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DR. JEFFREY SEINFELD MEMORIAL     PSYCHOANALYTIC LICENSE     MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS  NEURO-PSYCHO-EDUCATION

Narcissistic Character And Narcissistic Dynamics

Instructor: with Dr. Susan Kavaler-Adler

2nd 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: January 11, 2018 - March 15, 2018, Thursdays, 8:40-9:55pm.

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

Tuition: $450/ 10-week course/ trimester (can be paid in 2 installments, upon request). Registration: $25/course (waived for candidates in training). Tuition and registration fees can be paid by CC via PayPal - follow the link: PayPal.Me/ORINYC, or pay by check (paid to ORI and mailed to ORI Administrator, 75-15 187th Street, Fresh Meadows, NY 11366).

Course Description:

In this course, we will discuss narcissism in its many clinical, developmental, and psychic structure dimensions.  We will see narcissism as a profound phenomenon that arrests one person’s development, and then sets that person up to control and dominate all those around them.  The control of others and of the inner true and potential self transpires through defensive image making, grandiose omnipotence, closet narcissistic vicarious living through the idealized other, and through social charm, when all those around the person are enlisted as an audience and entourage. 

We will also discuss the intense wounded narcissistic vulnerability that is sealed-off in a grandiose self-structure, which requires delicate clinical approaches to mirroring that vulnerability, and postponing confrontation until self-integration and separation-individuation have taken place.  We will see how developmental arrest in self and object relations development results in continuous self-sabotage and devaluing of others, with the false pathological grandiose self masking the shamed ridden child-self within. 

The shame ridden and enraged child-self is reflexively projected onto others as inadequacy images.  This arouses rage and shame, and inhibition in others that must ultimately be returned to the narcissistic personality.  To study all these dimensions of narcissism we will have a rich panoply of readings - in theory, clinical technique, as well as case illustrations of well-known women writers, and the clinical healing in psychoanalytic object relations treatment.  Among the psychoanalytic theorists we will read are: Arnold Modell, James Masterson, Otto Kernberg, Heinz Kohut, and Susan Kavaler-Adler. 

For a short educational video on the topic of NARCISSISM, please follow the link below:

   Narcissism: The Object Relations View (part 14)

Learning Points:

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

- Analyze and apply the basic terms related to narcissistic phenomena.
- Analyze and apply the basics of psychoanalytic understanding of narcissistic personality diagnosis and differential diagnosis.
- Analyze and apply the technique developed by James Masterson in working with narcissistic personality disorder: The Testing Stage: The “Sit Down Strike” and “The Mission,” Confrontation vs. Interpretation, “The Missing Piece,” and the “Golden Thread”.
- Analyze and apply the understanding of Narcissistic psychopathology of the Borderline and the false self through case illustrations.
- Analyze the working through of narcissistic defenses, abandonment depression, and pre-Oedipal conflict.
- Analyze and apply Otto Kernberg's ideas of pathological narcissism and borderline conditions.
- Analyze and apply the ideas of other object relations theorists to discuss creativity, creative personalities (Susan Kavaler-Adler), and self disorders (Heinz Kohut)

Syllabus:

First Class:

Masterson, James (1981).  The Narcississtic and Borderline Disorders: An Integrated Developmental Approach. New York: Jason Aronson. Chapters one, two, and three (pp. 3-53):
Chapter One:  The Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
Chapter Two:  Differential Diagnosis.
Chapter Three: The Clinical Picture: Case History and Intrapsychic Structure.

Second Class:

Masterson, James (1981).  Narcissistic and Borderline Disorders, Chapters 4, 5, 6 (pp. 56-127):
Chapter Four:  Psychotherapy of the Narcissistic Personality Disorder—The Testing Stage: The “Sit Down Stirke” and “The Mission,” Confrontation Versus Interpretation, The Testing Phase of Treatment.
Chapter Five:  The Beginning of the Working Through Phase: “The Missing Piece” and the “Golden Thread.”
Chapter Six:  Narcissistic Psychopathology of the Borderline and the False Self.
A Developmental Object Relations Theory; True and False Self; The Internalized Split Object Relations Part-Units of the False Self; Case illustrations; Principles of Treatment of a Patient with a False Self; Summary.

Third Class:

Masterson,  James (2000). The Personality Disorders: A New Look at the Developmental Self and Object Relations Approach  (Zeig, Tucker and Co., Inc., Phoenix, Arizona).

Chapter 4: Differential  Diagnosis (pp. 59-74).
Chapter 7: Working Through Narcissistic Defenses, Abandonment Depression, and Pre-Oedipal Conflict (pp. 166 to 191).

Fourth Class:

Kernberg, Otto (1975).  Borderline Conditions and Pathological Narcissism.  NY, NY: Jason and Aronson. 

Chapter Eight: The Treatment of the Narcissistic Personality (pp. 227-263).

Fifth Class:

Kernberg, Otto (1975). Borderline Conditions and Pathological Narcissism. NY, NY: Jason Aronson.

Chapter Nine: Clinical Problems of the Narcissistic Personality (pp. 263-314)

Sixth Class:

Kernberg, Otto (1975). Borderline Conditions and Pathological Narcissism. NY, NY: Jason Aronson.

Chapter Ten: Moral and Pathological Narcissism (pp. 315-346).

Seventh Class:

Kavaler-Adler, Susan (1993/ 2013). The Compulsion to Create: Women Writers and Their Demon Lovers (Routledge, 1993; ORI Academic Press, 2013). 

Chapter 13: Edith Sitwell Part 1, The Demon Lover, Poetry, and Writers' Block (pp. 271-292).
Chapter 14: Edith Sitwell Part 2, The Aging Narcissist (pp. 293-324).

Eighth Class:

Kavaler-Adler, Susan (1996/ 2013). The Creative Mystique: From Red Shoes Frenzy to Love and Creativity (1996, Routledge; 2013 ORI Academic Press). 

Chapter 10: Anne Sexton's Treatment, Part 1 (pp. 183-210).
Chapter 11: Anne Sexton's Treatment, Part 2 (pp. 211 to 242).

Ninth Class:

Kavaler-Adler, Susan.  The Creative Mystique: From Red Shoes Frenzy to Love and Creativity.

Chapter 12: The Case of Lois, Part 1. Red Shoes Frenzy, Mystique, and Creative Compulsion (pp. 243-268).
Chapter 13: The Case of Lois, Part 2. Healing and Movement Toward the Love-Creativity Dialectic (pp. 269-292).
Discussion of Woody Allen's Movie "Blue Jasmine."

Tenth Class:

Modell, Arnold (1976). The holding Environment and the Therapeutic Action of Psychoanalysis. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 24, 285-308.
Discussion of Woody Allen’s Movie “Blue Jasmine.”

For more information, please contact ORI Administrator, Dr. Inna Rozentsvit at 646-522-1056 or write to admin@orinyc.org.

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