Current concepts in object relations thinking: conscience and subjectivity
Current Concepts in Object Relations Theory on Psychic Change and Clinical Process:
Part 3: Reading Donald L. Carveth and Frank Summers
– certificate course with Susan Kavaler-Adler, PhD, ABPP, NPsyA, DLitt
When: 4/01/14 – 6/03/14 (Tuesdays, 9:00 – 10:10 am) via virtual participation (audio/video – with minimal technical requirements)
Tuition: $450/ 10 week course (can be paid in 2 installments)
This course on Current Concepts in Object Relations Psychoanalysis will focus on concepts of conscience and subjectivity in the human experience, and how we can approach this unique human experience in our work as psychotherapists and psychoanalysts.
In earlier classes, the students discussed the concepts of conscience and subjectivity in one’s internal world and the developmental mourning process through rich clinical cases and theory offered in Dr. Susan Kavaler-Adler’s recent Karnac books, The Anatomy of Regret: From Death Instinct to Reparation and Symbolization in Vivid Case Studies (2013) and Klein-Winnicott Dialectic: New Transformative Metapsychology and Interactive Clinical Theory (2014).
In this next course, we will focus on two current psychoanalytic books from other theorists/ authors. The first is The Still Voice: Psychoanalytic Reflections on Guilt and Conscience (Karnac, 2013) byDr. Donald L. Carveth, the Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Social & Political Thought, Senior Scholar, York University, Toronto. The second is The Psychoanalytic Vision: The Experiencing Subject, Transcendence, and the Therapeutic Process by Dr. Frank Summers, the current President of the Division (39) of Psychoanalysis of APA.
We will discuss the topics brought up by Donald L. Carveth, such as “the moral ambiguity of psychoanalysis,” “on the nature and varieties of guilt” and “conscience vs. superego and the bestializing of the id.” The other topics of the course, such as “psychoanalysis, the tyranny of objectivism, and the rebellion of the subjective,” “the emerging psychoanalytic ethic,” “the romantic interpretation of psychoanalysis,” and “unconscious psychic acts and creation of meaning” – are the contributions of Frank Summers.
Accompanying the close text readings, will be clinical questions and examples offered by the instructor and the participants. Dr. Kavaler-Adler will also demonstrate the topics in vivo, by role plays, with the participants playing their own patients.
Course Syllabus:
Book for first seven class readings: The Still Small Voice: Psychoanalytic Reflections on Guilt and Conscience (Karnac, 2013) – by Donald L. Carveth.
1st week reading: Forward and First Chapter: “The Moral Ambiguity of Psychoanalysis.”
2nd week’s reading: 2nd chapter, “On the Nature and Varieties of Guilt.”
3rd week’s reading: 3rd chapter, “Conscience vs. Superego and the Bestializing of the Id.”
4th week’s reading: 4th chapter, “Self Punishment as Guilt Evasion.”
5th week’s reading: 5th chapter, “Less Recognized Manifestations of Guilt: The Old and New Hysterias.”
6th week’s reading: 6th chapter, “Harry Guntrip: A Fugitive from Guilt.”
7th week’s reading: 7th chapter, “Two Case Studies.” Additional reading: two articles by Susan Kavaler-Adler “From Neurotic Guilt to Existential Grief, Part I,” and “From Neurotic Guilt to Existential Grief, Part 2” – in in the American Journal of Psychoanalysis.
Book for the next three weeks readings: The Psychoanalytic Vision (Routledge, 2013) – by Frank Summers.
8th week’s reading: 1) 1st chapter, “The Subject of Psychoanalysis;” 2) 2nd chapter, “Psychoanalysis, the Tyranny of Objectivism, and the Rebellion of the Subjective;” 3) 3rd chapter, “The Emerging Psychoanalytic Ethic.”
9th week’s reading: 4th chapter, “The Romantic Interpretation of Psychoanalysis.”
10th week’s reading: 5th chapter, “Unconscious Psychic Acts and the Creation of Meaning.”
Readings for next year can include chapters not yet read in these books.
For instructor’s information, visit www.kavaleradler.com.
For more information, please contact Dr. Inna Rozentsvit, the administrator at 646-522-1056 or email her at or call Dr. Kavaler-Adler at 212-674-5425 or email her at .
For a taste of the object relations view on various concepts, please visit our YouTube Channel (or click on the links below).
For description of the whole program, follow the link HERE
2013 Conference – on Countertransference, Regret, Aggression, and Their Vicissitudes
2012 Conference on Self-Sabotage: Jungian, Kleinian, and Fairbairnian Perspectives.
