2025-2026 One Year Program Materials
class Dates and Course Materials:
Class 1. 09.15.25
6:15pm-9pm
Location:
201 South Highland Ave
Suite 101
Pittsburgh, PA 15206
Title: Psychoanalysis and the Importance of Meaning-Making
Instructor: Miriam DeRiso, Ph.D.
Syllabus
Movie: “Lars and The Real Girl” (2007)
On: Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, Apple TV, You Tube, and on DVD at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh (many copies)
Please watch the movie before class. Class discussion will be based on the film.
Required Reading:
Shedler, J. (2022) that Was Then, This Is Now: Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy For The Rest Of Us, Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 58:2-3, 405-437
Optional Reading:
Peltz, R. (2020). Activating Lifeness in the Analytic Encounter: The Ground of Being in Psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, (30)(3):267-282
McWilliams, N. (2021) Diagnosis and Its Discontents: Reflections on Our Current Dilemma. Psychoanalytic Inquiry 41: 565-579.
Ogden, T. (2019) Ontological Psychoanalysis or “What do you want to be when you grow up?”. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, (88)(4):661-684.
Class 2. 10.20.25
6:15pm-9pm
Location:
201 South Highland Ave
Suite 101
Pittsburgh, PA 15206
Title: Considering My Ethics In My Role As Psychotherapist
Instructors: Kevin Smith, PH.D., Sharon Bernstein, PH.D., Colleen Peddycord, LCSW
Syllabus
Media: The Sopranos. season 1. episode 1. available on various streaming services
Readings:
1. Smith, Kevin R. The Ethical Visions of Psychotherapy, Routledge, New York, N.Y. 2021 Chapter 1. pps. 1-4. Introduction: the Means and Ends of Therapy.
2. Smith, Kevin R. The Ethical Visions of Psychotherapy, Routledge, New York, N.Y. Chapter 2. pps. 4-27. The Ethics of Therapeutic aims
3. Smith, Kevin R. Therapeutic Ethics in Context and Dialogue, Routledge, New York, N.Y. 2021 Chapter 2. pps. 4-17. Therapy Against Ethics and the Ethics of Therapy.
Class 3. 11.17.25
6:15pm-9pm
Location:
201 South Highland Ave
Suite 101
Pittsburgh, PA 15206
Title: SIBLINGS: Enemies and Allies
Instructor: Bill Cornell, M.A., TSTA
Syllabus
Required reading:
Vuong, O. (2025). My Brother’s Keeper. New York Times, June 11, 2025. (The original video presentation of this essay will be shown in full during the seminar.)
Torres, J. (2011). We The Animals. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. (Selections from the novel. Portions of a movie adaptation will be shown during the seminar.)
Cornell, W.F. (2012). Lost and found: Sibling love, rivalry, loss, disconnection, and reconnection. Sidney, Au: Australian Centre for Integrative Studies, March 12, 2012.
Kieffer, C. (2008). On siblings: Mutual regulation and mutual recognition. Annual of Psychoanalysis, 36: 161-173.
Supplemental reading:
Hart, C. (2019). Welcoming siblings to Self Psychology: Exploring vertical and lateral selfobjects. Psychoanalysis, Self an Context. 14: 178-194.
Felsen, I. (2018). Parental trauma and adult sibling relationships in Holocaust-survivor families. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 35: 433-445.
Hoffman, A.G. (2015). Writing siblings: Alice James and her brothers. Psychoanalytic Review, 102: 1-32.
Class 4. 12.15.25
6:15pm-9pm
Location:
201 South Highland Ave
Suite 101
Pittsburgh, PA 15206
Title: The Universality of Shame
Instructor: Michael Mervosh
Syllabus
Media: Film - The Whale. (2022) Brendan Fraser. Protozoa Pictures, distributed by A24.
Required reading:
The Universality of Shame: A Psychoanalytic Approach; Malcolm Pine. The British Journal of Psychotherapy, (1990). (11)(3):346-357
Supplemental reading:
Shame – The Authority of Tenderness: Dignity and The True Self In Psychoanalysis; Paul Williams. Routledge, London & New York, (2022). (pg 51-58)
A Bionian Formulation of Shame: The Terror of Becoming One’s Self; Duncan Cartwright. International Journal of Psychoanalysis/Open Review; (2016) (3)(28):1-29
Working With Chronic & Relentless Self-Hatred, Self-Harm and Existential Shame: A Clinical Study and Reflections; Sue Austin. The Journal of Analytic Psychology; (2016) (61)(4):411-433
Class 5. 1.19.26
6:15pm-9pm
Location:
201 South Highland Ave
Suite 101
Pittsburgh, PA 15206
Title:
Instructor:
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Media:
Movie:
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Class 6. 2.16.26
6:15pm-9pm
Location:
201 South Highland Ave
Suite 101
Pittsburgh, PA 15206
Title:
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Class 7. 3.16.26
6:15pm-9pm
Location:
201 South Highland Ave
Suite 101
Pittsburgh, PA 15206
Title:
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Class 8. 4.20.26
6:15pm-9pm
Location:
201 South Highland Ave
Suite 101
Pittsburgh, PA 15206
Title:
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Movie:
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Class 9. 5.18.26
6:15pm-9pm
Location:
201 South Highland Ave
Suite 101
Pittsburgh, PA 15206
Title:
Instructor:
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