Clio’s Psyche Call for Papers:
Reflections on Grandparenthood: Meanings, Joys, and Sorrows

(Articles are to be 300–1,000 words including a brief abstract, keywords,
& short biography of the author.)
Due Date: January 15, 2026, for the Spring 2026 issue

Dear Colleagues,

Grandparenthood is a profound life experience, carrying both joy and responsibility. It can mean the delight of welcoming new life, transmitting culture, and watching a new generation grow, while also involving worry, health challenges, and difficult family dynamics. In Clio’s Psyche we seek personalized first-person accounts, case studies, and psychohistorical reflections that illuminate the many dimensions of this role.

Grandparenthood matters not only as a family role but as a psychohistorical bridge, carrying memory, values, and intergenerational resilience across time while shaping the identities of both elders and the young.

For more information visit
https://psychohistoryforum.com/reflections-on-grandparenthood-meanings-joys-and-sorrows-due-january-15th-2026/

Call for Papers
Clio’s Psyche — Summer 2026 Issue

Reflections on How Psychoanalysis & Other Depth Therapies Changed Your Life

Due Date: April 1, 2026
(For symposium option, see below)

Invitation

Psychoanalysis has long offered a unique space to explore the interplay between personal history, unconscious meaning, and the shaping of identity. For psychohistorians, clinicians, scholars, and reflective individuals alike, the analytic process often becomes not only a method for understanding others, but a transformative lens through which to reinterpret one’s own life.

This special issue invites contributors to reflect on how psychoanalysis – or psychoanalytic ways of thinking – has illuminated, reframed, or freed aspects of their personal, professional, or intellectual lives. We welcome diverse perspectives: clinical, historical, autobiographical, theoretical, creative, experiential, and interdisciplinary.

For more information visit
https://psychohistoryforum.com/clios-psyche-call-for-papers-reflections-on-how-psychoanalysis-other-depth-therapies-changed-your-life/

Clio’s Psyche Call for Papers:
Integrating Psychoanalytic Concepts
into Modern Psychohistorical & Psychobiographical Scholarship

(Articles are to be 500 – 2,500 words including a brief abstract, keywords, & short biography of the author.)
Due: February 28th, 2025, for the Spring 2026 Issue

Dear Colleagues,

Our members are open to psychological and psychoanalytic concepts, and we yearn for them to apply these to their articles and scholarship. This openness is reflected in the Psychohistory Forum’s impressive attendance at its Work-in-Progress, Psychobiography Reading Group, and Lifetime Achievement Award meetings. It is our strong feeling that there needs to be much more integration of psychoanalytic phenomena and terminology into the actual writing that is published in Clio’s Psyche, the Journal of Psychohistory, the Newsletter of the IPhA, and elsewhere to enrich it and also to remedy the confusion of tongues so often happening in other inter- and transdisciplinary fields. This does not mean we desire to impose psychoanalytic jargon or theories, but we do think it would be extremely helpful if these ideas were integrated to a greater extent than they are now.

For more information visit
https://psychohistoryforum.com/integrating-psychoanalytic-concepts-into-modern-psychohistorical-psychobiographical-scholarship/

Clio’s Psyche Call for Papers:
The Psychology of a Frightened World:
Mapping Anger, Anxiety, Fear, and Paths Toward Healing

(Articles: 500-2,500 words, including a brief abstract, keywords, & author biography)
Due Date: December 31, 2025, for Winter 2026 Issue

Dear Colleagues,

Across the world, from Johannesburg to Jerusalem, New York to New Delhi, people are grappling with heightened emotional intensity. Anger, anxiety, and fear appear increasingly common, though they manifest differently across cultures and contexts. This call for papers invites contributors to reflect on these emotional currents, not only in terms of what provokes them but also how individuals and societies attempt to process, manage, and transform them.

Our first objective is to gather perspectives from around the globe: Are these emotional shifts primarily observed in certain regions, or are they part of a broader psychological pattern? Our second aim is to encourage thoughtful exploration of the personal and collective meaning of these emotions, from psychological mechanisms and cultural dynamics to healing processes and systemic responses.

For more information visit
https://psychohistoryforum.com/clios-psyche-call-for-papers-the-psychology-of-a-frightened-world-mapping-anger-anxiety-fear-and-paths-toward-healing/

Clio’s Psyche Call for Papers:
Honoring and Remembering Robert Jay Lifton (1926–2025)

Due Date: February 15, 2026, for the Spring 2026 issue

Robert Jay Lifton (1926–2025) was one of the most influential psychohistorical thinkers of the past century. From Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of “Brainwashing” in China (1961), which brought “totalism” and “brainwashing” into public discourse, to his late reflections in Surviving Our Catastrophes: Resilience and Renewal from Hiroshima to the COVID-19 Pandemic (2023), Lifton consistently confronted the urgent moral and existential challenges of modern life. His work spanned Hiroshima survivors, Vietnam veterans, Nazi doctors, apocalyptic movements, and climate change — always asking how individuals and societies face death, catastrophe, and the possibility of renewal.

Lifton’s legacy is also organizational.  As leader of the Wellfleet Group (1966–2015), he convened generations of psychohistorians, clinicians, and scholars. At the Center for the Study of Violence and Human Survival (1986–2002), he gathered public intellectuals and researchers to grapple with the psychology of war, genocide, atrocity, and survival. Though often cautious about the label “psychohistory,” he remained — after Erik Erikson — its most recognized public face.

We invite colleagues, students, and admirers to contribute essays reflecting on Robert Jay Lifton’s life, work, and influence. Submissions may range from personal recollections to critical analyses of his major books and theories, and from tributes to reassessments of his public role.

For more information visit
https://psychohistoryforum.com/call-for-papers-honoring-and-remembering-robert-jay-lifton-1926-2025/

Dream Appreciation and Interpretation: Montague Ullman’s Visionary Method

5-week Experiential Course with Dr. Jeffrey B. Rubin
Virtual Live
Wednesdays, November 5 – December 10, 2025, 7pm-9:15pm ET (with a 15-min break)
[No class on November 26th, 2025]
Continuing Education: 10 CE hrs for APA (covers most mental health professionals outside of NYS), NYS Psychologists, & NYS Social Workers

For more information visit
https://orinyc.org/dream-appreciation-interpretation-montague-ullmans-method-with-jeffrey-rubin/

Psychobiography Reading Group of the Psychohistory Forum – 15th Meeting
Rediscovering Sabina Spielrein —
Destruction, Creation, and the Birth of Meaning
Saturday, October 25, 2025 (11:00 AM – 1:00 PM EST)
Virtual Live
This meeting is free to attend, but RSVP is required.

For more information visit
https://psychohistoryforum.com/october-25-2025-psychobiography-reading-group-dedicated-to-sabina-spielrein/

Psychotherapy Case Studies: Deepening Clinical Wisdom

1st Trimester of the Second Year of the Two-Year
and the Full Training in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis Programs
(can be also taken as an individual post-graduate certificate course; no pre-requisites)

10-week Virtual Live Course with Dr. Jeffrey Rubin

10-9-25 – 12-18-25 (Thursday, 8:40pm – 9:55 pm EDT)

Tuition: $450/ course (can be paid for in 2 installments)
Registration fee: $25 (waved for the ORI’s candidates in training)

Continuing Education: 12.5 CE hrs for APA (covers most mental health professionals outside of NYS),
NYS Psychologists, & NYS Social Workers

For more information visit
https://orinyc.org/10-9-25-12-18-25-thursday-840pm-955-pm-edt-psychotherapy-case-studies-deepening-clinical-wisdom-with-dr-jeffrey-b-rubin/

Post-Traumatic Growth: Becoming an Expert Companion in Healing Through Struggle

Seminar with Dr. Victoria Grinman
October 5, 2025 (Sunday), 12-3:15 pm EDT
Virtual Live
Continuing Education: 5 CE hrs for APA (covers most mental health professionals outside of NYS),
NYS Psychologists, & NYS Social Workers

For more information visit
https://orinyc.org/post-traumatic-growth-becoming-expert-companion-10-5-25-victoria-grinman-ori/

The Political Is Personal: Benevolence and Sadism Are Learned at Home

Work-in-Progress Meeting with Dr. Jeffrey B. Rubin
September 27, 2025 (10:30am-1pm EDT)
Virtual Live
NB: Zoom link will be provided to you after you complete the RSVP form.

For more information visit
https://psychohistoryforum.com/september-27-2025-1030am-1pm-edt-the-political-is-personal-benevolence-and-sadism-are-learned-at-home-work-in-progress-meeting-with-jeffrey-b-rubin/

Understanding and Treating Personality Disorders
Through Fairbairn’s Object Relations Model

Seminar with Dr. David P. Celani
September 20th, 2025 (Saturday), 11:30am-3:45 pm EDT
Virtual Live
Continuing Education: 6 CE hrs for APA (covers most mental health professionals outside of NYS),
NYS Psychologists, & NYS Social Workers

For more information visit
https://orinyc.org/treating-personality-disorders-fairbairn-object-relations-model-9-20-25-david-celani/

Trauma Treatment in Crisis: Clinical Approaches Following October 7th

Interactive Lecture with Dr. Aner Govrin
September 13, 2025 (Saturday), 12-2pm EDT
Virtual Live
This Event Is Free, but Registration Is Required
Continuing Education: 2 CE hrs for APA (covers most mental health professionals outside of NYS),
NYS Psychologists, & NYS Social Workers

For more information visit
https://orinyc.org/trauma-treatment-in-crisis-clinical-approaches-following-october-7th-govrin-9-13-25/

For more information visit
https://orinyc.org/9-4-25-9-25-25-thursdays-7-10pm-edt-james-f-mastersons-approach-to-modern-psychoanalytic-praxis-a-contemporary-introduction/

Psychobiography Reading Group of the Psychohistory Forum – 14th Meeting
Oliver Sacks: Childhood, Neuroscience, and the Poetics of the Mind
Saturday, August 23, 2025 (11:00 AM – 1:00 PM EDT)
Virtual Live
Facilitator: Inna Rozentsvit
This meeting is free to attend, but RSVP is required.

For more information visit
https://psychohistoryforum.com/psychobiography-reading-group-of-the-psychohistory-forum-14th-meeting/

Book Celebration Virtual Conference

Jeffrey B. Rubin’s
Psychotherapy Case Studies:
Escaping the Prison You Didn’t Know You Were In

August 10, 2025, Sunday (12-3PM EDT)
[Virtual room opens at 11:45am EDT]

For more information visit
https://mindmendmedia.com/8-10-25-book-celebration-jeffrey-b-rubins-psychotherapy-case-studies-escaping-the-prison-you-didnt-know-you-were-in/

IPhA’s Transgenerational Transmission of Trauma & Resilience Working Group
Invites You to a Virtual Live Conference:

Psychoanalysis Under Conditions of War

Friday, November 14, 2025
(12-2pm ET/NYC; virtual room opens at 11:45am ET)
This event is free, but RSVP is required

For more information visit
https://mindmendmedia.com/11-14-25-psychoanalysis-under-conditions-of-war/

Psychobiography Reading Group of the Psychohistory Forum – 13th Meeting
Dedicated to ERIC R. KANDEL

May 17, 2025, 11:00am – 1pm EDT
[Virtual room opens at 10:45am EDT]
This meeting is free to attend, but RSVP is required.
Please RSVP by using the Registration Form below

For more information and to RSVP – visit
https://psychohistoryforum.com/psychobiography-reading-group-of-the-psychohistory-forum-13th-meeting/

Invitation to the Psychohistory Forum Work-in-Progress Meeting

“My Life in Psychohistory”
by Paul H. Elovitz
Part 2: How Psychoanalysis Freed Me from the Prison of My Childhood

May 3, 2025, 10:30am-1:00pm (EDT)
Virtual Participation via Zoom.
RSVP is required (see the RSVP form below)
Zoom link will be provided to you after you complete the form

For more information and to RSVP – visit
https://psychohistoryforum.com/invitation-to-the-psychohistory-forum-work-in-progress-meeting-topic-paul-h-elovitz-my-life-in-psychohistory-part-2/

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Psychobiography Reading Group of the Psychohistory Forum – 12th Meeting

Dedicated to HANNA SEGAL
March 1, 2025 (11:00am – 1pm EDT; room opens at 10:45 am)

This meeting is free to attend, but RSVP is required.

For more information and to RSVP – visit
https://psychohistoryforum.com/psychobiography-reading-group-of-the-psychohistory-forum-12th-meeting/

THE PRIMAL POWER OF PLAY & SELF-REGULATION:
ADVANCED PSYCHONEUROBIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES

An Interactive Professional & Personal Development Seminar
with Dr. Inna Rozentsvit
Date: Saturday, March 29, 2025 (12:00 PM – 3:15 PM EST)
Location: Live Virtual Session via Zoom
To Register please complete the Registration form
Continuing Education: 3.0 CEs
for APA (covers most Mental Health professions outside of NYS), NYS Psychologists, NYS Social Workers

For more information and to RSVP – visit
https://orinyc.org/the-primal-power-of-play-self-regulation-advanced-psychoneurobiological-perspectives/

2025 ORI Annual Conference
of the Object Relations Institute for Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis

Annihilation Anxiety:
Object Relations and Other Psychoanalytic Perspectives
on Encountering an End of Existence

Date: Saturday March 22, 2025, 10 am – 4:30 pm EST/NYC
Location: Virtual live!

Continuing Education: 7.5 CEs
for NYS Psychologists, NYS Social Workers, and the APA (covers most Mental Health Professions outside of NYS)

For more information and to RSVP – visit
https://orinyc.org/2025-annual-conference-of-the-object-relations-institute-for-psychotherapy-and-psychoanalysis/

Invitation to the Psychohistory Forum
Work-in-Progress Meeting

Women’s Voices in Psychohistory and Psychoanalysis:
Different, Distinct, Marginalized, or Forgotten

February 1, 2025 (Saturday)
10:00am-1:00pm EDT (room opens at 9:45am EST)

Presenters:
Inna Rozentsvit, Susanne Seperson, Juhani Ihanus, and Tom Ferraro
Virtual Participation via Zoom.

For more information and to RSVP – visit
https://psychohistoryforum.com/womens-voices-in-psychohistory-and-psychoanalysis-different-distinct-marginalized-or-forgotten/

THE IMPACT OF EARLY FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS ON CHILD DEVELOPMENT:
A FAIRBAIRNIAN PERSPECTIVE

An Interactive Seminar for Professionals & Parents
with Dr. David P. Celani
Date: Sunday, February 2, 2025 (12-3:15pm EST)
Location: Virtual LIVE – via Zoom
To Register for this seminar, please complete the Registration form
Continuing Education: 3.0 CE hours
for NYS Psychologists, NYS Social Workers, and the APA (covers most Mental Health Professionals outside of NYS)

For more information and to RSVP – visit
https://orinyc.org/the-impact-of-early-family-relationships-on-child-development-a-fairbairnian-perspective/

The Psychodynamic Case Study: Theory and Practice

Course Instructor: Aner Govrin, PhD
Moderator: Inna Rozentsvit, M.D., PhD
Dates: February 9th and 16th (Sundays, 12pm – 3:15pm EST)
Location: Virtual Live (via Zoom)
Continuing Education: 8.0 CEs
for NYS Psychologists, NYS Social Workers, and the APA (covers most Mental Health practitioners outside of NYS)
Tuition: $250/ course (can be paid in 2 installments)
Registration fee: $25 (waived for the candidates in trainingat ORI)

For more information and to RSVP – visit
https://orinyc.org/the-psychodynamic-case-study-theory-and-practice/

Clinical Studies on Narcissistic, Schizoid, and Borderline Mechanisms and Conditions

Instructor: Susan Kavaler-Adler, PhD, ABPP, D.Litt., NCPsyA
Dates: 1/9/25 – 3/13/25 (Thursdays, 8:40pm – 9:55pm EST)
Location: Live Virtual (on Zoom)
Continuing Education: 12.5 CEs
for APA (covers most Mental Health professions outside of NYS), NYS Psychologists, NYS Social Workers

For more information and to RSVP – visit
https://orinyc.org/clinical-studies-on-narcissistic-schizoid-and-borderline-mechanisms-and-conditions/

Clinical Supervision Informed by W.R.D. Fairbairn’s Object Relations Theory

with David Celani, PhD
6-week Course: Masterclass Supervision
Dates: Fridays, January 10, 2025 – February 14, 2025 (12-2pm EST)
Location: Virtual Live (via Zoom)
Continuing Education: 12.0 CE

For more information and to RSVP – visit
https://orinyc.org/clinical-supervision-informed-by-w-r-d-fairbairns-object-relations-theory/

JAMES W. ANDERSON’s
PSYCHOBIOGRAPHY: IN SEARCH OF THE INNER LIFE

BOOK CELEBRATION VIRTUAL CONFERENCE

DECEMBER 7, 2024, SATURDAY (12-3PM EST)
[Virtual room opens at 11:30am EST]
Attendance is FREE, but RSVP is required (see the form below)

This conference is the celebration of a new book by JAMES W. ANDERSON, a psychobiographer, researcher, and professor, as well as a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst — PSYCHOBIOGRAPHY: IN SEARCH OF THE INNER LIFE (Oxford University Press). During this celebration event, Anderson will reflect on the topics explored in this book, and there will be questions and comments after each of the topics, as well as general discussion at the end of the event.

For more information and to RSVP – visit
https://mindmendmedia.com/james-w-andersons-psychobiography-in-search-of-the-inner-life/

ADOLESCENT MASS SHOOTINGS:
UNDERSTANDING CAUSES AND PREVENTING TRAGEDIES

Saturday, December 14, 2024, 12pm – 3pm EST/ NYC time
Virtual Live Conference, on Zoom

In the developed world, lethal violence involving firearms is a uniquely American epidemic. Since 2020, deaths from firearm-related incidents have been the number one cause of death of children and adolescents in our country. Not surprisingly, states with stricter firearms regulations have lower firearm-related pediatric mortality rates. Exposure to violence committed with firearms gives rise to cycles of trauma and fear within our communities, contributing to the nation’s mental health crisis. Most American adults say that they worry about a loved one becoming a victim of an armed attack.

For more information and to RSVP – visit
https://mindmendmedia.com/adolescent-mass-shootings-understanding-causes-and-preventing-tragedies/

Psychobiography Reading Group
of the Psychohistory Forum

11th Meeting
January 11, 2025 (11:00am – 1pm EDT; room opens at 10:45 am)

Wilhelm Reich belongs to the trinity of twentieth century psychoanalysts that also includes Freud and Jung. When he died in 1957, he had become the most revolutionary figure in psychoanalysis and the only student of Freud’s to carry the libido theory into experimental science.

Reich’s legacy includes such essential volumes as Character Analysis, The Mass Psychology of Fascism, and The Function of the Orgasm – his most famous work which inspired the sexual revolution in the West of the 1960s and ‘70s.

For more information and to RSVP – visit
https://psychohistoryforum.com/psychobiography-reading-group-of-the-psychohistory-forum-11th-meeting/

DON’T MISS THIS SPECIAL OFFER
from the PUBLISHERS of the JOURNAL OF PSYCHOHISTORY:

We are the publisher and editor of the Journal of Psychohistory (JOP), a not-for-profit, peer reviewed scholarly journal that has been publishing four quarterly issues per year, on a wide range of topics from a psychohistorical perspective, since 1973 — without grants, university funding, or any other source of income other than from subscriptions. The subscription fees are used to cover office technology and supplies, typesetting, printing, and the post office. No one receives a salary.

For more information visit
https://psychohistory.us/articles/hein-s-lotto-d-2024-a-letter-and-a-special-offer-from-the-publishers-of-the-journal-of-psychohistory-psychohistory-news-433-11/

Psychobiography Reading Group
of the Psychohistory Forum

10th Meeting
October 19, 2024 (11:00am – 1pm EDT; room opens at 10:30 am)

Melanie Klein, earlier underestimated in America, was a leading figure in psychoanalytic circles from the 1920s until her death in 1960. Parent of Object Relations theory, she saw the development of children, and of the female in particular, in a way that was both an extension of and a challenge to orthodox Freudian thinking. Her theories are still growing in influence around the world. Melanie Klein was not only a highly original theorist, a major contributor to psychoanalysis, and effective practitioner, but a thoroughly fascinating woman.

For more information and to RSVP – visit
https://psychohistoryforum.com/psychobiography-reading-group-of-the-psychohistory-forum-10th-meeting/

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Psychobiography Reading Group
of the Psychohistory Forum
9th Meeting
August 3, 2024 (11:00am – 1pm EDT; room opens at 10:30 am)

Carl Jung (1875 – 1961) was a Swiss psychologist and psychiatrist who founded analytic psychology, in some respects a response to Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis. Jung proposed and developed the concepts of the extraverted and the introverted personality, archetypes, and the collective unconscious. His work has been influential in psychiatry and in the study of religion, literature, and related fields. (Read further, from Britannica, at https://www.britannica.com/biography/Carl-Jung)

For more information and to RSVP, visit
https://psychohistoryforum.com/psychobiography-reading-group-of-the-psychohistory-forum-9th-meeting/

JON MILLS’s END OF THE WORLD: CIVILIZATION AND ITS FATE
BOOK CELEBRATION VIRTUAL CONFERENCE

JUNE 9, 2024, SUNDAY (12-3PM EDT/EST)
[Virtual room opens at 11:30am EDT/EST]
Attendance is FREE, but RSVP is required (see the form below)

This conference is the celebration of a new book by JON MILLS, a philosopher, psychoanalyst, and clinical psychologist – END OF THE WORLD: CIVILIZATION AND ITS FATE. The author and a few colleagues will be reflecting on the topics discussed in this book.

For more information please follow this page:
https://mindmendmedia.com/6-9-24-jon-mills-book-celebration-end-of-the-world/

Invitation to Publish with
The Journal of Psychohistory

140 Riverside Drive
New York, NY 10024-2605
212 799-5207

www.psychohistory.com

David Lotto, Editor
Susan Hein, Publisher

May 2024

Dear IPhA Presenters and Panelists,

As we look forward to the 47th Annual IPhA Conference this week, we believe many of you have well written and thought-provoking papers and ideas to present.

If you have a paper that you believe would be suitable for publication in the Journal of Psychohistory, we invite you to submit it.

The JOP is a scholarly, peer-reviewed quarterly journal now beginning its 52nd year of publication. Publication of an article in the Journal of Psychohistory provides broad exposure to your work throughout the world — to libraries and other institutions as well as to individual subscribers and certainly to IPhA members who may not be able to attend all the presentations this year.

Instructions for Contributors: The Journal welcomes original manuscripts that address issues pertaining to the psychological factors, individual or group, which influence important current or past political and/or historical events. We also welcome articles on childhood and the family, past and present. Maximum length — including abstracts, endnotes, and references — should be 9,000 words. All manuscripts must include an abstract of a maximum of 200 words, and a brief biographical statement of no more than 150 words. Manuscripts should be composed on a word processor and sent electronically as a MS Word document to David Lotto by email at . Manuscripts should follow APA or University of Chicago Manual of Style. There is a blind review policy so authors should try to leave out all identifying information from the manuscript itself. The author’s name, contact information and the brief biographical statement should be on a separate title page.

We hope to see you at the Conference.

Sincerely,

David Lotto and Susan Hein

The Journal of Psychohistory is owned and published by The Association for Psychohistory, Inc.,
a not –for-Profit corporation (Fed. ID No. 51-0192402) chartered by the State of New York

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IPhA’s Faith, Psychology and Social Justice Working Group

RELIGION, FREUD, AND WOMEN
SATURDAY, September 9th, 2023, 1:00 – 3:00 PM EDT
with Jefrey B. Rubin (presenter),
and Theresa Aiello, Gabriella Gusita, Trevor C. Pederson, Charlotte Schwartz (respondents)

Religion enjoys a problematic standing in psychoanalysis. Since its inception, psychoanalysis has traditionally pathologized and marginalized religion. The standard story is that Freud, the exemplar of Enlightenment rationalism, critiqued the childish illusions underlying religious belief and revealed its seamy underside. While religion has had a Janus-faced history — fostering morality and fueling oppression; promoting civic concern and legitimating fundamentalism — it is more complex than Freud’s account of its origins in childhood fears and compensations would suggest.

“Religion, Freud, and Women” by Jeffrey Rubin (the download link is above) examines a hidden source of Freud’s rejection of religion, namely, his problematic relationship with his mother. In this essay, Jeffrey Rubin draws on revisionist psychobiographical material about Freud’s relationship with his mother to demonstrate that he unconsciously linked religion and the maternal. His fears of the latter led to his rejection of the former. If it is unanalytic to fail to explore the hidden meanings and functions of religious experience, it is anti-analytic to take anything on faith including atheism. In rejecting religion and disavowing spirit, perhaps psychoanalysis has rejected a good deal more than superstition.

A psychoanalysis that worked through its countertransference about religion would open the door to a contemplative psychoanalysis, which would open a potential space for a more meaningful spirituality.

For more information and to RSVP, visit
https://mindmendmedia.com/religion-freud-and-women/

RELIGION AND DEATH A CENTURY LATER:
STANDING ON THE SHOULDERS OF FREUD AND JUNG
SATURDAY, JULY 29th, 2023, 1:00 – 3:00 PM EDT, ON ZOOM

About a hundred years ago, Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud penned influential writings on the nature of religion and how the religious imagination construes death.

Jung’s Psychology of the Unconscious (1912) and Freud’s The Future of an Illusion (1927) staked out contrasting views on the nature of religion. Jung saw the world’s mythologies and religions, like the dreams of individuals, as a repository of symbols innate to the human psyche and pointing towards wholeness and healing. Freud, also viewing religion and dreams as related expressions of the unconscious, construed both as wishful thinking that provides a compensation in fantasy for actual deprivation, especially sexual deprivation, and the wish for an all-powerful and nurturant parent.

In Jung’s framework, death is a symbolic construct representing psychic transformation, while in Freud’s, it is a literal reality denied by the false promise of an afterlife. What relevance do these ideas continue to have a century later and what else can we say at this time about the nature of religion and the problem of death?

There are innumerable ways of answering these big questions. In their short article “Religion and Death a Century Later” (published in the Journal of Psychohistory in 2023), Brian D’Agostino and Dorothea Leicher present a view informed by empirical findings from neuroscience, psychohistory research, and experimental psychology, with topics that include Terror Management Theory; the psychology of fundamentalism; Jungian archetypes as emergent outcomes of nature-nurture interaction; and the continued relevance of archetypes for understanding the psychology, history, and sociology of religion. Authors subsume these disparate topics into a unified and evidence-based perspective on religion and death, and then conclude with clinical and social implications.

For more information, please visit:
https://mindmendmedia.com/religion-and-death-a-century-later-standing-on-the-shoulders-of-freud-and-jung/

Call for Papers – Call for 3,000-word Chapters in Psychobiographies and the Autobiographies of Psychobiographers”
(due September 1, 2024)

As a companion volume to The Many Roads of the Builders of Psychohistory (2021), I am collecting chapters for Psychobiographies and the Autobiographies of Psychobiographers. On a space-available basis, some of these psychobiographies and autobiographies will be published, perhaps in shorter form, in Clio’s Psyche. My hope is that members of the Psychohistory Forum’s Research and Publication Group will make sufficient submissions so that in 2024 we can have a special fourth issue of Clio’s Psyche on psychobiography.

In addition, it is my expectation that at least a few members of the Psychobiography Reading Group and participants in my virtual courses, An In-Depth Understanding of Famous and Ordinary People Through the Art of Psychobiography (Object Relations Institute) and Creativity, Psychohistory, and Psychobiography (New Jersey Institute for Training in Psychoanalysis), will submit articles/chapters. It will also be quite good if admirers of William McKinley “Mac” Runyan, who participated in his Festschrift or are part of the Bay State Psychobiography Group, contribute to the special psychobiography issue and the book.

I hope you will consider joining in this endeavor and share this Call for Chapters/Clio Articles with your friends and colleagues.

Best regards, Paul

Paul H. Elovitz, PhD, Historian, Research Psychoanalyst, Online Psychohistory Professor, Psychohistory Forum Director, and Editor, Clio’s Psyche; Author, The Making of Psychohistory:  Origins,  Controversies,  and Pioneering  Contributors (Routledge, 2018); Editor, The Many Roads of the Builders of Psychohistory (ORI Academic Press, 2021); Author/Editor of other books and about 400 other publications. His primary specialty within the field is presidential psychobiography. See CliosPsyche.org, PsychohistoryForum.com, and PsychobiographyForum.com for additional information.

Call for Papers
Psychological Explorations of Election 2024: Psychobiography, Emotions, Age, Political Illusions, and Electoral Realities
(due February 1, 2024)

Dear Colleagues,

In 2023, the 2024 presidential nominating contests look like a repeat of 2020 with significant elements making the Democratic and part of the Republican parties unenthusiastic about their likely candidate. Biden’s age and low public opinion ratings and Trump’s age, denial he lost in 2020, support for the January 6, 2022 insurrection, and legal troubles are major issues behind these feelings. While DeSantis, Haley, and others jockey for support, it is unclear if any can get nominated in the face of Trump’s animosity and the loyalty of his supporters. We would like to invite you and other colleagues to probe the political psychology, psychohistory, and psychobiography of the subject for the Winter 2024 issue of Clio’s Psyche: Understanding the “Why” of Culture, Current Events, History, and Society.

We welcome different types of submissions, especially case studies, with psychoanalytic/ psychohistorical/psychological insights on a variety of aspects of the election such as:

• Psychobiographical explorations of Biden, DeSantis, Haley, Scott, et , and Trump
• Intense feelings of hatred toward Biden, Trump, et
• Detailed psychobiographical and psychopolitical comparisons of Biden and Trump
• Comparing Biden and Trump’s accomplishments, goals, and leadership
• The meaning and impact of Trump’s plan to be “a dictator for a Day” if elected
• Case studies of how voters are torn between idealization and denigration
• Ideological purity versus the desire to win: Identification with the winner
• The process of identification with a candidate and switching to a surviving candidate
• The relationship between the leader and the led in the 2024 election
• At what point do disappointments, dreams, and illusions give way to political realities
• Spouses and children of the candidates
• Perils of verbal (and non-verbal) slips along the campaign trail and in debates
• Cycles in American politics and their influence on the 2024 election
• Comparing the foreign policy of Biden and Trump
• American electoral fantasies and the world’s realities
• The mood of the voters: from the very energized to the stay-at-home non-voters
• The psychology of independent voters and the possibility of a strong third-party candidate
• Psychobiographical insights from candidates’ autobiographies, books, and speeches

For more information, please check the full Call for Papers at the following webpage:
https://cliospsyche.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/CFPsElection2024CliosPsycheDueFebruary-1-2024.pdf

Call for Papers – The Psychoanalysis and Psychohistory of Antisemitism
(due January 15, 2024)

Dear Colleague,

We welcome your submissions, especially personalized ones with psychoanalytic, psychological, and psychohistorical insights on the hatred of Jews in the contemporary and historical worlds, including on the following subjects:

• Definitions of antisemitism
• Is antisemitism a useful term, although Jew-hatred is more accurate?
• Envy and resentment of Jews, sometimes leading to paranoia
• Historical Jew-hating in polytheistic Egypt, Persia, and Rome
• Emerging rampant antisemitism during the Crusades
• Christian and Islamic antisemitism throughout history
• How durable will the Right-wing Christian support for Israel in the light of Christian Jew-hated be?
• Castration anxiety related to the Jewish covenant involving circumcision of the foreskin
• Sibling rivalry of Christians and Muslims who see Judaism as the oldest Abrahamic religion
• Disagreement with Israeli governmental policies as a cloak for antisemitism?
• Why is the hatred of Jews such an enduring feature of Western and Islamic history?
• A double standard for Jews: Is the “Jew as victim” challenged by Israeli toughness?
• Are Jews disdained for being fighters rather than victims?
• Anti-Israeli government policies conflated with antisemitism despite Jewish opposition to them
• Jewish self-hared: Antisemitism among Jews—Marx and many others
• What are the parallels between Jews in the S. and in pre-expulsion Spain and Germany?
• Pioneers of capitalism and modernity: Are Jews hated as the yeast of modern civilization?
• What is the relationship of Judaism and psychoanalysis?
• Why did Stalin, a mostly secret antisemite, call Jew-hatred a form of cannibalism?
• How does Left-wing and communist antisemitism differ from Right-wing Jew hatred?
• The literature of antisemitism and philosemitism

We seek articles from 1,500-2,500 words—including your title, author name with affiliation, a 25-word abstract, 7-10 keywords, and your brief biography (3-4 sentences) ending in your email address. Send documents in Microsoft Word (*docx or doc) format by January 15, 2024. We urge you to share this Call for Papers with colleagues and lists.

For more information, please visit:
https://cliospsyche.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/CFPsAntisemitismDueJanuary-15-2024.pdf

Call for Papers: Psychobiography
(due February 1, 2024, and ongoing)

Dear Colleague,
For this Spring 2024 Special Feature of Clio’s Psyche, we welcome your submissions with psychoanalytic, psychological, and psychohistorical insights, on PSYCHOBIOGRAPHY, including the following subjects:

• The autobiographies of psychobiographers (eventually to be included in an edited book along with psychobiographies they have written)
• Focus comparatively on the coping mechanisms of people in psychobiography
• Psychobiographical studies that illustrate transgenerational transmission of trauma and resilience
• Presenting a case study of an academic psychologist going beyond personal characteristics and traits to emphasize the childhood and life passage of the whole person
• A psychobiographical study of a major academic psychologist relating theory to her/his life
• Presenting a case study of an academic psychoanalyst focusing much less on theory after undergoing psychoanalytic training and delving into the childhood and inner life in a different manner
• Teaching psychobiography
• A comparative study of the approaches and methodologies of psychobiographers from a variety of fields
• A comparative psychobiography of ordinary people in crisis such as what is happening in Ukraine
• The role of gender: A comparative study of the psychobiographies written by women and men
• An in-depth study of psychobiographies of the 20th century including early Freudian ones
• Book reviews on psychobiographical monographs
• Reviews of psychobiographical books and major media biographies

For more information about this Call for Papers, please follow the link here:
https://cliospsyche.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/CFPsPsychobiographyFebruary-1-2024andOngoing.pdf

Psychoanalytical and Psychobiographical Explorations
of Shakespeare as Revealed in His Plays
with Dr. Jeffrey Rubin
September 30, 2023, 10:30am – 1pm EDT

Shakespeare captivates — and eludes — us. We are fascinated by his work and at pains to understand who he was. Given the absence of diaries, personal correspondence, or manifestos about his artistic process or opus, it is unsurprising that a dominant strain in recent criticism is skepticism about our ability to understand his personality or forge links between him and his work.

Jung, like Nietzsche, knew that one’s creative work is a “subjective confession.” Even though there is a dearth of overt biographical information about Shakespeare, there is something that the vast number of critics ignore — or neglect the implications of — the haunting personal testament encoded in the plays.

Dr. Rubin will draw on evocative moments in Coriolanus and Richard III, Hamlet and King Lear, Titus Andronicus and Julius Caesar, Measure for Measure and The Tempest based on psychoanalytic insights about empathy and unconscious symbolization, communication, and motivation, and dreaming and our capacity for creativity and self-healing.

When we consider Shakespeare’s oeuvre as a whole and bring together disparate and seemingly unrelated elements that are normally kept apart — from absent and devouring mothers and evil usurpers to stolen and mistaken identities and inauthentic selves — a new and startling picture occurs of a vexed genius whose creations were both an incalculable gift and a breathtaking attempt to solve a personal and disturbing mystery: what happened to me?

The bard’s work is, in a quintessentially Jungian way, both an unparalleled elucidation of human life and a poignant story about his creative attempts to symbolize what afflicted him and unconsciously strive to heal himself. My hope is that after this wide-ranging sojourn over Shakespeare’s plays and a recontextualization of his life and work and a more intimate encounter with him, we will not only engage his work with renewed vitality but be personally transformed and enriched.

For more information, and to RSVP, visit
https://psychohistoryforum.com/psychoanalytical-and-psychobiographical-explorations-of-shakespeare-as-revealed-in-his-plays/

FEAR OF SUCCESS
INTERACTIVE LECTURE and MEDITATIVE VISUALIZATION WORKSHOP
with SUSAN KAVALER-ADLER, PhD, ABPP, D.Litt., NCPsyA
OCTOBER 1, 2023 (10 am – 4:30 pm EDT/NYC)

This workshop will address fundamental themes of a subject that pertains to the inhibition of success, and forward psychological movement in many people.

The morning will offer lecture, plus questions, and discussion.

The afternoon will offer an experiential process, in which a guided meditative visualization will allow workshop participants to share their individual unique experience of the themes in the workshop with other group members, creating an atmosphere of bonding and meaningful psychological communication.

For more information and to register, visit
https://orinyc.org/fear-of-success-interactive-lecture-and-meditative-visualization-workshop-with-susan-kavaler-adler-phd-abpp-d-litt-ncpsya/

Call for Papers: Psychobiography
(due October 1, 2023)

For this Winter 2024 Special Feature of Clio’s Psyche, we welcome your submissions with psychoanalytic, psychological, and psychohistorical insights, on PSYCHOBIOGRAPHY, including the following subjects:

• The autobiographies of psychobiographers (eventually to be included in an edited book along with psychobiographies they have written).
• Focus comparatively on the coping mechanisms of people in psychobiography.
• Psychobiographical studies that illustrate transgenerational transmission of trauma and resilience.
• Presenting a case study of an academic psychologist going beyond personal. characteristics and traits to emphasize the childhood and life passage of the whole person.
• A psychobiographical study of a major academic psychologist relating theory to her/his life.
• Presenting a case study of an academic psychoanalyst focusing much less on theory. after undergoing psychoanalytic training and delving into the childhood and inner life in a different manner.
• Teaching psychobiography.
• A comparative study of the approaches and methodologies of psychobiographers from a variety of fields.
• A comparative psychobiography of ordinary people in crisis such as what is happening in Ukraine.
• The role of gender: A comparative study of the psychobiographies written by women and men.
• An in-depth study of psychobiographies of the 20^thcentury including early Freudian ones.
• Book reviews on psychobiographical monographs.
• Reviews of psychobiographical books and major media biographies.

For more information about this Call for Papers, please follow the link here:
https://psychohistoryforum.com/call-for-papers-psychobiography/

Call for Papers – The Relationship of Poetry and Psychoanalysis/Psychohistory
(due October 1, 2023)

We invite papers from poets, scholars, therapists, and our readers who enjoy thinking about or writing poetry to join in moving from unconscious to conscious expression, including on the following subjects:

• What does the poetry you write or read mean to you?
• Why not write a poem on how psychoanalysis impacted your life?
• What is the therapeutic value of poetry?
• Why is the poetry of death, dying, and loss so helpful in the grieving process?
• Why did Freud recognize that the poets, as well as the philosophers before him, discovered the unconscious?
• How do trauma and poetic expression intersect?
• What is the relationship between poetry and politics and social activism?
• What poem has meant the most to you and why?
• Why not write a psychobiographical account of one of your favorite poets?
• How does poetry help people to confront their deepest unconscious desires?
• How do people connect through poetry?
• How can applied psychohistorical poetry contribute to scholarship without being “academic”?
• How does poetry make sense of repressed emotions, rendering the inchoate coherent?
• Why not compare the poetry of fear, love, hatred, patriotism, and war?
• Why is poetry so meaningful in the Russian tradition?
• Why is poetry so relatively insignificant in the American tradition?

We seek articles from 1,500-2,500 words—including your title, author name with affiliation, a 25-word abstract, 7-10 keywords, and your brief biography (3-4 sentences) ending in your email address.  Send documents in Microsoft Word (*docx or doc) format by October 1, 2023. We would welcome a symposium article of up to 3,500 words on the subject, but it must be submitted by October 1 to be peer reviewed and to have colleagues write commentaries (of up to 1,200 words) of it.  We urge you to share this Call for Papers with colleagues and lists.

For more information, please check the full Call for Papers at the following webpage:

https://psychohistoryforum.com/call-for-papers-the-relationship-of-poetry-and-psychoanalysis-psychohistory/

Call for Papers – The Psychoanalysis and Psychohistory of Antisemitism
(due January 1, 2024)

We welcome your submissions, especially personalized ones with psychoanalytic, psychological, and psychohistorical insights on the hatred of Jews in the contemporary and historical worlds, including on the following subjects:

• Definitions of anti-Semitism.
• Is anti-Semitism a useful term, although Jew-hatred is more accurate?
• Envy and resentment of Jews, sometimes leading to paranoia.
• Historical Jew-hating in polytheistic Egypt, Persia, and Rome.
• Emerging rampant anti-Semitism during the Crusades.
• Christian and Islamic anti-Semitism throughout history.
• Castration anxiety related to the Jewish covenant involving circumcision of the foreskin.
• Sibling rivalry of Christians and Muslims who see Judaism as the Oldest Abrahamic religion.
• Disagreement with Israeli governmental policies as a cloak for anti-Semitism?
• Why is the hatred of Jews such an enduring feature of Western and Islamic history?
• A double standard for Jews: Is the “Jew as victim” challenged by Israeli toughness?
• Jewish self-hared: Anti-Semitism among Jews—Marx and many others.
• What are the parallels between Jews in the U.S. and in pre-expulsion Spain and Germany?
• Pioneers of capitalism and modernity: Are Jews hated as the yeast of modern civilization?
• What is the relationship of Judaism and psychoanalysis?
• Why did Stalin, a not-so-secret anti-Semite, call Jew-hatred a form of cannibalism?
• How does Left-wing and communist anti-Semitism differ from Right-wing Jew hatred?
• The literature of anti-Semitism.

We seek articles from 1,500-2,500 words—including your title, author name with affiliation, a 25-word abstract, 7-10 keywords, and your brief biography (3-4 sentences) ending in your email address. Send documents in Microsoft Word (*docx or doc) format by October 1, 2023. We urge you to share this Call for Papers with colleagues and lists. A high-quality article of up to 3500 words received by July 1, 2023 may be accepted as a symposium piece and distributed for commentaries.

For more information, please visit:
https://psychohistoryforum.com/call-for-papers-the-psychoanalysis-and-psychohistory-of-anti-semitism/

Call for Papers – Psychological Explorations of Election 2024:
Psychobiography, Emotions, Age, Political Illusions, and Electoral Realities
(due January 1, 2024)

At the moment (May 2023), the 2024 presidential nominating contests look like a repeat of 2020 with significant elements making both the Democratic and Republican parties unenthusiastic about their likely candidate.  Biden’s age and low public opinion ratings and Trump’s age, denial he lost in 2020, support for the January 6, 2022 insurrection, and legal troubles are major issues behind these feelings.  While DeSantis, Haley, Scott, and others jockey for support, it is unclear if any can get nominated in the face of Trump’s animosity and the loyalty of his supporters.  We would like to invite you and other colleagues to probe the political psychology, psychohistory, and psychobiography of the subject for the Winter 2024 issue of Clio’s Psyche: Understanding the “Why” of Culture, Current Events, History, and Society.

We welcome different types of submissions, especially case studies, with psychoanalytic/ psychohistorical/psychological insights on a variety of aspects of the election such as:

• Psychobiographical explorations of Biden, DeSantis, Haley, Scott, et al., and Trump
• Intense feelings of hatred toward Biden, Trump, et al.
• Detailed psychobiographical and psychopolitical comparisons of Biden and Trump
• Comparing Biden and Trump’s accomplishments, goals, and leadership
• Case studies of how voters are torn between idealization and denigration
• Ideological purity versus the desire to win: Identification with the winner
• The process of identification with a candidate and switching to a surviving candidate
• The relationship between the leader and the led in the 2024 election
• At what point do disappointments, dreams, and illusions give way to political realities
• Spouses and children of the candidates
• Perils of verbal (and non-verbal) slips along the campaign trail and in debates
• Cycles in American politics and their influence on the 2024 election
• Comparing the foreign policy of Biden and Trump
• American electoral fantasies and the world’s realities
• The mood of the voters: from the very energized to the stay-at-home non-voters
• The psychology of independent voters and the possibility of a strong third party candidate
• Psychobiographical insights from candidates’ autobiographies, books, and speeches

We seek articles from 1,500-2,500 words—including your title, author name with affiliation, a 25-word abstract, 7-10 keywords, and your brief biography (3-4 sentences) ending in your email address.  Send documents in Microsoft Word (*docx or doc) format by January 1, 2024. We would welcome a symposium article of up to 3,500 words on the subject, but it must be submitted by January 1 to be peer reviewed and to have colleagues write commentaries (of up to 1,200 words) of it.  We urge you to share this Call for Papers with colleagues and lists.

For more information, please check the full Call for Papers at the following webpage:

https://psychohistoryforum.com/psychological-explorations-of-election-2024-psychobiography-emotions-age-political-illusions-and-electoral-realities/

CHILDHOOD TRAUMA AND CREATION OF A MASS MURDERER
THROUGH THE LENS OF FAIRBAIRN’S OBJECT RELATIONS THEORY
Virtual Seminar
with Dr. David P. Celani
Date: October 8, 2023  (10:00am – 3:30pm EDT)

This seminar will examine the critical importance of childhood trauma related to the catastrophic consequences to the child of failures of the mother-child attachment process and the early maternal empathic failures.

We will investigate the parental failures that led Anders Breivik to become one of the most horrific murderers in recent history, as in 2011, he killed 77 of his countrymen in Norway.

The model that will be used to understand Breivik’s psychological development is Ronald Fairbairn’s Object Relations theory. Fairbairn developed a model of psychological development based on the earlier work of Ian Suttie, a fellow Scottish psychiatrist, who published a short text “The Origins of Love and Hate” in 1935. Fairbairn elaborated on Suttie’s fundamental premises that included the observation that the infant was unconditionally dependent on the mother from the outset and that the mother’s lack of empathy culminated the infant’s anger and frustration, which was designed to call attention to and alter the mother’s response to the child’s unmet need. He also described the infant’s need to keep the mother untainted by memories of her failures via the fantasy of a good mother. Fairbairn took these ideas and elaborated on them and published a series of papers spanning the years 1940-1958.

For more information and to register, visit
https://orinyc.org/childhood-trauma-and-creation-of-a-mass-murderer-through-the-lens-of-fairbairns-object-relations-theory/

A PSYCHODYNAMIC GUIDE TO UNDERSTANDING THE DEVELOPMENT
OF CHILDREN, ADOLESCENTS, AND THE CHILD-PARENT RELATIONSHIPS
10-week Virtual Psychoanalytic Training Course
with Jerome Blackman, M.D. FIPA
Thursdays, October 12th – December 21st, 2023
(8:40pm – 9:55pm EST/EDT)

This course is designed to illustrate the practical use of multiple analytic theories that explain both normal and disturbed child development and its effect on later symptomatology, object relations, and character formation. Each class will consist of a 45-minute lecture, followed by 30 minutes of Q&A, ample time to discuss your case vignettes with Dr. Blackman or ask questions regarding theory.

To accomplish a complete understanding of any child, Key Questions must be answered by caregivers about the current state of functioning of the child and the child’s relationship with important people in the home. Key Questions must also be answered regarding each prior developmental phase. Finally, the child must be seen in consultation, with or without parents present, depending on several factors – which will be elucidated.

Treatment selection will be discussed, as well as some correlation of different developmental and conflictual difficulties with later, adult, psychopathology.

The course is structured around a recent book, Blackman, J. & Dring, K. (2023).  Developmental Evaluation of Children and Adolescents: A Psychodynamic Guide (Routledge). Readings (in PDFs) will be supplied to all registered.

For more information and to register, visit
https://orinyc.org/a-psychodynamic-guide-to-understanding-the-development-of-children-adolescents-and-the-child-parent-relationships/

INTRODUCTION TO THE OBJECT RELATIONS CLINICAL THEORY
AND ITS CLINICAL EXPERIENTIAL APPLICATIONS
10-week Virtual Psychoanalytic Training Course
with Susan Kavaler-Adler, PhD, ABPP, NCPsyA
Thursdays, October 12 – December 21, 2023 (8:40pm – 9:55pm)

This course introduces all candidates and students to the fundamental mental states that lie behind the subjective self development during the first three years of life, as well as during the mind’s reparation process in psychotherapeutic clinical treatment.

We enter this terrain through a poignant vision of Melanie Klein’s theory, highlighting her unique and universal psychic positions: the Paranoid-Schizoid Position and the Depressive Position. Thomas Ogden’s (1986) The Matrix of the Mind: Object Relations and the Psychoanalytic Dialogue will be used in this course as a roadmap. The latter part of the course will relate to readings in Dr. Kavaler-Adler’s 2014 book The Klein-Winnicott Dialectic: Transformative New Metapsychology and Interactive Clinical Theory, related to these two primary British Object Relations theorists, enlarging the scope provided by Dr. Thomas Ogden. Dr. Kavaler-Adler will provide vivid clinical illustrations from his own practice.

For more information and to register, visit
https://orinyc.org/introduction-to-the-object-relations-clinical-theory-and-its-clinical-experiential-applications-2023/

Psychobiography Reading Group
of the Psychohistory Forum
5^th Meeting: October 14^th, 2023 (11:00am – 1pm EDT; room opens at 10:30 am)
Reading S. Freud’s Leonardo daVinci and a Memory of His Childhood

At our 5^th meeting, we will discuss Freud’s (1916) Leonardo da Vinci: A Psychosexual Study of an Infantile Reminiscence (translated by A.A. Brill), also known as Leonardo da Vinci: A Memory of His Childhood (translated by A. Tyson).

This essay by S. Freud is a reconstruction of Leonardo’s emotional life from his earliest years, it represents Freud’s first sustained venture into biography from a psychoanalytic perspective, and also his effort to trace one route that homosexual development can take. (From the publisher’s book description)

For more information and to RSVP – visit https://psychohistoryforum.com/psychobiography-reading-group-of-the-psychohistory-forum-5th-meeting/

BORN OF LOVE: TWO BOOKS CELEBRATING THE WORK OF MICHAEL EIGEN

VIRTUAL INTERACTIVE SEMINAR
with Drs. MICHAEL EIGEN, LORAY DAWS, and ROBIN BAGAI
NOVEMBER 18, 2023 (Saturday), 12-3pm EDT/EST
Attendance is FREE, but RSVP is required

This conference is a celebration of Michael Eigen’s contributions to psychology and psychoanalysis over many decades. It will feature Dr. Eigen talking about his work in addition to introducing Drs. Loray Daws and Robin Bagai who will speak about their respective books honoring his work: Loray Daws’s Introduction to the Work of Michael Eigen (Routledge, 2023) and Robin Bagai’s Commentaries on the Work of Michael Eigen: Oblivion and Wisdom, Madness and Music (Routledge, 2023).

For more information and to RSVP, visit
https://mindmendmedia.com/born-of-love-two-books-celebrating-the-work-of-michael-eigen/

TRICKY PROBLEMS IN ANALYTIC THERAPIES AND THEIR SOLUTIONS

LIVE VIRTUAL SEMINAR @ ORI
with JEROME S. BLACKMAN, M.D., FIPA
JUNE 24th (11AM — 5PM EDT/NYC), 2023
For more information and to register, visit
https://events.orinyc.org/tricky-problems-in-analytic-therapies-and-their-solutions/

Therapists inevitably feel more gratified in their work when their cases have better treatment outcomes. Even when people can utilize interpretive (psychoanalytically based) approaches in therapy, many problems crop up which can make their treatment difficult.

This interactive seminar delves into many of those problems, including 1) timing of interventions; 2) the male “Yes, Dear!”; 3) bullies (who demand medication or ask personal question about you); 4) highly intelligent people who doubt your ability to keep up; 5) wealthy people; 6) people asking too few questions during evaluation (Blackman, 2004); 7) asking too many question during treatment (Dorpat, 2000); 8) people with vague chief complaints; 8) setting up the working alliance and the therapeutic alliance (Greenson, Zetzel, Adatto – see Blackman, 2013); 9) planes of intrapsychic conflict: where to intervene; past vs. present unconscious (Sandler & Sandler, 1994); 10) people with high suicide risk (multiple references including Durkheim an Shneidman – in Blackman, 2004, chapter 8); 11) promiscuous people (acter-outers); 12) people who are involved with someone who is driving them crazy (Blackman, 2013a).

Many of these are in Blackman (2013), The Therapist’s Answer Book: Solutions to 101 Tricky Problems in Psychotherapy. This book tackles 101 common and some uncommon (though interesting) problems therapists face in treating patients who are amenable to a psychoanalytically based approach, such as wise guys, patients who sleep with your secretary, people who figure you out, people who move your furniture, and suicidal people. Each chapter is 3 to 5 pages and contains both a short answer to the problem and a longer, more theoretically complex answer. All chapters include examples of techniques used in the clinical setting with representative patients.

The Early Bird Registration is still available at:
https://events.orinyc.org/tricky-problems-in-analytic-therapies-and-their-solutions/

Call for Papers: Psychobiography
(due September 15, 2023)

For this Winter 2024 Special Feature of Clio’s Psyche, we welcome your submissions with psychoanalytic, psychological, and psychohistorical insights, on PSYCHOBIOGRAPHY, including the following subjects:

• The autobiographies of psychobiographers (eventually to be included in an edited book along with psychobiographies they have written).
• Focus comparatively on the coping mechanisms of people in psychobiography.
• Psychobiographical studies that illustrate transgenerational transmission of trauma and resilience.
• Presenting a case study of an academic psychologist going beyond personal. characteristics and traits to emphasize the childhood and life passage of the whole person.
• A psychobiographical study of a major academic psychologist relating theory to her/his life.
• Presenting a case study of an academic psychoanalyst focusing much less on theory. after undergoing psychoanalytic training and delving into the childhood and inner life in a different manner.
• Teaching psychobiography.
• A comparative study of the approaches and methodologies of psychobiographers from a variety of fields.
• A comparative psychobiography of ordinary people in crisis such as what is happening in Ukraine.
• The role of gender: A comparative study of the psychobiographies written by women and men.
• An in-depth study of psychobiographies of the 20^thcentury including early Freudian ones.
• Book reviews on psychobiographical monographs.
• Reviews of psychobiographical books and major media biographies.

For more information about this Call for Papers, please follow the link here:
https://psychohistoryforum.com/call-for-papers-psychobiography/

Call for Papers – Anti-Semitism
(due October 1, 2023)

We welcome your submissions, especially personalized ones with psychoanalytic, psychological, and psychohistorical insights on the hatred of Jews in the contemporary and historical worlds, including on the following subjects:

• Definitions of anti-Semitism.
• Is anti-Semitism a useful term, although Jew-hatred is more accurate?
• Envy and resentment of Jews, sometimes leading to paranoia.
• Historical Jew-hating in polytheistic Egypt, Persia, and Rome.
• Emerging rampant anti-Semitism during the Crusades.
• Christian and Islamic anti-Semitism throughout history.
• Castration anxiety related to the Jewish covenant involving circumcision of the foreskin.
• Sibling rivalry of Christians and Muslims who see Judaism as the Oldest Abrahamic religion.
• Disagreement with Israeli governmental policies as a cloak for anti-Semitism?
• Why is the hatred of Jews such an enduring feature of Western and Islamic history?
• A double standard for Jews: Is the “Jew as victim” challenged by Israeli toughness?
• Jewish self-hared: Anti-Semitism among Jews—Marx and many others.
• What are the parallels between Jews in the U.S. and in pre-expulsion Spain and Germany?
• Pioneers of capitalism and modernity: Are Jews hated as the yeast of modern civilization?
• What is the relationship of Judaism and psychoanalysis?
• Why did Stalin, a not-so-secret anti-Semite, call Jew-hatred a form of cannibalism?
• How does Left-wing and communist anti-Semitism differ from Right-wing Jew hatred?
• The literature of anti-Semitism.

We seek articles from 1,500-2,500 words—including your title, author name with affiliation, a 25-word abstract, 7-10 keywords, and your brief biography (3-4 sentences) ending in your email address. Send documents in Microsoft Word (*docx or doc) format by October 1, 2023. We urge you to share this Call for Papers with colleagues and lists. A high-quality article of up to 3500 words received by July 1, 2023 may be accepted as a symposium piece and distributed for commentaries.

For more information, please visit:
https://psychohistoryforum.com/call-for-papers-the-psychoanalysis-and-psychohistory-of-anti-semitism/

Call for Papers – The Relationship of Poetry and Psychoanalysis/Psychohistory
(due October 1, 2023)

We invite papers from poets, scholars, therapists, and our readers who enjoy thinking about or writing poetry to join in moving from unconscious to conscious expression, including on the following subjects:

• What does the poetry you write or read mean to you?
• Why not write a poem on how psychoanalysis impacted your life?
• What is the therapeutic value of poetry?
• Why is the poetry of death, dying, and loss so helpful in the grieving process?
• Why did Freud recognize that the poets, as well as the philosophers before him, discovered the unconscious?
• How do trauma and poetic expression intersect?
• What is the relationship between poetry and politics and social activism?
• What poem has meant the most to you and why?
• Why not write a psychobiographical account of one of your favorite poets?
• How does poetry help people to confront their deepest unconscious desires?
• How do people connect through poetry?
• How can applied psychohistorical poetry contribute to scholarship without being “academic”?
• How does poetry make sense of repressed emotions, rendering the inchoate coherent?
• Why not compare the poetry of fear, love, hatred, patriotism, and war?
• Why is poetry so meaningful in the Russian tradition?
• Why is poetry so relatively insignificant in the American tradition?

We seek articles from 1,500-2,500 words—including your title, author name with affiliation, a 25-word abstract, 7-10 keywords, and your brief biography (3-4 sentences) ending in your email address.  Send documents in Microsoft Word (*docx or doc) format by October 1, 2023. We would welcome a symposium article of up to 3,500 words on the subject, but it must be submitted by October 1 to be peer reviewed and to have colleagues write commentaries (of up to 1,200 words) of it.  We urge you to share this Call for Papers with colleagues and lists.

For more information, please check the full Call for Papers at the following webpage:

https://psychohistoryforum.com/call-for-papers-the-relationship-of-poetry-and-psychoanalysis-psychohistory/

Dr. Susan Kavaler-Adler’s book celebration – you are invited

Developmental Mourning, Erotic Transference, and Object Relations Psychoanalysis
(Vol I of Selected Papers, IP Books)
On SUNDAY APRIL 30^TH, 2023, 2 PM
@ the home of Dr. Denise Phillips,
43 East 10th Street (between University Place and Broadway), Apt 1A, NYC

BRING YOUR CURIOSITY, AND HAVE ACCESS TO THE AUTHOR SIGNING BOOKS

For more information and to RSVP, follow the link here:
https://events.orinyc.org/invitation-to-dr-susan-kavaler-adlers-book-party/   

For more information about Dr. Kavaler-Adler’s practice, theories, and creative endeavors, visit
www.kavaleradler.com.

Psychohistory Forum Hybrid (In-person and Virtual) Meeting
on 5-6-23

“I Double Dare You to Prove It to Me!
— Using Qualitative Observations to Understand Everyday Phenomena”
with Burton Norman Seitler, PhD (S.P.U.R. and Private Practice)

For more information about the topic, the presenter,
to read the work-in-progress paper in advance,
and to RSVP, visit:

https://psychohistoryforum.com/qualitative-methods-and-quantitative-research-competitive-but-loving-siblings/

Call for Papers: Psychobiography
(due September 15, 2023)

For this Winter 2024 Special Feature of Clio’s Psyche, we welcome your submissions with psychoanalytic, psychological, and psychohistorical insights, on PSYCHOBIOGRAPHY, including the following subjects:

• The autobiographies of psychobiographers (eventually to be included in an edited book along with psychobiographies they have written).
• Focus comparatively on the coping mechanisms of people in psychobiography.
• Psychobiographical studies that illustrate transgenerational transmission of trauma and resilience.
• Presenting a case study of an academic psychologist going beyond personal. characteristics and traits to emphasize the childhood and life passage of the whole person.
• A psychobiographical study of a major academic psychologist relating theory to her/his life.
• Presenting a case study of an academic psychoanalyst focusing much less on theory. after undergoing psychoanalytic training and delving into the childhood and inner life in a different manner.
• Teaching psychobiography.
• A comparative study of the approaches and methodologies of psychobiographers from a variety of fields.
• A comparative psychobiography of ordinary people in crisis such as what is happening in Ukraine.
• The role of gender: A comparative study of the psychobiographies written by women and men.
• An in-depth study of psychobiographies of the 20^thcentury including early Freudian ones.
• Book reviews on psychobiographical monographs.
• Reviews of psychobiographical books and major media biographies.

For more information about this Call for Papers, please follow the link here:
https://psychohistoryforum.com/call-for-papers-psychobiography/

Call for Papers – Anti-Semitism
(due October 1, 2023)

We welcome your submissions, especially personalized ones with psychoanalytic, psychological, and psychohistorical insights on the hatred of Jews in the contemporary and historical worlds, including on the following subjects:

• Definitions of anti-Semitism.
• Is anti-Semitism a useful term, although Jew-hatred is more accurate?
• Envy and resentment of Jews, sometimes leading to paranoia.
• Historical Jew-hating in polytheistic Egypt, Persia, and Rome.
• Emerging rampant anti-Semitism during the Crusades.
• Christian and Islamic anti-Semitism throughout history.
• Castration anxiety related to the Jewish covenant involving circumcision of the foreskin.
• Sibling rivalry of Christians and Muslims who see Judaism as the Oldest Abrahamic religion.
• Disagreement with Israeli governmental policies as a cloak for anti-Semitism?
• Why is the hatred of Jews such an enduring feature of Western and Islamic history?
• A double standard for Jews: Is the “Jew as victim” challenged by Israeli toughness?
• Jewish self-hared: Anti-Semitism among Jews—Marx and many others.
• What are the parallels between Jews in the U.S. and in pre-expulsion Spain and Germany?
• Pioneers of capitalism and modernity: Are Jews hated as the yeast of modern civilization?
• What is the relationship of Judaism and psychoanalysis?
• Why did Stalin, a not-so-secret anti-Semite, call Jew-hatred a form of cannibalism?
• How does Left-wing and communist anti-Semitism differ from Right-wing Jew hatred?
• The literature of anti-Semitism.

We seek articles from 1,500-2,500 words—including your title, author name with affiliation, a 25-word abstract, 7-10 keywords, and your brief biography (3-4 sentences) ending in your email address. Send documents in Microsoft Word (*docx or doc) format by October 1, 2023. We urge you to share this Call for Papers with colleagues and lists. A high-quality article of up to 3500 words received by July 1, 2023 may be accepted as a symposium piece and distributed for commentaries.

For more information, please visit:
https://psychohistoryforum.com/call-for-papers-the-psychoanalysis-and-psychohistory-of-anti-semitism/

Call for Papers – The Relationship of Poetry and Psychoanalysis/Psychohistory
(due October 1, 2023)

We invite papers from poets, scholars, therapists, and our readers who enjoy thinking about or writing poetry to join in moving from unconscious to conscious expression, including on the following subjects:

• What does the poetry you write or read mean to you?
• Why not write a poem on how psychoanalysis impacted your life?
• What is the therapeutic value of poetry?
• Why is the poetry of death, dying, and loss so helpful in the grieving process?
• Why did Freud recognize that the poets, as well as the philosophers before him, discovered the unconscious?
• How do trauma and poetic expression intersect?
• What is the relationship between poetry and politics and social activism?
• What poem has meant the most to you and why?
• Why not write a psychobiographical account of one of your favorite poets?
• How does poetry help people to confront their deepest unconscious desires?
• How do people connect through poetry?
• How can applied psychohistorical poetry contribute to scholarship without being “academic”?
• How does poetry make sense of repressed emotions, rendering the inchoate coherent?
• Why not compare the poetry of fear, love, hatred, patriotism, and war?
• Why is poetry so meaningful in the Russian tradition?
• Why is poetry so relatively insignificant in the American tradition?

We seek articles from 1,500-2,500 words—including your title, author name with affiliation, a 25-word abstract, 7-10 keywords, and your brief biography (3-4 sentences) ending in your email address.  Send documents in Microsoft Word (*docx or doc) format by October 1, 2023. We would welcome a symposium article of up to 3,500 words on the subject, but it must be submitted by October 1 to be peer reviewed and to have colleagues write commentaries (of up to 1,200 words) of it.  We urge you to share this Call for Papers with colleagues and lists.

For more information, please check the full Call for Papers at the following webpage:

https://psychohistoryforum.com/call-for-papers-the-relationship-of-poetry-and-psychoanalysis-psychohistory/

Psychohistory Forum – The Psychoanalysis/Psychology of Fear and Anxiety – on 1-7-23

Dear Colleagues,

Fear dominates so much of our personal, political, and societal lives that we think it valuable to focus on the psychodynamics of this basic emotion, which has so many ramifications. Of course, as human beings, we tend to want to hide our fears from most around us if not ourselves, mostly finding socially acceptable ways of expressing them. The sense that others share our fears seems to make them more palatable. Does the aggrandizement of politicians, musicians, and leaders of all sorts serve as a way of escaping from our sense of vulnerability in a world in which there is so much to fear? To what extent has the media, especially during the pandemic, enlarged our fears? Is the prevalence of escaping into media (TV, movies, games, social media, echo chambers of the like-minded) an attempt to lessen our anxieties?  It is our hope that in probing fear, we can be more realistic in dealing with and discouraging escapism into alcohol, drugs, and other negative outlets.

Because FEAR is endemic in our society and world, we are having this work-in-progress virtual meeting on “The Psychoanalysis/Psychology of Fear and Anxiety” with Drs. Inna Rozentsvit, Paul Elovitz, and a third presenter (TBA) on January 7, 2023 (Saturday), from 10:30am-1pm EST.  The virtual meeting space open at 10:00am EST.

Topic: Psychohistory Forum Meeting on FEAR – January 7, 2023

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85404587774?pwd=WXFsN2ZuSGRHSHgwcjBjb01VMldGQT09

Meeting ID: 854 0458 7774
Passcode: 422113
Dial by your location
+1 646 558 8656 US (New York)
+1 646 931 3860 US
Meeting ID: 854 0458 7774
Passcode: 422113
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbtyMco6UX

We look forward to a lively and informative January 7^th presentation and discussion, which I hope you can attend after reading the papers (7a and 7b of this Newsletter) and perhaps writing your own commentary on the papers or a longer paper on the subject (see the Call for Papers).

Best regards,

Paul

Paul H. Elovitz, PhD, Historian, Research Psychoanalyst, Professor, Director of the Psychohistory Forum, Editor, Clio’s Psyche, and the Author of The Making of Psychohistory: Origins, Controversies, and Pioneering Contributors (Routledge Publisher),

Clio’s Psyche – FEAR – Call for Papers (due 1-8-23)

Call for Papers:
The Psychoanalysis and Psychology of Fear

In conjunction with our January 7, 2023 Psychohistory Forum Work-in-Progress virtual meeting on the subject with three presenters, for this Spring 2023 Special Issue of Clio’s Psyche, we welcome your submissions, especially personalized ones with psychoanalytic, psychological, and psychohistorical insights on FEAR in a polarized, pandemic stressed world suffering from information overload and attacks on democracy and rationality, including the following subjects:

• Why does fear abound in our personal lives, country, society, and world?
• Why not write about fear in your life, and its ramifications, as is Clio’s editor?
• How do we process fear rather than become immobilized by it or using it to go to war?
• What are the gender differences in the processing of fear in the U.S. and elsewhere?
• Is the enormous anxiety of our society of rapid technological change based upon our fears?
• How do you deal with a patient’s anxiety and fear being so great that they may kill themselves?
• Why are the culture wars (abortion, gay marriage, gender, etc.) based so much on fear of change?
• In “gun crazy America,” do we unconsciously engender fear by encouraging gun ownership?
• Are personal and societal enemies essential to maintain a national and individual identity?
• Why did Bush 43 find it strange to lose the Soviet enemy and then start a needless war?
• Did the Soviet Union collapse because Gorbachev saw the U.S. as a model rather than enemy?
• To what extent has the COVID-19 pandemic enlarged our fears and affected our behavior?
• Why not write a comparative article on the impact of the Spanish Flu and the current pandemic?
• How does fear relate to hope, early childhood, and good/bad/troubled interpersonal relations?
• Why not write an anxiety/fear-focused book review of a famous or important person?

We seek commentaries of up to 1,200 words in the file or longer articles from 1,500-2,500 words—including your title, author name with affiliation, a 25-word abstract, 7-10 keywords, and your brief biography (3-4 sentences) ending in your email address. Send documents in Microsoft Word (*docx or doc) format by January 8, 2023. A high-quality, extremely well written article of up to 3,000 words, which may be accepted to serve as an additional symposium article if received by January 15, 2023.

For the complete Call for Papers, follow the link below:
https://cliospsyche.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Psychological-and-Psychoanalytic-Reflections-on-Fear-CFPs-Due-Jan.15-2023.docx

Functional Psycho-Neuro-Biology Approach to Psychosomatics — in Mental Health and Everyday Life – Workshop at ORI on 12-10-22

Workshop with Dr. Inna Rozentsvit
Date: December 10th, 2022, 10:00am – 4pm (Saturday)
Location: Virtual participation only!
To Register for this workshop, please complete the Registration form
Continuing Education Information: See details here

This full-day workshop will explore a very needed, although sometimes controversial area of one’s life, practice and research, related to brain-mind-body connection, PSYCHOSOMATICS – through the lens of Functional Psycho-Neuro-Biology.

Sigmund Freud could be called the father of psychosomatics, as he brought to light the origins of psychosomatic phenomena in neuroses, war trauma, and hysteria (a modern conversion disorder). He also was the first one to talk about connection of organic symptoms to mental mechanisms of their origins, as well as utilizing psychoanalytic treatment for these conditions, saying: “The psychoanalytic treatment of obvious organic disturbances is not without a future, since it is not unusual for a psychic factor to play a role in the genesis and persistence of these affections” (Freud, 1923).

Later in the 20^th century, Object Relations psychoanalyst Joyce McDougall talked about “theaters” of the mind and of the body, borrowing the metaphor of a theater from Anna O, who mentioned that the free associations during her therapy (with Breuer and Freud) were her “private theater.” Joyce McDougall called the body theater “the psychosoma on the psychoanalytic stage.”

In her 1989 book, Theaters of the Body: A Psychoanalytic Approach to Psychosomatic Illness, McDougall wrote that “severe split between psyche and soma… was due to our patients’ unawareness of their emotional states in threatening situations. The curtains on the mind’s stage were tightly drawn, so to speak; no sound reached the outside ears, and yet a drama was being played out in this secret theater that threatened the very life of the theater owner himself.”

Neuroscience research of the last 20–30 years revealed some important mechanisms of the mind/brain-body/soma interactions. E.g., recently, neurobiological researchers identified three distinct brain networks that are involved in movement, cognition, and affect, which are linked to the function of internal organs and the adrenal medulla (responsible for production of stress hormones). Dysfunction of such networks’ communications are at the core of all psychosomatic conditions. Understanding these mechanisms allows practitioners from any educational background to create individualized plans for one’s psychosomatic health, when ideas from Functional Psycho-Neuro-Biology are employed.

Other examples of psychosomatics at play involve taking a placebo and getting positive, healing results. There are more examples of clinical observations done by physicians-internists about specific emotions (such as guilt, envy, and feeling resentment/upset), if chronic and unprocessed, correlating with the majority of gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, cancerous and other serious medical conditions.

The contribution of the Functional Neuro-Psycho-Biology to the field of psychosomatics is about truly connecting the psyche/mind and the body/soma – through the “brain”/“neuro” part. The “neuro” part is represented by the central nervous system (the brain and the spinal cord), the peripheral neural system (the nerves and plexuses serving the skeleton-muscular organs, skin, and others), and the autonomic nervous systems (sympathetic and parasympathetic). Sympathetic and parasympathetic systems are partners: the first one helps us to deal with stress, fight-and-flight, and be on alert, while the second one helps us to rest, digest and eliminate. These two parts of the autonomic nervous system are also involved in hormonal production, so autonomic dysfunction leads to disbalance in the whole-body-machine. This way, Functional Neuro-Psycho-Biology can explain our life through a “wholistic” approach, as well as provide a platform for creative (and sometimes simple) solutions for health and healing. As double-blinded (placebo controlled) studies related to visualizations, breathing practices and meditative therapies – all point to bilateral connections between the psyche and the soma: top-down and bottom up processing (an important part of the Functional Neuro-Psycho-Biology system) that can make-or-break psychosomatic illness.

During this workshop, we will brush up our knowledge about utilization of Triune Brain theory of Paul MacLean, Polyvagal theory of Stephen Porges, Epigenetics, Attachment, as well as all processes and phenomena used in Functional Neuro-Psycho-Biology (brain laterality, “don’t use it – lose it,” “what fires together – wires together,” “regions connected together – grow up together,” and others), and we will integrate all of these into one comprehensive whole.

Case examples will include psychosomatic conditions related to respiratory, gastrointestinal, cardiac, immune, allergy, metabolic and other systems.

Winter 2023 Virtual Open House at ORI:
Developmental Trauma, Psychic Structure,
And Clinical Engagement
With Those With Primal Vulnerabilities

When: January 8, 2023 – from 1pm to 3:30pm EST
Location: Virtual

Participation is free, but registration is required.
Please fill out the registration form below.

The first part of the Open House will consist of a lecture given by Dr. Susan Kavaler-Adler, the ORI Executive Director, on her clinical experience working with those who have developmental arrest due to traumatic disruption in the primal bonding with the mother. Distinctions between different character disorder types will be discussed, as well as commonalities.

Commonalities include the prevalence of dissociative defense mechanisms as opposed to the employment of neurotic defenses that are based on repression. The absence of the psychic containment of repression will be discussed. The consequent defensive reactivity that is evident “in the moment” will be contrasted with the self-reflection that can manifest when psychic and transitional space have developmentally evolved through adequate infant/mother bonding and adequate separation-individuation.

Distinctions between the types of psychic structures that develop, with different maternal (and paternal) character types will be discussed. The common terms for such character distinctions are known as the Schizoid, Borderline, and Narcissistic conditions.

Psychic structure distinctions relate to the different defense styles of the different conditions, and these different defense styles inform us about different clinical approaches. For example, mirroring vulnerability in the Narcissist contrasts with questioning self-destructive behavior in the Borderline, or direct interpretation of Internal World fantasy with the Schizoid character.

Since the major eating disorders are also linked with such character pathology, anorexic behavior in the schizoid and narcissistic personalities can be compared with the bulimic behavior in the borderline.

Following the lecture, Dr. Kavaler-Adler will demonstrate some of these concepts in an “in vivo” role-play with Dr. Loray Daws  Dr. Daws will play one of his anonymous patients, and Dr. Kavaler-Adler will play the role of the psychotherapist. Group discussion and questions will follow. Also questions about the courses and programs offered by the Object relations Institute will be entertained.

For more information, please visit www.orinyc.org or/and write to the Institute’s Programs Director to