Year 1: 30 didactic classes; 6 process groups; 2 workshops

Intro Series (4-5 classes)‍ ‍

09.16.25 Personal descriptions of analytic sensibility All faculty encouraged to come

09.23.25 The framing of psychoanalytic therapy Sharon Bernstein
Ethics and Sensibilities : and so we begin
Syllabus
Readings:
1. Mc Williams, Nancy. Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy: A Practitioner’s Guide, The Guilford Press , New York 2004 Chapters 1 and 2

2. Smith, Kevin R, Therapeutic Aims and Human Flourishing

09.30.25 The Framing of Psychoanalytic Therapy George Herrity

Syllabus
Readings:
Required:

McWilliams, N. (2004). Psychoanalytic psychotherapy: A practitioner's guide. Guilford Press.

- Chapters 3: The Therapist’s Preparation pp. 46 – 72.

-Chapter 4: Preparing the Client pp. 73 – 98.

Optional:

Briggs, S., Netuveli, G., Gould, N., Gkaravella, A., Gluckman, N. S., Kangogyere, P., & Lindner, R. (2019). The effectiveness of psychoanalytic/psychodynamic psychotherapy for reducing suicide attempts and self-harm: systematic review and meta-analysis. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 214(6), 320-328.

Shedler, J. (2020). Where is the evidence for “evidence-based” therapy? 1. Outcome research and the future of psychoanalysis, 44-56.

Tarzian, M., Ndrio, M., & Fakoya, A. O. (2023). An introduction and brief overview of psychoanalysis. Cureus, 15(9).

10.07.25 The framing of psychoanalytic therapy Kevin Smith

Syllabus

Readings:
Required Readings:

McWilliams, N. (2004). Psychoanalytic therapy: A practitioner’s guide. Chapters 5 & 6. Guilford Press.
Smith, Kevin R. (2025). Three aspects of therapeutic practice. (Handout for this class.)
Kepple, Alyson & Smith, Kevin R. (2025). Psychoanalytic theories answer four fundamental questions. (Handout for this class.)

Supplemental readings (not required):

Aron, L. & Atlas, G. (2019). Dramatic dialogue: Dreaming and drama in contemporary clinical practice. Psychoanalytic Perspectives, 16, 249-271.

Bekes, V. & Hoffman, L. (2020). The “something more” than working alliance: Authentic relational moments. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 68, 1051-1064.

Geist, R. A. (2020). Interpretation as carrier of selfobject functions: Catalyzing inborn potential. Psychoanalysis, Self and Context, 15, 338-347.

10.14.25 Introduction to Situatedness Patricia Donohue

Syllabus

Required Readings (3):

Crane, L. S. (2020). Invisible: A mixt Asian woman’s efforts to see and be seen in psychoanalysis. Studies in Gender and Sexuality, 21(2), 127-135.

Jones, A. L. (2020). A Black woman as an American analyst: Some observations from one woman’s life over four decades. Studies in Gender and Sexuality, 21(2), 77-84.

Burch, B. (2021). Engaging the whitewashed countertransference: Race unexpectedly appears for therapy. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 31(1), 28-37.

Supplemental Materials (3):

Dajani, K. G. (2022). The social unconscious: Then and now. International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, 19(2), 179-186.

Layton, L. (2006). Attacks on linking: The unconscious pull to dissociate individuals from their social context. In Psychoanalysis, class and politics (pp. 107-117). Routledge.

Aron, L. (2000). Self-reflexivity and the therapeutic action of psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic psychology, 17(4), 667.

Q1. Blending of How is the Human Mind Structured with What Motivates us and how do these motivations contribute to development‍ ‍

10.21.25 Process Group Landaiche

10.28.25 Freud Bill Cornell

Freud’s Theory of Mind: The Centrality of Repression and the Development of Unconscious and Conscious Mental Processes

Syllabus

References/Readings:

1. Shulman, M.E. (2021), What Use is Freud? Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 69: 1108-1113. For the purposes of this class, pages 1108-1110 are essential reading.

2. Ogden, T.H. (2020). Toward a revised form of analytic thinking and practice: The evolution of analytic theory of mind. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 86, 219-243. For the purposes of this class, please read pages 219-225. The remainder of this paper will be relevant over the course of subsequent classes.

3. Freud, S. (1915). Repression. The Standard Edition, Vol. 14, 141-158.

4. Freud, S. (1911). Formulations on the two principles of mental functioning. The Standard Edition, Vol. 12, 213-226.

Supplemental articles:

Alford, C. (2015). The obsolescence of psychoanalysis in the age of neuroscience. Free Associations, 16, 1-19.

11.04.25 Freud Bill Cornell

Evolution of American Ego Psychology from Freud’s Original Concepts

Syllabus

References/Readings :

1. Loewald, H.W. (1950). Ego and reality. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 32: 10-18.

2. Poland, W. S. (2002). The interpretive attitude. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 50: 807-826.

3. Novac, A. & Blinder, B.J. (2021). Free association in psychoanalysis and its links to neuroscience contributions. Neuropsychoanalysis, 23: 55-81.

Supplemental articles:

11.11.25 Freud Bill Cornell

Contemporary revisions of the nature of the unconscious and the functions of repression

Syllabus

Required Readings:

1. Bollas, C. (1992). Psychic Genera, chapter 4 in Being a Character: Psychoanalysis & Self experience.New York: Hill and Wang, pp.66-100.

2. Panksepp, J., Clarici, A., Vandekerckhove, M., and Yovell, Y. (2019). Neuro-Evolutionary Foundations of Infant Minds: From Psychoanalytic Visions of How Primal Emotions Guide Constructions of Human Minds toward Affective Neuroscientific Understanding of Emotions and Their Disorders, Neuropsychoanalysis, 39,1: 36-51.

3. Seligman, S. (2021). Winnicott, in Topeka: Ego psychology, American culture, and object relations. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 69: 469-489.

Supplemental articles:

Seligman, S. (2025). Tradition and change in psychoanalytic theory: Querying the infantile. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 106: 588-596.

11.18.25 Kleinian model of the mind Loren Sobel
Klein’s Becoming: The Kleinian World. Part 1

Syllabus

Video:

Klein, Melanie, and West Lodge. “Melanie Klein’s Technique Then and Now,” Melanie Klein Trust. 2016
You can watch this video at the following link, the pdf of the recording is provided: https://vimeo.com/174515650

Required Reading:

Klein, M. (1935). A contribution to the psychogenesis of manic-depressive states.The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 16, 145–174.

Klein, M. (1940). Mourning and its relation to manic-depressive states.The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 21, 125–153.

Optional Readings:

Feldman, M. (2018). Lectures on technique by Melanie Klein: A commentary.The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 99(4), 990–992.

Seidman, S. (2019). The psychological origins of the self: A reading of Melanie Klein.IJP Open, 6(28), 1–31.

11.25.25 Kleinian model of the mind Loren Sobel
Klein’s Becoming: The Kleinian World. Part 2
Syllabus

Video:

Introduction to Melanie Klein: Paranoid-Schizoid and Depressive Position- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnT8o1DF0VE

‍ ‍

Required Reading:

Klein, M. (1935). A contribution to the psychogenesis of manic-depressive states.The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 16, 145–174.

Klein, M. (1940). Mourning and its relation to manic-depressive states.The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 21, 125–153.

Optional Readings:

Feldman, M. (2018). Lectures on technique by Melanie Klein: A commentary.The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 99(4), 990–992.

Seidman, S. (2019). The psychological origins of the self: A reading of Melanie Klein.IJP Open, 6(28), 1–31.

12.02.25 Process Group Landaiche

12.09.25 Kleinian model of the mind Loren Sobel
Klein’s Becoming: The Kleinian World. Part 2

Syllabus

Required Reading:

Klein, “Notes on Some Schizoid Mechanisms.” Klein, Melanie. “A Contribution to the Psychogenesis of Manic-Depressive States.” The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 16 (1935): 145.

Optional Readings:

Soreanu, Raluca. “The Psychic Life of Fragments: Splitting from Ferenczi to Klein.” American Journal of Psychoanalysis 78, no. 4 (December 2018): 421–44.

Aguayo, J. (2018). D.W. Winnicott, Melanie Klein, and W.R. Bion: The controversy over the nature of the external object—Holding and container/contained (1941–1967). Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 87(4), 767–807.

12.16.25 Winnicott & Models of the Mind Miriam DeRiso
Mind and its Relation to the Psycho-Soma

Syllabus

Required Readings:

Winnicott, D. (1975) Chapter XIX. Mind and its Relation to the Psyche-Soma [1949], International Psychoanalytic Library (100): 243-254.

Anderson, J.W. (2014) How D. W. Winnicott Conducted Psychoanalysis, Psychoanalytic Psychology, 31, 375-395.

Supplemental Readings:

Seligman, S. (2025) Holding and Containing: “The Metaphor of the Baby” in Winnicott, Bion and Klein. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, (35)(1), 46-54.

Ogden, T. (2013) Chapter 2 The Mother, the Infant and the Matrix: Interpretations of Aspects of the Work of Donald Winnicott. New Library of Psychoanalysis, (78): 46-72.

Ogden, T. (2018) The feeling of real: On Winnicott’s “Communicating and Not Communicating Leading to a Study of Certain Opposites”. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, (99)(6): 1288-1304.

Peltz, R. (2019) Tyler in the Labyrinth: A Young Child’s Journey from Chaos to Coherence. Psychoanalytic Dialogues,(29) (5): 627-631.

Little, M. (1985) Winnicott Working in Areas Where Psychotic Anxieties Predominate: A Personal Record. Free Associations: Psychoanalysis Groups Politics, Culture, 1D3: 9-42.

01.13.26 Winnicott & Models of the Mind Miriam DeRiso

Syllabus

Required Readings:

Winnicott, D.W. (1953) Transitional Objects and Transitional Phenomena--A Study of the First Not-Me Possession. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 34:89-87.

Corbett, K. (2022) Play Changes Us: Playing the Object, Becoming the Analyst. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association 70:263-282.

Supplemental Readings:

Corbett, K. (2014) The Analyst’s Private Space: Spontaneity, Ritual, Psychotherapeutic Action, and Self-Care. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 24, 637-647.

Ogden, T. (2019) Ontological Psychoanalysis or "What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?", The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 88: 661-684.

Shedler, J. (2022) That Was Then, This is Now: Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy for the Rest of Us. Contemporary Psychoanalysis 58:405-437.

01.18.26 Workshop 1 - Immigrant Fears (WPA Community) Miriam DeRiso & Patricia Donohue‍ ‍10am-4pm

Syllabus

Required Media/Readings:

Film: Green Border/Zielona granica (2023) directed by Agnieszka Holland (2 hours, 27 minutes, streaming on Apple TV, Amazon, Kanopy). Be advised that the film includes realistic depictions of violence, trauma and death.

As you watch the film, be attentive to the cultural/political situatedness of different social groups (refugees, townspeople and guards, activists) and the ways people in fear move towards recognition, relationship, care and reparation.

Tummala-Narra, P. (2020). The fear of immigrants. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 37(1), 50. [12 pages]

Dajani, K., Rao, J. M., & Tummala-Narra, L. P. (2024). Race and Culture in Psychoanalytic Therapy. Textbook of Psychoanalysis, 15. [18 pages]

Supplemental Readings:

Ahmed, S. (2004). The affective politics of fear. The cultural politics of emotion, 62-81.

Caflisch, J. (2020). “When reparation is felt to be impossible”: Persecutory guilt and breakdowns in thinking and dialogue about race. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 30(5), 578-594.

Eng, D. L. (2016). Colonial object relations. Social Text, 34(1), 1-19.

González, F. J. (2016). Only what is human can truly be foreign: The trope of immigration as a creative force in psychoanalysis. In Immigration in psychoanalysis (pp. 15-38). Routledge.

Hollander, N. C. (1998). Exile: paradoxes of loss and creativity. British Journal of Psychotherapy, 15(2), 201-215. [24 pages]

01.20.26 Winnicott & Models of the Mind Miriam DeRiso

Syllabus

Required Readings:

Winnicott, D. (1971) 6. The Use of an Object and Relating through Identifications, Playing and Reality, (17), 86-94.

Elkins, J. (2015) Motility, Aggression, and the Bodily I: An Interpretation of Winnicott, The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 2015, 84:943-973.

Smith, K. Winnicott on Development (summary)

Supplemental Readings:

Elkins, J. (2017) Revisiting Destruction in “The Use of an Object”, Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 86: 109-148

Benjamin, J. (1990) An Outline of Intersubjectivity: The Development of Recognition, Psychoanalytic Psychology 7:33-46.

Ogden, T. H. (2016) Destruction Reconceived: On Winnicott’s ‘The Use of an Object and Relating through Identifications’, International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 97: 1243-1262

McKay, R. (2019) Bread and Roses: Empathy and Recognition, Psychoanalytic Dialogues, (29)(1): 75-91.

Interview with Agnieszka Holland

01.27.26 Waddel and the baby: tying Freud, Klein, Winnicott (Bion too but that will not yet have been covered) Sharon Bernstein & Adam Haglund

Inside the Lives of Others

Syllabus

Required Readings:

Inside Lives Psychoanalysis and the Growth of the Personality; Revised edition, 2002 H. Karnac Ltd. London, pps xi-xix

Inside Lives Psychoanalysis and the Growth of the Personality; Revised edition, 2002 H. Karnac Ltd. London, Introduction and Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 pps 1-27

Inside Lives Psychoanalysis and the Growth of the Personality; Revised edition, 2002 H. Karnac Ltd. London, Chapters 3 and 4 pps 29-59

Supplemental Readings:

Director, Lisa. Revisiting the Psychoanalytic Object: Introduction. Psychoanalytic Dialogues. 28:1-11

Elkins, J. (2017) Revisiting Destruction in “ The Use of an Object”, Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 86: 109-148

Ogden, T. (2018) The feeling of real: On Winnicott’s “Communicating and Not Communicating Leading to a Study of Certain Opposites”. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, (99)(6) 1288-1304.

Ogden, T. (2016) Destruction Reconceived: On Winnicott’s “The Use of an Object and Relating through Identifications”. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, (97)(5): 1243-1262.

02.03.26 Process Group Landaiche

02.10.26 Waddel and the baby: tying Freud, Klein, Winnicott (Bion too but that will not yet have been covered) Sharon Bernstein & Adam Haglund

More on Getting Inside the Lives of Others: Projection and Learning

Syllabus

Media: (if you did not get to watch)

Everybody Rides the Carousel…1976—animated film of Erikson’s stages of psychological development. Directed John Hubley and written and produced by Faith Hubley….available on You Tube.

Required Readings:

Inside Lives Psychoanalysis and the Growth of the Personality; Revised edition, 2002 H.Karnac Ltd. London, Appendix 253-257.

Inside Lives Psychoanalysis and the Growth of the Personality; Revised edition, 2002 H Karnac Ltd, London, Chapters 5 and 6 and 7 pps 61-122.

Supplemental Readings:

Ogden, T. (2020) Toward a Revised Form of Analytic Thinking and Practice: The Evolution of Analytic Theory of Mind, Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 89, 219-243

Panskepp, J. Clarici, A., Vandekerckhove M, Yovell Y., (2019) Neuro-Evolutionary Foundations of Infant Minds: From Psychoanalytic Visions of How Primal Emotions Guide Constructions of Human Minds toward Affective Neuro-Understanding of Emotions and Their Disorders, Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 39: 36-51. (2018) The feeling of real: On Winnicott’s “Communicating and Not Communicating Leading to a Study of Certain Opposites”. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, (99)(6) 1288-1304.

Aguayo,J. (2018) D.W. Winnicott, Melanie Klein and W.R. Bion: The controversy over the nature of the external object-Holding and container-contained (1941-1967), Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 87(4), 767-807.

02.17.26 Waddel and the baby: tying Freud, Klein, Winnicott (Bion too but that will not yet have been covered) Sharon Bernstein & Adam Haglund

Inside the Lives of Others: Focus on Introjection

Syllabus

Media:

Media: (if you did not get to watch)

Everybody Rides the Carousel…1976—animated film of Erikson’s stages of psychological development. Directed John Hubley and written and produced by Faith Hubley….available on You Tube.

Required Readings:

Inside Lives: Psychoanalysis and the Growth of the Personality, Chapter eight, The Family, pps 123-137; Chapter nine, Puberty and Early Adolescence pps 139-156; Chapter ten and eleven, Mid Adolescence and Late Adolescence, 157-179.

Director, Lisa. Revisiting the Psychoanalytic Object: Introduction; Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 28; 1-11, 2018.

Shaw Daniel, Shame and Self-Alienation: A Trauma-Informed Psychoanalytic Perspective: Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 2024. Vol.44, No. 3,254-265.

Goldin, Daniel & Posner, Daniel S, The Original of Shame in Early Life: Psychoanalytic Inquiry: (2024) 44:3 234-244.

02.24.26 Let Us Hold What We Have Learned: A Chance to Review Sharon Bernstein, George Herrity, and Kevin Smith

Syllabus

Readings:

Ogden, Thomas H. (2020) Toward a revised form of analytic thinking and practice: The evolution of analytic theory of mind. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 86, 219-243.

Aguayo, J. (2018) D.W. Winnicott, Melanie Klein, and W. R. Bion: The controversy over the nature of the external object—Holding and container/contained (1941-1967) Psychoanalytic Quarterly

Winnicott, D. (1971) 6. The Use of an Object and Relating through Identifications, Playing and Reality, (17), 86-94

(Not required)Elkins, J. (2017) Revisiting Destruction in “The Use of the Object’, Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 86, 109-148

03.03.26 Neuropsychoanalysis (structure of mind, motivations and development) Noah Rahm

‘Drives’ in Human Development

Required Reading:

Solms, M. (2021). Revision of drive theory. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 69:1033–1091.

Optional Readings:

Denis, P. (2016). The Drive revisited: mastery and satisfaction. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 97:759-784.

Koivikko, T. (2017) Drives and objects - notes on the change of drive theory. Scandinavian Psychoanalytic Review, 40:19-28.

03.10.26 Neuropsychoanalysis (structure of mind, motivations and development) Noah Rahm

Repression as Isolation in Psychic Conflict

Syllabus

Required Reading:

Akhtar, S. (2020). Repression: A Critical Assessment and Update of Freud’s 1915 Paper. American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 80, 241-258.

Optional Readings:

Boag, S. (2020) Reflective Awareness, Repression, and the Cognitive Unconscious. Psychoanalytic Psychology 37:18-27

Busch, F.N. (2017). A Model for Integrating Actual Neurotic or Unrepresented States and Symbolized Aspects of Intrapsychic Conflict. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 86, 75-108.

03.17.26 Process group Landaiche

03.24.26 Dissociative model (Interpersonalists and Relationalists: Ferenczi, Sullivan, Levenson, Stern, Bromber, Davies etc.) George Herrity and Michael Mervosh

The Dissociative Model in Psychoanalysis

Syllabus

Required Reading:

Stern, D. B. (2022). Dissociation and unformulated experience: A psychoanalytic model of mind. In Dissociation and the dissociative disorders (pp. 341-351). Routledge.

Optional Readings:

Kaplan, J. T., Gimbel, S. I., & Harris, S. (2016). Neural correlates of maintaining one’s political beliefs in the face of counterevidence. Scientific reports, 6(1), 39589.

Goldberg, Peter. (2020). Body-Mind Dissociation, Altered States, and Alter Worlds. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association., (68)(5):769-806

Aibel, Matt. (2021). The Sleepy Analyst Struggles to Awaken: Dissociation, Enactment, Regression, and Altered States with Trauma Patients. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, (57)(1):54-84

03.31.26 Dissociative model (Interpersonalists and Relationalists: Ferenczi, Sullivan, Levenson, Stern, Bromber, Davies etc.) Mike Mervosh and/or George Herrity

The Dissociative Model in Psychoanalysis Part 2

Syllabus

Required Reading:

Stern, D. B. (2022). Dissociation and unformulated experience: A psychoanalytic model of mind. In Dissociation and the dissociative disorders (pp. 341-351). Routledge.

Optional Readings:

Kaplan, J. T., Gimbel, S. I., & Harris, S. (2016). Neural correlates of maintaining one’s political beliefs in the face of counterevidence. Scientific reports, 6(1), 39589.

Goldberg, Peter. (2020). Body-Mind Dissociation, Altered States, and Alter Worlds. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association., (68)(5):769-806

Aibel, Matt. (2021). The Sleepy Analyst Struggles to Awaken: Dissociation, Enactment, Regression, and Altered States with Trauma Patients. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, (57)(1):54-84

04.07.26 Dissociative model (Interpersonalists and Relationalists: Ferenczi, Sullivan, Levenson, Stern, Bromber, Davies etc.) Mike Mervosh and/or George Herrity

The Dissociative Model in Psychoanalysis - Linking Dissociative States & Trauma

Syllabus

Required Reading:

Howell, Elizabeth and Itzkowitz, Sheldon. (2025). The Dissociative Mind: Understanding and Working with Trauma. Chapter 1 – Is Trauma-analysis Psychoanalysis? Routledge. (Book chapter provided.)

Bromberg, Philip. (1996) Standing In The Spaces: The Multiplicity Of the Self and The Psychoanalytic Relationship. Contemporary Psychoanalysis (32):509-535.

Optional Readings:

Ashtor, Gila. (2025). The Pseudo- Self: Dissociation And Feeling Disorders. Psychoanalytic Dialogues: 35:5, 548-571, DOI: 10.1080/10481885.2025.2550272.

Schimmenti, Adriano and Caretti, Vincent. (2016). Linking the Overwhelming with the Unbearable: Developmental Trauma, Dissociation, and the Disconnected Self. Psychoanalytic Psychology, (33)(1):106-128.

Aibel, Matt. (2021). The Sleepy Analyst Struggles to Awaken: Dissociation, Enactment, Regression, and Altered States with Trauma Patients. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, (57)(1):54-84.

04.14.26 Attachment Theory Kevin Smith and Laure Swearingen

Attachment Theory and Psychoanalysis

Syllabus