Caesura and Thalassa; A Dialectical Playground with FREUD – FERENCZI – BION

Certificate Course with 12.5 hrs of post-graduate/ CE credits in psychoanalytic education; no pre-requisites

with Stefanie Teitelbaum, LCSW, NPsyA

When: 

Selected Saturdays, dates TBA, @ 9:45 am - 12:20 pm. 5 course meetings of 2.5 hours each = 12.5 contact hours.

Where: 

99 University Place, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10003 OR VIRTUALLY (with minimal technical requirements for in real time participation and/ or via use of video-taped sessions)

Tuition: 

$450/ 10-week course/ 5 double-sessions. Ask for our need-based scholarships and payment arrangements (call the administrator at 646-522-1056).

Description:

“There is much more continuity between intra-uterine life and earliest infancy than the impressive caesura of the act of birth would have us believe.” Freud, S. Inhibitions, Symptoms and Anxiety, 1926

In the paragraph immediately following this quotation, Freud references Ferenczi’s Thalassal regression, a longing for the womb.  This same Caesura quote fertilized Bion’s “Caesura” paper, where the concept amplified to describe the experience of being joined and separated at the same time.  This course will read selections from Freud, Ferenczi and Bion relevant to uterine/ embryonic experience.   Additionally, we will take these observations to look primitive mental states through embryonic and/or neo-natal vertices.  Participants will use case material to experiment with clinical interpretations and interventions viewed from those vertices.

Learning points:

After taking this course, participants will be able to:

1 – Discuss Freud, Ferenczi’s and Bion’s ideas about the intrauterine elements in personality.
2 – Discuss similarities, differences, and same/different at the same time of the three authors’ idea.
3 – Use imagery of the theoretical discussions to form clinical interventions with patients.

Main readings:

Bion, W.R. (1989). Caesura. In W.R. Bion, Two papers: The Grid and Caesura. London: Karnac.
Ferenczi, S. (1989). Thalassa: A Theory of Genitality. London: Karnac Books.
Freud, S. (1926). Inhibitions, Symptoms and Anxiety. Standard Edition, 20, 87-175. 

Suggested readings:

Freud, A. (1936). The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense. New York: International Universities Press, 1966.
Freud, S. (1915). The unconscious. Standard Edition, 14, 166-215.
Freud, S. (1923). The ego and the id. Standard Edition, 19, 3-66. 
Sandler, J., & Sandler, A.-M. (1978). On the development of object relationships and affects. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 59, 285-296. 

For the Bio of the Instructor, please follow the link HERE.

To register, follow the link HERE or contact the administrator at admin@orinyc.org.