In This Issue
Letter from the President
Letter from the Director of Training
Letter from the Candidate President
NPSI Society News
Regional and International News
NPSI Member and Candidate News
Analyze This!
Next Issue Deadline
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Selected Facts
Newsletter of the Northwestern Psychoanalytic
Society and Institute
Fall/Winter 2021
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Greetings!
Welcome to the fall/winter 2021 edition of Selected Facts: Newsletter of the Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. We are offering yet another newsletter under the cloud of a pandemic, and you will find, not surprisingly, that the writings herein reflect these times. But, I think, you will also find that in spite of weariness for what the virus has wrought, there is an appreciation and gratefulness for the depth and breadth of learning that continues at NPSI.
This issue includes letters from President Barbara Sewell, Director of Training Dave Parnes, and Candidate President Becky McGuire. We offer professional updates under NPSI Member and Candidate News.
If you have questions or comments about the articles we publish, or if you have a topic you would like to see addressed in an upcoming issue, please email me at admin@npsi.us.com. We are in need of reporters for NPSI Full Member and Community Member news. If this is of interest to you, please let me know. Please feel free to forward this newsletter to colleagues. Forwarding directions are at the bottom of every issue.
Peggy Swenson
Managing Editor
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NPSI Board of Directors
President: Barbara Sewell
Director of Training: Dave Parnes
Secretary: JoAnn Mills
Treasurer: Eileen Fletcher
Community Member Director: Michael Dougherty
Director: Caron Harrang
Director: Alison Kneisl
Director: Carolyn Steinberg
Administrator/Recording Secretary: Peggy Swenson (non-voting)
Candidate Representative: Nicole Wiggins (non-voting)
Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society and Institute is a non-profit corporation dedicated to educational and scientific activities based in Seattle, Washington. The primary mission of the organization is to provide the highest quality psychoanalytic education and training for individuals seeking to become psychoanalysts and psychoanalytically informed psychotherapists.
The organization also supports the ongoing professional growth and development of our psychoanalysts, analysts-in-training, and community members. In so doing, the organization aims to contribute to the current regional, national, and international psychoanalytic understanding of mental life and to the emotional health, creativity, and well-being of those treated through the practice of psychoanalysis.
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Letter from the President |
December 2021
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
As I begin to write this President’s letter I’m reflecting on where we are. We come to this time of year feeling relieved that we are vaccinated and hoping to return to in-person learning. And we are aware that as COVID-19 deaths top 800,000, Omicron and Delta variants threaten another U.S. surge. We want to get together again but follow the guidelines and the caution of Dr. Anthony Fauci and health officials who suggest that we meet by telehealth when we can. We have listened to these health experts as we continue to educate colleagues in psychoanalysis. I’m reflecting on all we are doing and becoming and the processes evolving in each of us and at NPSI during these unprecedented times.
The time we live in impacts our choice of words and the words we use reflect the times. As we evolve our living language evolves. The latest Merriam Webster Dictionary adds 455 new words to the list this year including air fryer, amirite (Am I Right), TBH (To Be Honest), and super-spreader. The list brings together new and likely familiar words that have shown extensive and established use.
As I was reading, I reflected on my own evolving word use, which in the last year includes operating plan, strategic plan, and annual meeting agenda. These are no longer simply words to me, but descriptions of processes that culminate in tangible important aspects of Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. Our aspirations are laid out in our Strategic Plan. Our goals represent our intentions to fulfill these aspirations over the next three years. It’s a road map we can achieve. This plan represents opportunities to maintain excellence in teaching psychoanalysis and the development of new goals based on new understandings of what is going on in society and how the mission of NPSI can address developing psychosocial needs.
I wonder what your 2021 list of dictionary words include? How does your list reflect your development? How do they reflect the social milieu in which you exist? How do they reflect your evolving understanding of psychoanalysis and of yourself?
John Koenig has written a dictionary of newly created words titled The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. In this book he defines “Xeno: the smallest measurable unit of human connection, typically exchanged between passing strangers - a warm smile, a sympathetic nod, a shared laugh about some odd coincidence - moments that are fleeting and random but still contain powerful emotional nutrients that can alleviate the symptoms of being alone.” (Derived from the ancient Greek for stranger or alien.) Another word in his dictionary is “Ozurie: feeling torn between the life you have and the life you want.” (Derived from the land of OZ and the prairie.)
I’ve used these words to create a statement reflecting the state of many of us at NPSI during this pandemic. “TBH, we crave many Xeno's, without the possibility of a super-spreader, with time to really connect. However, we often feel stuck in an ozurie existence that the recent scientific meetings have been an antidote for. Amirite?!”
Year-End Reflections
On a more practical note, I want to acknowledge the recent activities of NPSI and what is upcoming.
I begin with appreciation for the hours of thoughtful energy the faculty, board, and our administrators have contributed to operating our Society and Institute. You might notice I use the plural for administrators. Tese Monroe took parental leave this year and welcomed a new baby girl. The highly capable Peggy Swenson stepped in to help out during Tese's maternity leave.
I appreciate Maxine Nelson's continuing contributions to Dave Parnes and me in helping us learn the ropes in our respective roles as President and Director of Training. Her presence and responsiveness have helped us forge our administrative partnership.
Since the 2021 Speaking About Race Workshop featuring Zachary Green, Maxine Nelson has continued to work with Rebecca Meredith (SPSI), Julie Cake (The Alliance), and Josh Sandoz (COR) to develop a follow-on program intended to deepen learning about race. These four have created a 5-part series called "Seattle Coalition for Diversity Education in Psychoanalysis" to occur over a two-year period beginning in fall 2022. NPSI is a partner in this important initiative.
I want to thank Director of Training Dave Parnes for his passionate, dependable, and thoughtful engagement which has been a great help during numerous decision-making crossroads.
Due to the continued COVID-19 pandemic, we have further honed our ability to conduct classes and scientific meetings online. We have begun new activities such as the “Clinical Deep Dives” online. Out of our commitment to training colleagues in psychoanalysis, we have welcomed four new psychoanalytic candidates and have quadrupled attendance at our scientific meetings.
At the NPSI Annual Membership meeting in October, we voted to give senior candidates voting rights. This change reflects our changing view of group relations and authority in psychoanalysis.
We have held two Town Halls this year to check in with NPSI members and to hold conversations about issues of concern and listen to how we are faring during these times of studying and working remotely.
Our first Town Hall held May 26 was optimistically titled, “Emerging from the Pandemic.” We engaged in our ACPEinc reaccreditation site visit with eagerness to return to in-person classes and develop criteria for accepting candidates from a distance to train with us.
On November 10, 2021, we sponsored a second Town Hall titled, “The Journey Continues.” We discussed what it means to become psychoanalysts and psychotherapists through the landscape of the pandemic. In this journey of becoming, we never arrive at our destination. As Bion suggests, “I am not an analyst. I am merely trying to become one.” We are all journeying, though at different points along the way.
Our continuing education activities this past year have been robust, providing thought-provoking training and drawing participants worldwide. Maxine Nelson helped organize scientific meetings in the spring as well as an online retirement gathering to honor Oscar Romero in September. (Please read the heartfelt reflections shown below by Dina Maugeri of Oscar’s paper "The ‘Cruelty’ of the Psychoanalytic Method and Antonin Artaud’s Theater.")
Caron Harrang organized scientific meetings in October 2021 through February 2022 based on book chapters from Body as Psychoanalytic Object: Clinical Applications from Winnicott to Bion and Beyond, edited by Caron Harrang, Drew Tillotson, and Nancy Winters. The collection grew out of papers presented at the 2018 International Evolving British Object Relations (EBOR) conference of the same name. A link to purchase the book is available from the NPSI Bookstore here.
Here is a list of scientific meetings for the academic year 2021-22:
- October 20, 2021, Nancy Winters, MD, FIPA, “Autoimmunity as a Response to Analytic Change.”
- November 17, 2021, Peter Goldberg, PhD, FIPA, “Embodiment, Dissociation, and the Rhythm of Life.”
- December 15, 2021, Drew Tillotson, PsyD, FIPA, “Body as Enemy: The Risk of Coming Alive.”
- January 19, 2022, Rikki Ricard, LMHC, FIPA, “Dreaming into Death” with a foreword by Jeffrey Eaton, MA, FIPA.
- February 19, 2022, Andrea Marzi, MD, PhD, FIPA, “The Body Vanishes? Preliminary Thoughts on Bodily Experience and the Identity of the Analyst in Remote Analysis.”
Scientific meetings for March through June 2022 are preparatory in anticipation of the Thirteenth International Evolving British Object Relations (EBOR) conference scheduled for October 8-9 and 15-16, 2022. Plenary presenters are Avner Bergstein and Nicola Abel-Hirsch on the theme “Truth and Lies.” See the EBOR 2022 Save the Date Flyer by clicking here.
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March 16, 2022, Judy K. Eekhoff, PhD, FIPA facilitates a discussion of Bion's (1970) “Lies and the Thinker” in Attention and Interpretation, Tavistock.
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Wednesday, April 20, 2022, Caron Harrang, LICSW, FIPA facilitates a discussion of Grotstein, J.S. (2004). The seventh servant: The implications of a truth drive in Bion’s theory of “O.” International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 85(5):1081-1101.
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Wednesday, May 18, 2022, Dana Blue, LICSW, FIPA facilitates a discussion of Ogden, T. H. (2005). “What’s true and whose idea was it?” in The Art of Psychoanalysis: Dreaming undreamt dreams and uninterrupted cries. Routledge. pp. 61-76.
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Wednesday, June 15, 2022, Rikki Ricard, MA, FIPA facilitates a discussion of O’Shaughnessy, E. (1990). “Can a Liar be Psychoanalysed?” International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 71(2):187-195.
We are putting our money where our mouth is this year. The NPSI Board of Directors allocated $2,000 for a matching grant to support our Scholarship Fund. All gifts made to NPSI before December 31 will be matched dollar-for-dollar up to $2,000. I’m excited that we are developing scholars, educating, and supporting psychoanalytic scholars.
I hope you will take time to read the other articles in this newsletter including letters from Director of Training Dave Parnes and Candidate President Becky McGuire as well as the final column of “Analyze This!” by David Jachim.
What a year it has been! I look forward to the New Year and our evolving living language.
Sincerely,
Barbara Sewell, MaMFC, MDIV, MRE, MIPA
President NPSI
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Letter from the Director of Training |
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Dear Colleagues,
As I write, we are coming to the end of the fall term of the 2021-22 academic year. We had hoped to begin this year with in-person classes for our local candidates, but, as the Delta variant spread, we revised our plans and decided it was not yet safe to return to meeting in person. For those yearning to return to in-person classes, this was a disappointing turn of events. For those whose feelings of unsafety outweighed the wish to meet in person, this decision was met with relief. The range of feelings regarding our ongoing remote-only training continues and was evident in the November Town Hall meeting. It was, for me, a moving meeting, where the diversity of feelings and opinions was expressed in an atmosphere of empathy and respect. Some of our candidates are finishing their last didactic classes this term and are feeling the full weight of the loss, knowing they will not be returning to in-person didactic classes during their training. As well, there were the voices of some of our new candidates, who live outside of the Seattle area and will be remote candidates throughout their training, and who expressed gratitude for the opportunity to train remotely.
The theme of NPSI’s ongoing scientific meeting series is the body and embodiment. What a fitting and important topic for us to be exploring! I, like many of you, have been meeting by phone with many of my patients. I haven’t seen them, even on screen, for nearly two years. It’s a strangely disembodied way to conduct an analysis. Even as I write this, I’m aware of the language I’m stumbling over. Am I “meeting with” my patients? Can I talk of “seeing” a patient? This stumbling about with language comes up with my patients too, when I talk to them about being “together,” of the rhythms of coming together and separating, and so on.
I remember consulting with Robert Oelsner on a child case, many years ago. The child, as we walked towards my office to begin the session, charged ahead, entered my office, and locked the door, keeping me from entering. (Those of you who work with children can likely sympathize with this scenario.) Of the many ways one might think about the meaning of this behavior of my small patient, Robert suggested the child was locking me, the father/penis, out of mother’s womb, in a triumphant enactment of the familiar phantasy. I bring this up as an example of how full of meaning our actual physical spaces are in the minds of all our patients.
What is the impact of this disembodiment and dislocation on us, as individuals and as a society? It isn’t a new phenomenon. Many of my adult patients spend a lot of their time in the virtual world, as they have since childhood. For many it is a way to stay connected with old friends living in far-flung parts of the country – a good thing, we could say. But, for many of them, it is also a place (?) they escape into and for whom the return to the physical world is often jarring and painful, a place they feel ill-equipped to navigate. The virtual space is not going away. It is part of our modern world. Nevertheless, it is surely part of our work, as psychotherapists and psychoanalysts, to understand the impact of it on ourselves, our patients, and our societies.
The use of online technology to meet remotely is a double-edged sword. Before the pandemic, NPSI had begun using it in classrooms, allowing instructors to teach from afar. When the pandemic struck, we had no choice but to move all of our classes, supervisions, and analyses online. Along with the painful losses this wrought, it also presented new opportunities and conveniences. Weighing the pros and cons of this momentous shift in how we interact with one another is no simple matter. How much do we embrace and adopt the online world? How does it impact our wellbeing and our feelings of connection with one another? How, as an organization, do we take advantage of the opportunities offered by this technology while honoring the need for face-to-face contact? These are some of the questions we all need to wrestle with and continue to talk about together.
David Parnes, LICSW, FIPA
Director of Training
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Letter from the Candidate President
I am happy to announce that candidates have a new Candidate President-elect Ambre Lane. Ambre was elected in September 2021 and will take over as candidate president on January 1, 2022. It is a moment with poignancy for me as I transition to Past President. I have full confidence in Ambre.
The 2020-2021 academic year has proved challenging as the pandemic rages on. Yet, candidates have met the many challenges of training and practicing remotely. We continue to maintain social connection and support by changing our after-class happy hour to a Zoom meeting. This has provided much-needed connection and support as we face the ongoing challenge of the pandemic.
Our spirits were lifted with the vaccination rollout in Spring 2021 and we began to look forward to meeting in person with each other and our patients. We had our first in-person (vaccinated) candidate outdoor gathering in June 2021 when the pandemic was then waning. This was a much-needed boost for our group. Some of us had returned to in-person work or were preparing to transition back to in-person practice. The relief was palpable. We were also looking forward to resuming in-person training in the fall and hoping for a new cohort to begin.
With the emergence of the Delta variant in July/August, we returned to remote work and NPSI decided to continue remote training for fall 2021. The loss of being together in person is mitigated by gratitude and recognition of the privilege we have to continue working and training from the safety of our homes. We acknowledge that not all citizens in the U.S. have this choice.
Catastrophic change can lead to paradigm shifts. For example, in response to the pandemic, we formed our first hybrid cohort with out-of-area candidates and local candidates. We have four candidates who began a pre-didactic year in fall 2021. Our out-of-area pre-didactic candidates have expressed gratitude as this is their only opportunity for analytic training. This development fuels the hope that psychoanalysis will continue to adapt to the demands of current times and become more widely available. We extend a warm welcome to Elizabeth Maurer, Cle Elum, WA; Richard Lazur, Anchorage, AK; Carolyn Carlson, Seattle, WA; and, Miguel Nucete-Crowther, Ottawa, Canada. And of course, a hearty welcome back to all our returning candidates.
Becky McGuire, MS, LMHC
Candidate President
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Oscar Romero Retirement
“Like the plague, the theater is a formidable call to the forces that impel the mind by example to the source of its conflicts. (...) In the theater, as in the plague, there is a kind of strange sun, a light of abnormal intensity by which it seems that the difficult and even the impossible suddenly become our normal element….”
-Antonin Artaud. “Theatre and its Double”
On Wednesday, September 15, 2021, we gathered as a community to honor Oscar Romero on the occasion of his retirement. He read his rich and enlivening paper "The ‘Cruelty’ of the Psychoanalytic Method and Antonin Artaud’s Theater,” with a response paper, “Cruelty and the Violence of Emotions,” read by Judy Eekhoff. This event was intended to take place at our physical location, our first opportunity to gather with one another as a community in person, our bodies and minds in one room, together, since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. But the surge of the Delta variant necessitated holding the event on Zoom, as we had already been doing for a long, uncertain eighteen months.
It was alternately fitting and jarring to attend this event “virtually.” Much of Oscar’s paper detailed the very physical ways in which Artaud attempted to awaken his audience, to disturb their mental slumber by going beyond language, using all of the senses, in a 360-degree theatrical space that surrounded the audience with action on all sides. Imagining Artaud’s vision, I felt even more aware than usual of being alone in a room, looking at my colleagues' faces on a flat screen.
However, as Oscar explained, Artaud’s definition of cruelty is not a sadistic, personal attack. He quoted Artaud, “Life cannot help exercising some blind rigor that carries with it all its conditions, otherwise, it would not be life; but this rigor, this life that exceeds all bounds and is exercised in the torture and trampling down of everything, this pure implacable feeling is what cruelty is.” (Artaud, 1958, pp. 113-114). As Judy Eekhoff wrote in her response paper, “Life is not only difficult; it is cruel. Without regard for our desires, reality cruelly happens.”
Having to experience the limitations of gathering online was an in-vivo experience of this cruel aspect of life, and particularly the cruelty of this pandemic. But Oscar shone a light on the paradoxically life-giving potential of the cruelty of Artaud’s theater. He quotes Artaud, “From the human point of view, the action of theater, like that of plague, is beneficial, for, impelling men to see themselves as they are.” So too, the cruel deprivations and frustrations imposed on us by the reality of this pandemic have also shown us aspects of ourselves, and one another, that have either been previously hidden, muted, or latent in expression. Oscar posits that the analytic frame serves a similar function. While potentially containing, this frame can also, with its “‘optimal frustration of patients’ demands, the limited sensory deprivation and use of silence… foster the emergence of unconscious material in the regressive state, sometimes terrifying the patient and the analyst. The manifestations of the unconscious material in the transference and the work on it allow the transformations in our patients toward a healthier and fulfilled life.”
In this way, Artaud’s theater, the analytic frame, the pandemic, all potentially set the stage for the discovery of the aliveness inherent in truth, both external and internal. But as Oscar indicates in the passage above, it is not only the patient who must suffer the cruelty of the analytic method. He suggests that one of the requirements for this cruelty not to be one of sadism on the part of the analyst is for her to cultivate in herself “the ability to understand, accept and welcome emerging terrifying passages” and to experience them with the patient. I was reminded of Oscar’s injunction to me in my supervision with him to “get into the boat” with my patient, rather than to “observe her as if from a helicopter looking down from above her.”
In her response paper, Judy elaborated on the analytic movement from “unformed and chaotic experience of (…) dramatic undifferentiated states,” to “represented and symbolized experience,” which the analyst may facilitate by articulating "these experiences and aid[ing] their entry into the symbolic order of language.” In order to do this, the analyst must first have the experience in order to verbalize it. This requires courage, fortitude, and openness on the part of the analyst, who must welcome chaos in order to participate in its potential transformation.
When I attended this event, I took notes about the ideas in Oscar’s and Judy’s papers, intending to use them to write this essay. A few weeks later, my computer malfunctioned and I lost two months of material, including my notes for the scientific meeting. More cruel reality! Buddhists refer to this as “dukkha,” an effect of the inherent unreliability and impermanence of all phenomena. I was able to access the texts of each of the papers to digest some of their ideas for this newsletter. But what stands out in my memory is not the words, nor even the ideas, rich and inspiring as they were, but the emotional experience of bidding farewell as a community to Oscar Romero. My feelings of disappointment of not being able to gather physically together, my feelings of warmth and affection, hearing Oscar read his paper in the accent that I have come to love because it is his, and hearing Judy read hers, in the voice that I have come to associate to the space for thinking and feeling and transformation that she has provided for me in my supervision with her over the years. The inspiration I felt witnessing a seasoned practitioner who is still growing, still excited about generating new ideas, hoping that I will be able to sustain curiosity, generativity, and deep care for this work over a span of decades. What I needed no notes to recall is feeling privileged to be present at this gathering of dedicated practitioners of this art of the mind, to witness the richness of relationships playing out before me. What I recall, in my body as much as in my mind, is the grief I felt at marking this cruel ending and the gratitude I feel having been able to learn from Oscar, and from Judy, and from this community, despite, and sometimes because of, the cruelty of the reality we must all face, alone, and together.
Dina Maugeri, MA, LMHC
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Regional and International News |
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NPSI Liaison Committee
Caron Harrang (Chair), Julie Hendrickson, Becky McGuire, Maxine Nelson, Carolyn Steinberg
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic annual face-to-face board meetings for CIPS and NAPsaC were suspended. All board meetings are now held via Zoom. The CIPS Board meets monthly for 90 minutes during the academic year. The NAPsaC ExCom meets monthly and the full board meets five times yearly or every other month during the academic year. Approved minutes from CIPS and NAPsaC board meetings are distributed by the Primary Directors to the NPSI Full Member listserv and to the Candidate President. The Candidate President posts the minutes to the Candidate listserv.
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Report for the North American Psychoanalytic Confederation (NAPsaC)
Robin Deutsch (President), Drew Tillotson (Vice President), and Caron Harrang (Secretary) completed their terms as Officers on the NAPsaC Board in February 2021. The Board voted to sunset the Vice President position replacing it with the President-elect. Caron resigned from the board after ten years of service as Primary Director from NPSI and four years as Secretary during the Jaffe/Deutsch (APsaA) administration (2017-2021). Notably, when Carolyn Steinberg assumed the Primary Director position she also volunteered to serve as Secretary during Mary Kay O’Neil’s Presidency (CPS), thus continuing the tradition of our members contributing to leadership within the North America region.
NAPsaC hosted a ‘Meet the Candidates’ online event in March 2021 allowing members and analysts-in-training to meet candidates running for the IPA Board of Directors from North America. Although only full members vote in the election, it is important for candidates and full members to get to know who is representing our interests on the IPA Board. For example, decisions about remote analysis and distance training are being studied by an IPA task force and policy decisions will be voted on by Directors from North America on the IPA Board. We are pleased to report that following this event Paula Ellman (CFS/DC Branch) and Randi Wirth (IPTAR) - both of whom have served as Directors on the CIPS and NAPsaC Boards - were elected to serve on the IPA Board from North America.
NAPsaC’s Intra-Regional Committee works to increase awareness of member organizations and member-to-member interactivity by sponsoring educational events featuring presenters drawn from throughout North America. For example, NAPsaC sponsors a Clinical Exercise at APsaA’s Annual Winter Meeting in which a training and supervising analyst from APsaA, from the Canadian Psychoanalytic Society, and from one of the Independent Societies (CFS, IPTAR, NPSI, PINC, PCC) responds to anonymous clinical material, demonstrating how the psychoanalyst works in real time as well as the overlapping and invariant properties of psychoanalytic theory and technique. Professional relationships forged through these activities and others like them foster intra-regional collaboration well beyond the conference event.
Report for the Confederation of Independent Psychoanalytic Societies (CIPS)
Leigh Tobias (PCC) was selected by CIPS to become NAPsaC President-elect during Mary Kay O’Neil’s (CPS) term as NAPsaC President (February 2021- February 2023). The NAPsaC presidency rotates from APsaA to CPS to CIPS every two years. Leigh is very qualified for this important leadership position having previously served as Psychoanalytic Center of California
President, CIPS President, as well as Primary Director from PCC on both the CIPS and NAPsaC Boards.
CIPS is continuing its much-valued program of Board Certification in Psychoanalysis (BCPsa). This is an optional program offered to any qualifying CIPS member who wants to become board certified. Notably, any Institute accredited through ACPEinc requires all faculty members to obtain board certification. As NPSI is ACPEinc accredited, this program has been a boon for our faculty and the NPSI Institute.
Becky McGuire volunteered to become a book editor and liaison to the CIPS Book Series Committee (Rick Perlman, Chair). All CIPS Societies were invited to develop book proposals to be authored and edited by local society members on a topic of their choosing. NPSI’s proposed book title is Psychoanalysis Recaste: The intersectionality of the pandemic, race, and political unrest on the theory and practice of psychoanalysis. This represents a significant opportunity for candidates and members to write and publish with a major firm (Routledge).
CIPS has agreed to participate in the APsaA sponsored Holmes Commission Study on Racial Equality. Established in August 2020, the Commission aims to investigate systemic racism and its underlying determinants within psychoanalytic organizations. NPSI full members and candidates will have an opportunity to decline or accept participation in various aspects of the study (e.g. surveys, interviews, workgroups). For additional details go to https://apsa.org/commission-on-racial-equality
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My NPSI Library
Access the full library of Scientific Meeting recordings. New recordings are added as they become available, so check back often.
If you need help accessing recordings, contact NPSI Administrator Peggy Swenson, at admin@npsi.us.com.
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Education Committee:
Barb Sewell, MaMFC, MDIV, MRE, MIPA (President)
David Parnes, LICSW, FIPA (Director of Training, Chair, Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Subcommittee)
Dana Blue, LICSW, FIPA (Chair, Admissions Subcommittee)
Esther Karson, PhD, FIPA (Chair, Progression Subcommittee)
David Rasmussen, PsyD, FIPA (Chair, Curriculum Subcommittee)
Becky McGuire, MS, LMHC (Candidate President, Candidate Group)
Peggy Swenson (Administrator, Recording Secretary)
The mission of NPSI is to provide the highest quality psychoanalytic education and training for individuals seeking to become psychoanalysts and psychoanalytically informed psychotherapists. We are currently accepting applications for our Psychoanalytic Training program for Fall 2022. Information and an application for training can be found at the NPSI website here.
To read the full report detailing the past year's activities of the NPSI Education Committee, including the various subcommittees, click here.
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NPSI Member and Candidate News |
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Community Members in Action |
Caron Harrang, LICSW, FIPA, BCPsa is a co-editor and chapter author of “River to Rapids: Speaking to the body in terms the body can understand” in Routledge's Body as Psychoanalytic Object: Clinical Applications from Winnicott to Bion and Beyond (August 2021).
NPSI members, Nancy Winters and Drew Tillotson are co-editors of the book, Body as Psychoanalytic Object: Clinical Applications from Winnicott to Bion and Beyond, as well as chapter authors. Other NPSI members who authored chapters are Oscar Romero, Robert Oelsner, Judy Eekhoff, Jeffrey Eaton, Rikki Ricard, and Dana Blue.
Caron Harrang, Drew Tillotson, and Nancy Winters organized a series of five scientific meetings (October 2021 - February 2022) featuring presentations by Nancy Winters, Peter Goldberg, Drew Tillotson, Rikki Ricard and Adrian Jarreau (with an introduction by Jeffrey Eaton), and Andrea Marzi, based on selected chapters from the above-mentioned book.
In December 2021, Caron Harrang, Drew Tillotson, and Nancy Winters were interviewed by host Roy Barsness for the podcast New Books in Psychoanalysis regarding their collaboration as co-editors and chapter authors of Body as Psychoanalytic Object: Clinical Applications from Winnicott to Bion and Beyond. The podcast will be available on December 29, 2021. For additional information: https://newbooksnetwork.com/category/science-technology/psychoanalysis.
On Thursday, January 20, 2022, Caron Harrang will present "Transformations in Negative Therapeutic Reaction” to the Montreal Branch of the Canadian Psychoanalytic Society (Zoom). Contact Susan Baxt for additional details at maclarensb@gmail.com.
Caron Harrang’s journal article “Possibility Clouds Arising from a Close Reading of Civitarese and Berrini’s "On Using Bion’s Concepts of Point, Line, and Linking in the Analysis of a 6-Year-Old Child” has been accepted for publication in the next issue of Psychoanalytic Dialogues.
On June 16, 2021, NPSI’s Scientific Meeting presenters were Mirta Berman-Oelsner, PsyA, FIPA, and Robert Oelsner, MD, FIPA. Mirta presented her paper, “Becoming an analyst: Some essentials.” Robert presented “The Hunger Artist - A clinical report.” Both papers were warmly received.
Oscar Romero, MD, FIPA presented his paper, “The 'Cruelty' of the Psychoanalytic Method and Antonin Artaud’s Theater” at the September 15, 2021 Scientific Meeting at NPSI. In his paper, Dr. Romero compares the psychoanalytic method to the avant-garde theatrical work of Artaud.
Nancy Winters, MD, FIPA presented her paper, “Autoimmunity as a response to psychoanalytic change” at NPSI’s October 20, 2021 Scientific Meeting.
Drew Tillotson, NPSI Community Member, presented his paper, "Body as Enemy: The Risk of Coming Alive" at NPSI's December 15, 2021 Scientific Meeting.
Samantha Good, LICSW was a runner-up for the Tyson Prize for her paper titled "Menstrual Synchrony as Psychoanalytic Object." The Tyson Prize is awarded for the best unpublished paper by a candidate in the previous two years. Although the Tyson Prize is offered as part of IPSO, Samantha was invited to present her paper during the 52nd IPA Congress online. Samantha also presented a paper in April 2021 at the NW Alliance for Psychoanalytic Study’s annual Forum conference, titled, "They Say Goldfish Have No Memory: Learning to Swim with an Autistic and Traumatized Patient.”
On Friday, November 5, 2021, Jeffrey Eaton and Joshua Durban were discussants for a presentation by Shiri Ben Bassat, the recipient of the 24th Frances Tustin Memorial Prize (2021) in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Jeffrey Eaton presented with Suzanne Maiello, Rome and Joshua Durban, Tel Aviv a webinar series, “From Nowhere to Somewhere: Observing early anxieties and their transformations,” from June through October 2021 offered by the Sydney Institute for Psychoanalysis, Sydney Australia.
On April 25, 2021, Jeffrey Eaton presented a webinar “An Analyst's Sensibility and The Language of Suchness” with Joshua Durban, Tel Aviv offered by the Frances Tustin Memorial Trust.
Judy K. Eekhoff, PhD, FIPA presented her paper “In defense of hope” at The Living Theory International Conference, Free Association, Lisbon, Portugal in November 2021. She also presented “Patients Who are Difficult to Reach” for a four-session webinar from April through June 2021 offered by the Free Association Study Group, Lisbon, Portugal.
Judy K. Eekhoff, PhD, FIPA presented “Trauma and Primitive Mental States” for a three-session online seminar for the Confederation of Independent Psychoanalytic Institutes during March and April of this year.
At the July 2021 IPA Conference, Judy K. Eekhoff presented “The Unwelcome Child and The Acceptance of New Ideas” (Pre-conference) and “Falling into the Void or Collapsing into a Black Hole.”
Publications by Judy K. Eekhoff this year include:
Eekhoff, J.K. (2021, in press). “Psychic Equivalency as an Aspect of Symbiosis” in “Psychoanalysis of the Psychoanalytic Frame Revisited” A New Look at Bleger’s Classical Work. Editors: Levine, H. and Moguillansky, C., Routledge/IPA.
Eekhoff, J.K. (2021). Bion and Primitive Mental States: Trauma and the Symbiotic Link. Routledge.
Eekhoff, J.K. (2021). “Body relations and the black hole.” International Forum of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 30:3. pp. 139-148.
Eekhoff, J.K. (2021). “No Words to Say It.” American Journal of Psychoanalysis, April 2021.
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Candidate reporter Jack M Ringel, LICSW
December 2021
I’d like to begin by once again welcoming our pre-didactic candidate group: Elizabeth Maurer, MA, LMHC, Miguel Nucete-Crowther, MA, RP, CCC, Richard Lazur, PsyD, and Carolyn Carlson, MA, LMHC. It is an honor to have you here as part of our shared community!
Since the last issue of Selected Facts the candidate group has finished another quarter of study through the institute. This quarter’s seminar groups were led by Caron Harrang, LICSW, FIPA and Maxine Anderson, MD, FIPA. The course “Bion II” was taught by Jeff Eaton, MA, FIPA. We have also had a two-part course, the first of which was “Introduction to French Psychoanalysis” taught by Coleen Gold, MA, BCATR, FIPA. The second part of the course was entitled “The Lived Experience of Genders and Sexualities” and was taught by Julie Hendrickson, LMHC, FIPA and Rachel Newcombe, MA, LICSW. Each course has led to thought-provoking discussion, where it often feels like the more we know, the more we have to learn. It is such a privilege to be part of a profession where no one really ever arrives, but is (hopefully) always in the process of arriving (this point having been well expressed recently by our NPSI president, Barb Sewell).
While the pandemic continues - including news of the Omicron variant - the candidate group continues to navigate the shifting seas of clinical work in this extraordinary time. There is consistent discussion about whether to see patients in person, and if so, under what conditions. These discussions have led both to convergences and disagreements, which one would hope for when it comes to such important matters. Whichever medium we use, we continue to try to remain connected with our patients, with each other, and with our wider community, even as our eyes sometimes grow tired from gazing at our digital screens. Thank you to the wider NPSI community for helping to hold us, as we hold each other and our patients through this tumultuous time in history.
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Analyze This!
by David Jachim, PhD, FIPA
NEXT
Years ago (more than I wish to count) I ran the third leg of the 4x880 relay. The memory of that event is still alive and remains crystal clear for me. The air is clear, colors are in sharp contrast as I await the handoff of the baton from my teammate. I launch and feel it slide into my hand. There is no sound except that of my footfalls and those of my competitor on the cinder track. I approach the curve and my teammate, running the fourth leg, comes in to view. I automatically shout, “Go!” as I outstretch my arm and feel the ease of the baton slipping from my hand to his. I come to a stop, exhausted but simultaneously ecstatic as I watch my teammate glide swiftly to victory. I feel sated and drink the pleasure of a united task that is completed.
So, as it was then, I now write my last contribution for the column “Analyze This!” and feel the movement of another crystal-clear transition. It has been an exceptional opportunity and privilege for me to express my views through the medium of our recurring newsletter. As with any change I feel a twinge of sadness but, in a larger sense, I am content and hopeful that other colleagues (teammates) will “carry the baton” and contribute their thoughts and opinions to our newsletter in order to keep the relay going.
I now look forward to new projects and interests on the horizon. Writing for “Analyze This!” has been a remarkable journey for me but I cannot wait to see what I will do next….
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Selected Facts: Next Issue Deadline
The next issue of Selected Facts will be published in June 2022. The deadline for submissions is May 15, 2022.
Please contact Peggy Swenson at admin@npsi.us.com with general questions or our reporters with news items or ideas for stories.
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Barbara Sewell
Executive Editor
Elizabeth Maurer
Copy Editor
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Peggy Swenson
Managing Editor
Jack Ringel
Reporter, Candidates
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Contact Information
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