Introduction to the Object Relations Clinical Theory and Its Clinical Experiential Applications

1st Trimester of Year 1 of the One-Year, Two-Year and the Full Training in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis (can be also taken as an individual post-graduate certificate course; no pre-requisites)

Dates: October 4, 2018 – December 13, 2018, Thursdays, 8:40-9:55pm. 

Tuition: $450/ 10-week course/ trimester (can be paid in 2 installments, upon request). Registration: $25/course (waived for candidates in training) – can be paid by CC via PayPal – follow the link:PayPal.Me/ORINYC . Additional registration fee ($25) for non-candidates.

Location: 115 East 9^th Street (@ 3rd Avenue); 12P, NYC, 10003 or Virtual participation – via audio/video or audio only.

This course will introduce students to critical psychic structure issues related to character disorder pathology and the related developmental issues.  Clinical technique will be addressed through both original readings in British and American object relations theory, as well as in “in vivo” role playing demonstrations. Through the role playing, the students will have an opportunity to experience their patients from the inside out. Various character resistances will be discussed in relation to Melanie Klein’s and Donald W. Winnicott’s contributions to this topic, as well as to some representatives of American school of object relations, such Thomas Ogden and Susan Kavaler-Adler.

Classes will consist of lecture and discussion on readings.  Some classes will have an experiential component, with a role play, where a student volunteers to role-play a patient, and Dr. Kavaler-Adler plays the psychoanalytic object relations therapist.

Post-graduate psychoanalytic education credits offered: 12.5hrs.

  Intro to the Object Relations Thinking and Clinical Technique – with Dr. Kavaler-Adler (part 1).

This class will consist of readings, discussions, and role plays.

Learning Goals:

Upon the completion of this advanced level course, the participants will be able to:

Analyze and apply the basic terms and phenomena of the object relations theory, such as: internal psychic world, internal object relations, and the psychoanalytic dialogue;

Analyze and apply the basic terms and phenomena of the object relations theory, such as: Instinct, phantasy, and psychological deep structure;

Analyze and apply the basic terms and phenomena of the object relations theory, such as: the depressive position and the birth of the historical subject;

Analyze and apply the basic terms and phenomena of the object relations theory, such as: the paranoid-schizoid position: self as object;

Analyze and apply the basic terms and phenomena of the object relations theory, such as: transference, countertransference, erotic transference, projection and projective identifications;

Analyze and apply the basic terms and phenomena of the object relations theory, such as: the difference between the paranoid-schizoid and the depressive position;

Analyze and apply the basic terms and phenomena of the object relations theory, such as: potential space, transitional phenomena,  dream space, and analytic space.

Syllabus and readings:

TEXTBOOKs for the COURSE: 

1. The Matrix of the Mind, by Thomas Ogden (published by Jason Aronson, 1986).

2. The Klein-Winnicott Dialectic: New Transformative Metapsychology and Interactive Clinical Theory, by Susan Kavaler-Adler (published by Karnac, 2014).  Additional readings will be emailed.

Readings for weeks 1-6 are from T. Ogden’s book, The Matrix of the Mind:  

1^st Week:  Chapter 1, The Psychoanalytic Dialogue; and Chapter 2, Instinct, Phantasy, and Psychological Deep Structure in the Work of Melanie Klein.

2^nd Week:  Chapter 3, The Paranoid-Schizoid Position: Self as Object.

3^rd class:  Chapter 4, The Depressive Position and the Birth of the Historical Subject.

4^th class:  Chapter 5, Between the Paranoid-Schizoid and the Depressive Position.

5^th class:  Chapter 7, The Mother, the Infant, and the Matrix in the Work of Donald Winnicott.

6^th class:  Chapter 8, Potential Space,  and Chapter 9, Dream Space and Analytic Space.

Readings for weeks 7-9 are from S. Kavaler-Adler’s book, Klein-Winnicott Dialectic:

7^th class:  Chapter 1, Like Moses On the Way to the Promised Land: A Case of Pathological Mourning (pp. 1-26). This chapter is related to the interaction between Melanie Klein psychobiography/internal world and her major theories.  The chapter focuses on the British theorist’s history, and her mother’s personality.

8^th class: Chapter 2, Melanie Klein’s Creative Writing Revealing Themes in Her Life and Theorizing (pp. 27-42). This chapter is about Melanie Klein’s creative writing & creative process, and her Demon Lover Complex. Klein’s internal mother becomes a metapsychological theory of the Death Instinct: Death Instinct as Demon Lover.

9^th class: Chapter 6, Developmental Evolution in the Work of D. W. Winnicott, Psychic and Transitional Space (pp. 115-148). This is a a clinical chapter that illustrates the theory of transitional space and potential space in Winnicott and the theory of mourning in Klein.  The clinical examples integrate the clinical aspects of Klein’s and Winnicott’s theories, along with Dr. Kavaler-Adler’s theory of developmental mourning.

10^th class:  a) Original paper of Melanie Klein, Mourning and Its Relation to Manic Depressive States, b) Pivotal Moments of Surrender to Mourning the Parental Internal Objects, by Dr. Susan Kavaler-Adler  (Psychoanalytic Review, 2008).

Classes will consist of lecture and discussion on readings.  Some classes will have an experiential component, with a role play, where a student volunteers to role-play a patient, and Dr. Kavaler-Adler plays the psychoanalytic object relations therapist.

Some additional readings, such as original works of M. Klein and D. W. Winnicott will be offered and distributed via email.

For more information, please contact ORI administrator by email at admin@orinyc.org or by phone at 646-522-1056.