Psychoanalytic Study Groups

I offer several private study groups for people who would like to explore the history, theory, and practice of psychoanalysis in greater depth and in the company of fellow psychoanalytic thinkers. The Technique group is open to clinicians, while the History and University groups are open to all.

Fundamentals of Classical Psychoanalytic Technique

This is a study group about classical psychoanalytic technique in the Anglo-American tradition.  The classical texts on technique have much to offer modern psychoanalytic clinicians but are at risk of being lost to history.  We will ask what is brilliant, skillful, and useful to us in this understudied corpus.  We will also come to see what might be challenging, different, and/or problematic by modern standards. 

While we necessarily address the theory of technique, practice is the main focus.  Together, we will read foundational texts on technique from the 1930s through the 1960s – exploring the contributions of Sharpe (1930), Fenichel (1941), Glover (1955), Menninger (1958), and Greenson (1967).  These are essentially how-to guides, providing step-by-step instructions for defining, identifying, and analyzing transference and resistance.  In reading these texts, we will explore the definitions, utility, and limits of abstinence, anonymity, and neutrality; confrontation, clarification, interpretation, and working through; as well as countertransference and counter-resistance.  The beginnings and endings of psychoanalytic treatment will also be considered.  We will weave in additional relevant papers – based on group interest – as we make our way through the major textbooks.  Having a firm grasp on the basics of classical technique allows us to appreciate all that has come after and provides a solid base from which to innovate in an informed manner.

We begin our reading with a profound articulation of the classical psychoanalytic project in all its depth and sensitivity to the vicissitudes of human experience.  Sharpe (1930) gives us a stirring, incisive, and personal introduction to the work of psychoanalysis.  A British lay analyst, she provides one of the earliest technical guides in the Anglo-American tradition.  This paper was an instant classic and, in time, would be cited by the major textbook authors on our list.

Reading the material will allow us to make mature, informed, personally meaningful judgments about elements of classical technique, to complicate the simplistic binary of classical versus contemporary, to appreciate our place in a rich and complicated professional history, as well as to understand the conditions under which classical techniques might be useful in our own practice today. Note that this group is based on a course that I am developing (for a link to the syllabus, click here).

The Early History of Psychoanalysis

This study group is based on a course I offer in the Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis at New York University, entitled Early Psychoanalysis and the Socio-Cultural Surround: Progress, Regress, and Lingering Controversies (for a link to the syllabus, click here). We explore the much-neglected early history of psychoanalysis and its various socio-cultural influences and impacts.  We examine the ways in which racism, misogyny, homophobia, classism, anti-Semitism, war, and migration on the one hand, as well as brilliance, innovation, optimal marginality, and progressive thinking on the other, combined to shape the theory and practice of psychoanalysis. Further, we explore the role of categorical thinking in psychoanalysis, defined historically as masculine, penetrative, and autonomy-promoting as opposed to psychotherapy which was seen as feminine, weak, suggestion-based, and dependence-promoting.  We take up the question of psychoanalysis as a universal or culture-specific theory and practice.  Given their underrepresentation in the history of psychoanalysis, we pay special attention to pioneering female psychoanalysts, honoring words and deeds that propelled psychoanalysis forward.  In so doing, we also explore some understudied clinical concepts.  As we explore together, we will see that the people and ideas of the early psychoanalytic movement point the way toward a progressive psychoanalysis for our time. 

Psychoanalysis in the University

This is a study group for people who believe that psychoanalysis should have a presence colleges and universities.

The Developing Therapist

Co-led with Dr. Andrew Geeves, The Developing Therapist is a consultation service that makes psychoanalytic thinking accessible and applicable for early-career therapists. The craft skills of therapy are passed on through a bespoke mentoring process — independent of workplaces and traditional training — that involves didactic and experiential learning across group and individual consultations. This builds inner robustness, helping therapists to inhabit their role with greater confidence and address common challenges such as chronic feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt, overthinking, exhaustion, and engaging wholeheartedly with conversations about topics that can instill fear in a therapist (e.g. fees, ending sessions on time, vacations, communications outside of session).