Workshop is led by Dr. David P. Celani
Date: Sunday, June 27, 2021, 9:30am – 5pm
Location: Virtual participation only!
Virtual participation is conducted via audio/video or audio mode only
(with minimal technical requirements)
To Register for this workshop, please complete the Registration form
Continuing Education Information: up to 9.25 CEs See details here
One of the most difficult relationship patterns in which the clinician is asked to intervene is the battering couple who are referred for treatment. Couples with long histories of battering often resist intervention until the victim is in desperate emotional or physical danger. Even when the victim volunteers for treatment after a few events of battering, the therapist will discover that the abusive partner is working against progress by promising the victim that he/she will reform, and that therapy is unnecessary. In many instances the abuser will be successful in wooing his victim back into the abusive relationship and away from treatment. The victim may return to treatment after another incident (or series of incidents) of abuse, but she/he will continue to remain vulnerable to the abuser’s promises.
This workshop is designed to introduce psychotherapists, educators, mediators, as well as the representatives of other helping professions and the general public interested to understand the relational dynamics between the battered person and her/his abuser. This workshop will offer insights into the inner world of the victims, which are described in Dr. David Celani’s book The Illusion of Love: Why the Battered Woman Returns to Her Abuser, and will touch upon Lenore Walker’s observations regarding ‘the cycle theory of violence’ (as discussed in her book The Battered Woman). In his book, The Illusion of Love, Dr. Celani applies the analytic concept of ‘attachment to bad objects’ to the resistance encountered by the helping professional when he/she attempts to aid the victim in leaving the abusing partner. This resistance often is based on the victims’ early experiences in their family of origin. The most obvious source of resistance is the victim’s belief that the abuser has ‘reformed’ and has sworn never to batter again. This often makes them overly optimistic regarding the promises voiced by their battering partners. Other sources of resistance will also be discussed.
Registered participants will receive the workshop handout prepared by Dr. Celani, entitled “Fairbairn’s Metaphor of the Human Mind and the Trauma Bond,” as well as his 1996 book (in PDF) The Illusion of Love: Why the Battered Woman Returns to Her Abuser. Other suggested readings will be available to registered participants upon request.
The relationship between the batterer and his/her victim is a near perfect demonstration of Fairbairn’s concept of “attachment to bad objects,” which is the foundational concept of his psychoanalytic theory.
Fairbairn recognized that the child was absolutely dependent on his parents for the satisfaction of all of his physical and emotional needs. This fundamental imbalance in power makes the infant and child extremely vulnerable to early psychological and developmental damage if they are living in a neglectful family. Parental failures, including indifference, humiliation or actual abuse, are intolerable for the child to acknowledge, because if she/he would accept this reality into their consciousness, they would then face abandonment and terror. The child’s only defense against knowing the truth about how badly he/she is being treated is to use the dissociative defense to banish the memories of these traumatic relational events into his/her unconscious.
In Fairbairn’s model, the human unconscious is populated by dissociated, and then repressed memories of traumatic interpersonal events experienced by the child during his developmental years. These buried relational patterns are unknown to his conscious ego, and are re-enacted, out of conscious awareness, with new partners in adulthood.
The intolerable memories of neglect and abuse are grouped and condensed into an internal view of the rejecting parent (called the rejecting object) who is in a hostile and ungiving relationship to the frightened, disappointed and angry child, called the antilibidinal ego. These two inner ego structures continue to interact in the unconscious, and the relational patterns that have already occurred in childhood are replayed in adult relationships.
Fairbairn, who worked in an Edinburgh orphanage, also observed a reciprocal psychological reaction to punishing and rejecting family events that the children had experienced. These abandoned and abused orphans, who lived in an environment devoid of love and support, created elaborate fantasies that were powered by their severe need for love, support and safety. These children convinced themselves that their families were actually loving and welcoming. Fairbairn recognized that these unshakable fantasies created a second, mostly unconscious ego structure that offered the child the comforting and self-protective illusion that his parents would love him in the future. This ego structure also contains an image of the child’s self (called the libidinal ego) in a positively emotionally charged relationship to a loving and supportive parent (called the exciting object).
The combination of the two dissociated part-ego structures, the first containing dissociated memories of abuse and neglect, and the second unconscious structure, based on a hope-filled fantasy that very same parents who neglected him have the potential to love and welcome him home, create a fundamental split in the individual’s ego structure which now contains two separate and opposite views of the parents.
The splitting defense leaves the individual with two separate centers of agency (sub-egos or sub selves) that have completely opposite views of the world, and that alternate in dominance. Thus, the individual may view the parents as violent abusers at one moment and then switch to seeing them as filled with the potential for love and goodness just moments later. These two sub-selves are unknown to each other, and are not under the control of the individual’s conscious central ego. Additionally these mostly unconscious part ego structures influence the central ego’s perceptions, and distort the individual’s interpersonal relationships. Because of the influence of the two sub-egos, the adult will seek out new partners who both enrage them, and yet at other times, offer them the illusion of love. This is the unconscious psychological basis of the two alternating views of the abuser clearly articulated by the victim of abuse.
9:30am – 10:45am
The Development of Pathological Ego Structures, Their Relationship to Each Other, and Their Impact On Reality
This first section will consist of a careful review of Fairbairn’s writings on the infant’s and child’s absolute dependency on his parents, and the consequences of parental failures on the child’s psychological development. Frequent early rejections turn the child away from the harsh reality of his family and to his inner world for substitute satisfactions. The child also develops excuses for his parent’s failure to love him and frequently uses the “Moral Defense Against Bad Objects.”
11:00am – 12:30pm
Fairbairn’s Structural Model, and The Clinical Skills Needed to Respond to the Split Off Selves When they Emerge in the Clinical Interview
Fairbairn recognized that abused and neglected children utilized the powerful defense mechanism of dissociation to avoid remembering how harshly they were being treated, which allows them to continue their unfinished dependency relationship on the parents. The dissociated material creates part-self and part-object structures in the child’s unconscious. The first part-self is an internal representation of the child in relationship to a rejecting, frightening or indifferent parent. A second set of part-self and part object are developed out of the child’s extreme needs and hope for love in the future. This pair of part-self and part-object keeps the child’s dependency relationship with his parents intact.
12:30pm – 1:15pm
Lunch
1:15pm – 2:30pm
Fairbairn’s Structural Model as Applied to Battering, and to Lenore Walker’s “The Cycle Theory Of Violence”
Fairbairn’s structural model will be applied to Lenore Walker’s “Cycle Theory Of Violence,” from her book The Battered Woman. Each of the three steps in the cycle of violence can be understood in terms of Fairbairn’s internal structures as the victim shifts from illusory hope, to enraged despair.
2:45pm – 4:15pm
Specific Treatment Strategies
This section will describe a therapeutic strategy based on Fairbairn’s model, which focuses on creating a therapeutic narrative targeted on the three fundamental sources of resistance, as well as the dissociated material held in the patient’s unconscious structures.
4:15pm – 5:00pm
Q & A
At the end of this educational activity, its participants will be able to:
David P. Celani, PhD, is a licensed psychologist who practiced for more than twenty-five years in Burlington, Vermont. In treatment, he focused on his patients’ “attachment to bad objects”, which manifested through their inability to separate from parents, friends, or marital partners who demeaned, criticized, or abused them. Celani now presents workshops throughout the United States on Object Relations theory. His books with Columbia University Press include Fairbairn’s Object Relations Theory in the Clinical Setting, The Illusion of Love: Why the Battered Woman Returns to Her Abuser, and Leaving Home: How to Separate From Your Difficult Family.
This educational activity is accredited by Amedco to provide 9.25 CEs for NYS Social Workers, NYS Psychologists, and 9.25 APA based CEs for Psychologists, MFTs, MHCs, Addiction Professionals (Check your states below).
Accreditation Statement
In support of improving patient care, this activity has been planned and implemented by Amedco LLC and Object Relations Institute for Psychotherapy & Psychoanalysis (ORIPP). Amedco LLC is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.
Psychologists (APA) Credit Designation
Amedco LLC designates this activity for a maximum of 9.25 Psychologist contact hours.
The following state boards accept courses from APA providers for Counselors: AK, AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, HI, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, MD, ME, MO, NC, ND, NH, NE, NJ, NM, NV, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WI, WY
MI: No CE requirements
The following state boards accept courses from APA providers for MFTs: AK, AR, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, IA, ID, IN, KS, MD, ME, MO, NE, NC, NH, NJ, NM, NV, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WI, WY
MI: No CE requirement
The following state boards accept courses from APA providers for Addictions Professionals: AK, AR, CO, CT, DC, DE, GA, IA, IN, KS, LA, MD, MO, MT, NC, ND, NE, NJ, NM, NY (outstate held)*, OK, OR, SC, UT, WA, WI, WY
MA / MFTs: Participants can self-submit courses not approved by the MAMFT board for review.
The following state boards accept courses from APA providers for Social Workers: AK, AR, AZ, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IN, KY, ME, MN, MO, NE, NH, NM, OR, PA, VT, WI, WY
* If the activity is held live in the state of NY, then direct addictions board is required, ie: NAADAC. If the activity is held outside NY, is virtual, enduring or remote, it is considered “outstate” and this reciprocity applies.
New York Board for Social Workers (NY SW)
Amedco SW CPE is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #0115. 9.25 hours.
New York Board for Psychology (NY PSY)
Amedco is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0031. 9.25 hours.
New York Board for Mental Health Practitioners (NY Licensed Psychoanalysts, LP)
National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis (NAAP) is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an Approved Provider of continuing education for licensed psychoanalysts. #P-0019. 7 hours.
Early Bird registration (before June 14th, 2021)
$60 regular/ $35 grad students & candidates/ $15 undergrad students. If CEs are requested – there is an additional fee of $25 (can be paid on the day of the conference or in advance)
Regular registration (June 14th – June 25th, 2021)
$70 regular/ $45 grad students & candidates/ $20 undergrad students. If CEs are requested – there is an additional fee of $25 (can be paid on the day of the conference or in advance)
Registration ‘at the door’ (on June 26th & June 27th, 2021)
$80 regular/ $55 grad students & candidates/ $25 undergrad students. If CEs are requested – there is an additional fee of $25 (can be paid on the day of the conference or in advance)
Special scholarships for undergraduate/graduate students, retired practitioners, as well as for group registration, are available. Inquire by email to or at 646-522-1056.
REGISTRATION CLOSED
REGISTRATION CLOSED
