NYFS : Scientific Programs & Events : NYC

New York Division

Click these links or scroll down to read descriptions of upcoming programs:

Upcoming Events

Scientific Program: March 2012
Salon Meetings

Recent Events

The Rita Frankiel Memorial Lecture: November 2011
A Colloquium Dedicated to Dr. Irving Steingart: October 2011
Scientific Program: September 2011
Understanding Primitive Mental States Conference - Year Three

New York Freudian Society – NY Division Scientific Program

Tuesday, March 20, 2012
8:30 – 10:00 pm

Mt. Sinai Medical Center, Hatch Auditorium
Madison Avenue & 100th Street
Admission is free and no reservations are required.
Free Certification of Attendance forms will be provided.

Psychological Enslavement Understood Through Ferenczi's Concept of Identification with the Aggressor: Clinical and Sociopolitical Aspects
Jay Frankel, PhD

Identification with the aggressor is a traumatic reaction first identified in 1932 by Sándor Ferenczi, who gave it a somewhat different meaning from Anna Freud's later idea of becoming like the aggressor. Ferenczi's conception described a particular way that many victims of abuse or assault respond to the aggressor: they automatically eliminate their own resistance—their authentic perceptions and feelings—and instantly, precisely, and without thinking comply with what the aggressor wants them to be, in both their outer behavior and their inner experience. Assault is often compounded by the implicit threat of emotional abandonment, and even in the presence of extreme trauma this threat may be the most powerful factor enforcing identification. In addition, victims are made to feel that they are somehow to blame for the abuse they receive. This further erodes their felt connection with humanity and the possibility of independent action. The widespread existence of some degree of this traumatic response, even in people who have not suffered extreme trauma, suggests that many apparently minor events can be experienced as traumatic, and that identification with the aggressor plays a large but often silent role in structuring many forms of human interaction. Dr. Frankel will discuss the role of identification with the aggressor in detail, both in development and in the clinical situation. He will also give a sense of the powerful but often hidden role it plays in society on a broader scale.

Jay Frankel, PhD, is Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor and Supervisor in the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis; a member, on faculty, and Co-Chair of the Ongoing Conferences on Controversial Psychoanalytic Concepts, at the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research; Associate Editor (and formerly Executive Editor) of Psychoanalytic Dialogues; and author of many journal articles and book chapters on trauma, identification, child therapy, play, the analytic relationship, and the work of Sándor Ferenczi.

Objectives:
At the end of this program, participants will be able to:

1. understand the traumatic reaction of identification with the aggressor, and the ways in which it is triggered by child abuse and other psychological trauma.
2. understand how identification with the aggressor manifests in the clinical situation, and the implications of this for technique.

Who Should Attend:
Mental Health Professionals (psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, licensed professional counselors, eg, LP's, LCAT's, pastoral counselors), and people with an interest in psychodynamic and psychoanalytic thinking and clinical applications.

APA-approved CE Credits:
Psychologists: The New York Freudian Society is approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to sponsor continuing education programs for psychologists. NYFS maintains responsibility for this program and its content. APA-approved CE credits are granted to participants with documented attendance and completed evaluation forms. Attendance is monitored. Credit will not be granted to registrants who arrive late, or depart early. It is the responsibility of participants seeking APA-approved CE credits to comply with the requirements outlined below. Upon completion of these requirements, participants will be given 1.5 CE credits.

Registration Fees:
There is no fee for attending this program. Basic Certification of Attendance forms will be provided to ATR-BC's and others at no charge.

The fee for 1.5 APA-approved CE Credits for Members of NYFS and Candidates of the PTI of NYFS is $15, and for all others it is $30. If you would like CE credit, please give your email address to the identified person at the end of the program. An evaluation form will be emailed to you. You will receive a PDF via email of your CE credits upon receipt of a hard copy of the completed evaluation form and your check (written to NYFS).

Important disclosure information:
None of the planners and presenters of this CE program have any relevant financial relationships to disclose.

If you have any questions, please contact:
Vivian Eskin, PhD, at

flyer : March 2012 program (PDF:75KB)

NYFS-NY Scientific Program Committee
Vivian Eskin, Chair; Ani Buk, Richard DeBenedetto, Susan Light, Kristina MacGaffin, Virginia Shipley

The Psychoanalytic Training Institute of NYFS offers a variety of programs in both New York City and Washington, DC for students interested in adult psychoanalysis, child/adolescent psychoanalysis, psychoanalytic psychotherapy, and parent-infant treatment. Our NY Adult Psychoanalysis Program is registered as licensure qualifying by the NYSED. All Masters-level professionals are welcome to apply. Please visit instituteofnyfs.org for further information.

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Salon Meetings

A Continuing Education Program of The New York Freudian Society

Hosted by the 27 Rue de Fleurus Committee
Co-Chairs, Debra Gill and Nancy Cromer Grayson

Open to all members and candidates of psychoanalytic institutes.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012
8:00 - 9:30 pm
Upper West Side location

Projective Identification and its Relationship to
Narcissistic and Schizoid States
Susan Finkelstein, LCSW

In 1946 Melanie Klein published her seminal paper, "Notes on Some Schizoid Mechanisms," in which she first defined the concepts of Projective Identification and the Paranoid Schizoid Position. The discovery of these two concepts enriched the psychoanalytic understanding of severely narcissistic and schizoid patients, and how to interpret their paranoid defenses including projection and introjection within the transference-counter-transference situation of the analytic couple. This led to a new generation of analysts such as Herbert Rosenfeld, Wilfred Bion, Hanna Segal and Roger Money Kyrle, who continued Klein's technique of psychoanalyzing psychotic, schizoid, narcissistic and borderline patients. Thus, the concept of Projective Identification extended psychoanalysis to a much broader segment of the population previously considered unanalyzable by Freud. Freud believed that only psychoneurotic patients could be analyzed, as he thought that psychotic, narcissistic and schizoid patients were incapable of forming a transference or object relationship to the analyst.

Bion extended Klein's technique of working with projective identification to include several other functions, such as "realistic projective identification," which was used as a means of communication in everyday life, thus deepening the understanding of primitive as well as healthy applications to this concept in psychic as well as in real object relationships, such as the mother-baby dyad.

This presentation, combining clinical vignettes with psychoanalytic theory, attempts to explicate the application of Klein and Bion's understanding of paranoia, primitive anxieties and states of mind in our work with schizoid, narcissistic, borderline and psychotic patients.

Susan Finkelstein, LCSW, is a Training & Supervising Analyst and Faculty Member of the Psychoanalytic Training Institute of NYFS. She is also the Program Developer and Director of the Understanding Primitive Mental States Program, a continuing education program of the New York Freudian Society.

Suggested Reading:

Melanie Klein's 1946 paper, "Notes on Some Schizoid Mechanisms."
"Projective Identification: Some Clinical Aspects," in Psychic Equilibrium and Psychic Change: Selected Papers of Betty Joseph, chapter 12.

Space is limited. Please email Debra Gill ( ) to RSVP and receive the address of this meeting.

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The Rita Frankiel Memorial Lecture

Friday, November 11, 2011
7:00 – 8:30 pm

The Anxiety of Being Seen:
Narcissistic Pride and Narcissistic Humiliation
John Steiner, MD, London

Roy Schafer, PhD, will introduce Dr. Steiner

John Steiner, MD, is a training analyst of the British Psychoanalytical Society and works in private practice as a psychoanalyst. He is the author of many psychoanalytic papers and two books.

His first book, Psychic Retreats (1993), describes how patients may withdraw to defensive organizations which protect them from anxiety and loss. The second, Seeing and Being Seen (2011), describes the situation of patients emerging from a psychic retreat. As they begin to come out of the protection of the retreat, they face the anxiety of seeing their objects more clearly and also of being seen, entailing emotions in the area of embarrassment, shame and humiliation.

Dr. Steiner has also edited and written introductions to several books, including The Oedipus Complex Today (1989), papers by Hanna Segal entitled Psychoanalysis, Literature, and War (1997), and Essays on Herbert Rosenfeld's Clinical Influence, entitled Rosenfeld in Retrospect (2008).

Location
New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute
247 East 82nd Street, NYC

Please RSVP to Connie Stroboulis at

The Rita Frankiel Memorial Lecture Committee
Nancy Wolf, Chair; Phyllis Ackman, Elizabeth Fritsch, Eva Kantor, Shelley Rockwell, Donna Roth Smith, Ann Rudovsky

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A Colloquium Dedicated to Dr. Irving Steingart
Sponsored by the Child and Adolescent Psychoanalysis Program

Thursday, October 13, 2011
Reception: 8:00 pm
Program: 8:30 – 10:00 pm

Karen Horney Clinic Auditorium
329 East 62 Street

Ken Winarick, PhD, Presenter
Eugene Mahon, MD, Discussant

Dr. Winarick will present the analysis of a ten year old encopretic, enuretic and learning disabled boy. The focus will be on the transformation of omnipotent sadistic fantasies expressed in play into verbal experiences of helplessness, disappointment and rage and the development of more adaptive means for coping with a difficult, often chaotic and frightening home environment. Parent work will also be described.

Ken Winarick, PhD, is Past President, Director of Training, and a Training and Supervising Analyst of The American Institute for Psychoanalysis, Karen Horney Psychoanalytic Center; a graduate of the Child and Adolescent Psychoanalysis Program of the Psychoanalytic Training Institute of NYFS; Faculty, Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy Program, IPTAR; Recipient of the APA Edith Sabshin Teaching Award. Dr. Winarick is an adult and child psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City.

Eugene Mahon, MD, is a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Columbia University Psychoanalytic Center for Training and Research; Member of the Association for Psychoanalytic Medicine, The New York Freudian Society, The Center for Advanced Psychoanalytic Studies, The Association for Child Psychoanalysis, and The Academy of Child Psychiatry. He has published several psychoanalytic articles and many applied analytic articles and a number of plays that elucidate psychoanalytic ideas. He is an adult and child psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City.

Esther Savitz, LCSW, Coordinator

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NY Scientific Program

Friday, September 23, 2011
8:30 – 10:00 pm

Mt. Sinai Medical Center, Hatch Auditorium
Madison Avenue & 100th Street
Admission is free and no reservations are required.
Certification of Attendance forms will be provided.

Dissociation in a Post 9/11 World
Ira Brenner, MD, presenter

It was predicted that things would never be the same in the US after the attacks on September 11, 2001. A new era was to have begun in which our illusion of safety on American soil was irreparably shattered. Destruction of the World Trade Center, substantial damage to the Pentagon and a significant loss of life triggered our "war on terror" which continues ten years later. Homeland security and other measures to "protect us" have gradually eroded several of our freedoms. The growing awareness of the limits of US supremacy in a rapidly changing technological and geopolitical world has left many with a vague sense of uneasiness about the future. In the aftermath of this national trauma, it is curious, therefore, how little has been published in the psychoanalytic literature about this topic. After review of this literature, the author will offer some speculations about why this might be the case and consider the importance of dissociation in contemporary mental processes. Dissociation will be compared and contrasted with related phenomena such as denial, disavowal, repression and splitting.

Ira Brenner, MD, is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Jefferson Medical College and a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia where he is also Director Emeritus of the Adult Psychotherapy Training Program. He has a special interest in psychic trauma with over 75 publications, having edited two special issues of the International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies and written four books: The Last Witness: The Child Survivor of the Holocaust, co-authored with Judith Kestenberg (1996); Dissociation of Trauma: Theory, Phenomenology and Technique (2001); Psychic Trauma: Dynamics, Symptoms and Treatment (2004), and Injured Men: Trauma, Healing and the Masculine Self (2009). He has received a number of awards including the Pierre Janet Writing Award for his 2001 book, the Gradiva Award for his 2009 book, the Gratz Research Prize for his Holocaust work, the Bruno Lima Award for his work in disaster psychiatry and Practitioner of the Year from the Philadelphia Psychiatric Society. He lectures nationally and internationally and maintains his private practice in the greater Philadelphia area.

Objectives:
At the end of this program, participants will be able to:

1. describe the process of a dissociative response to trauma, distinguishing it from denial and other more familiar defensive processes.
2. analyze the concept of dissociation in relation to the psychosocial reactions of some survivors of the attack on 9/11/01.
3. apply the model of the dissociative mind to a traumatized society.

Who Should Attend:
Mental Health Professionals (psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, licensed professional counselors, eg, LP's, LCAT's, pastoral counselors), and people with an interest in psychodynamic and psychoanalytic thinking and clinical applications.

APA-approved CE Credits:
Psychologists: The New York Freudian Society is approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to sponsor continuing education programs for psychologists. NYFS maintains responsibility for this program and its content. APA-approved CE credits are granted to participants with documented attendance and completed evaluation forms. Attendance is monitored. Credit will not be granted to registrants who arrive late, or depart early. It is the responsibility of participants seeking APA-approved CE credits to comply with the requirements outlined below. Upon completion of these requirements, participants will be given 1.5 CE credits.

Registration Fees:
There is no fee for attending this program. Basic Certification of Attendance forms will be provided to ATR-BC's and others at no charge.

The fee for 1.5 APA-approved CE Credits for Members of NYFS and Candidates of the PTI of NYFS is $15, and for all others it is $30. If you would like CE credit, please give your email address to the identified person at the end of the program. An evaluation form will be emailed to you. You will receive a PDF via email of your CE credits upon receipt of a hard copy of the completed evaluation form and your check (written to NYFS).

Important disclosure information:
None of the planners and presenters of this CE program have any relevant financial relationships to disclose.

If you have any questions, please contact:
Vivian Eskin, PhD, at

flyer : September 2011 program (PDF:73KB)

Understanding Primitive Mental States Conference
Year Three: Psychotic States of Mind

A Continuing Education Program of The New York Freudian Society

Friday, September 16, 2011
7:30 - 9:45 pm
The Culture Center, 410 Columbus Avenue at West 80th Street, NYC

Narcissistic Identification: Phenomenology and Technical Problems (The Claustrum Revisited)

Alberto Hahn, MD, presenter
Nasir Ilahi, discussant

'The Claustrum' is a psychopathological entity that is present in narcissistic and borderline states and consists of a withdrawal from the world of object relations through intrusive identification into internal objects represented in unconscious phantasy by the internal mother's body. Dr. Hahn will give an overview of the main concepts that may allow us to think further about this constellation in its clinical and theoretical implications.

Saturday, September 17, 2011
9:30 - 11:45 am
The Culture Center, 410 Columbus Avenue at West 80th Street, NYC

Clinical Case Presentation

Alberto Hahn, MD, clinical case presenter
Alberto Hahn, MD, and Karen Proner, LP, discussants

BIOS:

Susan N. Finkelstein, LCSW, Conference Director and Moderator, is a Training and Supervising Analyst, and faculty member, at the Psychoanalytic Training Institute of NYFS. Ms. Finkelstein’s interest in varying theoretical perspectives has led to extensive program development at NYFS, which have included seminars on analytic listening and case conferences on difficult clinical issues. Ms. Finkelstein also designed a seminar on supervision for Training Analysts at the PTI of NYFS. In 2009, she designed and developed the Understanding Primitive Mental States Program.

Alberto Hahn, MD, a fellow of the British Psychoanalytical Society, is a lecturer and Training Analyst at the Tavistock Clinic in London, where he teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses on the work of Donald Meltzer, Bion, and psychoanalytic theory and technique. He also teaches regularly in various countries in Europe, the Far East and South America. He translated An Introduction to the Work of Bion, by Leon Grinberg, et al, from Spanish. Dr. Hahn is the editor of Sincerity and Other Works: Collected Papers of Donald Meltzer, and co-authored, with Margaret Cohen, Exploring the Work of Donald Meltzer: A Festschrift.

Nasir Ilahi is a Clinical Assistant Professor in Psychiatry at New York University Medical School and on the faculty of New York University Psychoanalytic Institute. An Honorary Member of New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, he is a graduate and member of the British Psychoanalytic Society. He is also on the faculty of the Western New England Psychoanalytic Institute. His papers and lectures on clinical psychoanalysis focus on primitive mental states and cross-cultural issues.

Karen Proner, LP, is a Training and Supervising Analyst, and faculty member, in the Child and Adolescent Psychoanalysis Program of the Psychoanalytic Training Institute of NYFS. She is also on the faculty of the PTI of NYFS & IPTAR Anni Bergman Parent-Infant Program, as well as the Child Psychotherapy Program of IPTAR. She is a Member of Columbia’s Parent-Infant Program, and a Visiting Faculty member of the Tavistock Child Analytic Training Program in Florence, Italy. She is interested in the Tavistock method of Infant Observation as the foundation for psychoanalytic training.

Harmon Biddle, LCSW, is Training and Supervising Analyst, and Faculty member, at the Psychoanalytic Training Institute of NYFS, where she is also the DC Division Chair of Training and Supervising Analysts. She is a faculty member at the Washington School of Psychiatry. Ms. Biddle has presented at both the APA and IPA on numerous psychoanalytic topics. She has a private practice in Washington, DC.

Objectives:
This seminar is designed to help you:

1. describe the concept of 'the claustrum' as it relates to psychotic states.
2. apply Meltzer's theory of the claustrum to the conceptualization of a clinical case.

Who Should Attend:
Mental Health Professionals (psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, licensed therapists, such as LP’s, LCAT’s, LMHC’s, pastoral counselors), and people with an interest in psychodynamic and psychoanalytic thinking and clinical applications.

Registration Fees:
The fee for attending this program is $80. Candidates in psychoanalytic training programs, $60. The fee for 4 APA-approved CE Credits is an additional $40 (see below).

APA-approved CE Credits:
Psychologists: The New York Freudian Society is approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to sponsor continuing education programs for psychologists. NYFS maintains responsibility for this program and its content. APA-approved CE credits are granted to participants with documented attendance and completed evaluation forms. Attendance is monitored. Credit will not be granted to registrants who arrive late, or depart early. Credit will be granted to participants who submit a completed evaluation form and payment as described below. It is the responsibility of participants seeking APA-approved CE credits to comply with these requirements.

If you would like CE credit, please give your email address to the identified person at the end of the program. An evaluation form will be emailed to you. You will receive a PDF via email of your CE credits upon receipt of a hard copy of the completed evaluation form and your check (written to NYFS).

Important disclosure information:
None of the planners and presenters of this CE program have any relevant financial relationships to disclose.

If you have any questions, please contact Susan Finkelstein, Conference Chair, at 212-254-8501 or

TO REGISTER:

Please send a note with your name, email address, affiliation, and amount enclosed, along with your check made out to "NYFS" for $80.00 ($60.00 for Candidates) to:

New York Freudian Society
c/o Connie V. Stroboulis
11 Bunker Hill Drive
Manalapan, NJ 07726

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