encouraging things that psychoanalysts have discovered is that people never give up trying to put things right for themselves and for the people they love. Even when they may appear to be doing the reverse, we often discover that what appears to be the most desperate and useless behaviour can be understood as an attempt to get back something that was good in the past, or to put right something that was unsatisfactory.… We could say then, that in marriage we unconsciously hope to find a solution to our intimate and primitive problems.
— Enid Balint, Unconscious Communications Between Husband and Wife, 1993
What shapes the couple? As analytic couple therapists, we aim to hold Enid Balint’s observation in mind, an observation that extends one of Freud’s most important discoveries — namely, that we don’t remember our past, we repeat it. Balint reminds us that the “repeating” that is occurring in the couple has a function: “an attempt to get back to something that was good in the past, or to put right something that was unsatisfactory.” In many cases, holding the developmental strivings of the couple in mind can ground the couple therapist in her efforts to engage the couple. Viewing the couple from this vantage point can sometimes help us orient to our task — namely, to provide containment and a space in which deeper understanding can take place.
In this course, we will consider concepts such as unconscious marital fit, a couple state of mind, marriage as a psychological container, developmental vs defensive couple dynamics, and the role of projective identification in couple relationships. Addressing both theoretical and practical considerations, we will think together about the task of the couple therapist as s/he orients her attention to the leading anxieties brought forth by the couple.
Ortal Kirson-Trilling, PsyD, FIPA
Fridays, March 15, 22, 29; April 5, 2024
This seminar has been awarded a total of 6 CME/CE credits.
Educational Objectives:
Upon completion of this activity, the learners will be able to:
- describe why the concept of unconscious choice of partner/marital fit is central to understanding the shape of the couple’s unconscious life.
- discuss the formation of a shared defense in a couple.
- discuss developmental achievements or lack thereof that contribute to the couple’s ability to function as a creative couple.
- describe why maintaining a “couple state of mind” in work with couples facilitates the development of the couple’s capacity to ‘use’ and think about the relationship.
- describe Mary Morgan’s distinction between unconscious phantasy and unconscious beliefs.
- discuss the need for shared unconscious defenses and how they protect the couple unconsciously.
- describe the ways in which couples with early relational trauma co-create a specific form of defense to block relatedness. Participants will be able to discern how a particular culture and socio norms can play a part in this defense.
- explain the bind that couples with early relational trauma are faced with and why relinquishing an attachment to the bad object is vehemently resisted.
Readers Fee
Charges for reading material required for the seminars are not included in tuition. Your readers will be prepared by CopyCentral, and costs are based upon copyright laws and charge based on the content of the readers. The SFCP Office will inform you when your readers are available to be purchased from CopyCentral’s website. Please note that CopyCentral may take 2 weeks to print and mail the readers to you, so we recommend you to purchase them as soon as they become available.
Refund Policy
- There will be a full refund if one requests to drop the program on or before September 7, 2023.
- There will be a 10% cancellation fee if one requests to drop the program on or after September 8, 2023.
- There will be no refund of classes in progress, and SFCP will provide a pro-rated refund of tuition for classes not yet begun.
CME/CE Credits Fee
The CME/CE credits fee is $10 per credit for SFCP members or $15 per credit for non-SFCP members. SFCP has established a cap cost of $200 for credits requested per program. The cost of CME/CE credits is separate from the tuition fee and billed individually upon the request for credits at the end of the seminar.
CE Attendance Policy
Please see individual course listings for the number of CE credits awarded, if applicable. Courses offering CE credit meet the requirements for CE credit for Psychologists, LCSWs, LPCCs, LEPs, and MFTs.
APA requires psychologists and other mental health professionals participating in all programs, including in long-term programs (lecture series) to demonstrate 100% attendance in order to be eligible to obtain CE credit. All participants must sign in at the beginning of each class or program and sign out at the end of the class or program. If participants miss a class in a seminar that is part of a long term program, they may be eligible to do “make-up” work for the missed class. Participants can meet with the class via Zoom or another “face to face” platform, if they are unable to attend in person. Alternatively, they can arrange to meet with the instructor, in person, to make-up the instructional time or can engage with the instructor via the “face to face” technologies, i.e. Face-time, Duo, Zoom, or others. This work must be completed within two weeks of the end of a seminar. Credit for the seminar will be awarded once the instructor notifies the SFCP office the time has been made up and the participant completes a course evaluation. No variable credit will be awarded for partial attendance.
Accreditation Statement for CME/CE Sponsorship and Disclosure Statement
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.
—Updated July 2021—
For “The Spirit of Music in Psychoanalysis” seminar:
PHYSICIANS: 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 San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis. 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 6 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
For “Vinculo Theory and Practice: Irreducible Effects of Presence” seminar:
PHYSICIANS: 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 San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis. 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 6 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
For “The Shapr of a Couple” seminar:
PHYSICIANS: 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 San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis. 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 6 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
PSYCHOLOGISTS: The San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
Psychologists attending SFCP events approved for CE credits may report AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ toward their CE requirements. Psychologists self-certify the number of hours they have completed on their renewal form (whether online or paper).
LCSWs/MFTs: The San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis is a continuing education provider that has been approved by the American Psychological Association, a California Board of Behavioral Sciences recognized approval agency
Psychologists, Social Workers, and Marriage and Family Therapists will be awarded AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ on an hour for hour basis; see the program description for the maximum of credits awarded for each program.
Commercial Support: None