APRIL 2011

 

Trauma Treatment: What's Forgiveness Got to Do With It? 

Paper Presentation by Richard Raubolt, Ph.D.

 

ABSTRACT: Until recently psychoanalysis has ignored the topic of forgiveness. Freud, for instance, referred to it briefly in a vignette and Klien only infers its importance. It has taken the writings of Akhtar (2002), Frommer (2005), Kristeva (2002) and Tylim (2005) to place forgiveness on the analytic stage. I will spend the major portion of my presentation engaging the audience in discussion centered on such questions as: Is forgiveness simply the outcome of “ordinary, everyday work of analysis” or reflective of a new, useful perspective to be added to our   lexicon? Should forgiveness be a measure of a successful analysis as some have suggested? Under what circumstances might forgiveness be considered dangerous or even damaging? What is the role of hate or rage in healing? I will also plan to elicit questions from the floor to create a lively, full dialogue.

BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT: Richard Raubolt, Ph.D. practices psychoanalytic psychotherapy in Grand Rapids and Manistee. He is a certified psychoanalyst with N.A.A.P. and author of two books  on trauma. His first book, Power Games, was a finalist for the Gradiva and Goethe Awards.

 

 

 

FEBRUARY 2011

 

Women In Prison: "Ain't Yo Mama"

Paper Presentation by Diane Gartland, Psy.D.

 

ABSTRACT: Women prisoners, representing a small fraction of incarcerated peoples, have received negligible attention in a psychoanalytic literature that is clearly wanting serious study of those in confinement.  Despite this continued scholarly disregard there are distinctive and important aspects of the woman imprisoned which, though gender specific, contribute to an understanding of detainees in general.  The author observed many interesting  phenomena while working in a woman's prison, the most significant of which is the ubiquity of childhood trauma, often extant in historical narrative and, ultimately, character-creating.  Such experiences make themselves known through private discourse but are played out on the wider prison stage where an institutional backdrop of chaos, fear and  hopelessness is crafted and maintained by both prisoners and staff.   

 

BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT: Diane Gartland, Psy.D. is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalytic psychotherapist certified with MPC.  She worked for 16 years as a staff and Chief Psychologist in the Michigan prison system where she carried out and supervised psychological assessments and treatments for both men and women.  Her several psychoanalytic publications have emphasized the application of psychoanalytic precepts to work with prisoners.  "In Prison:  A Clinical Diary" (2006, Psychoanalytic Psychology, Vol. 23(1) was a version of a paper originally presented to MPC.  She will be presenting other versions of today's paper to the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations in Melbourne, Australia in June and to Division 39 at the American Psychological Association meeting in August of this year.  Dr. Gartland continues to maintain a private practice in Ann Arbor.  

 

 

JANUARY 2011

 

The Play’s The Thing:

An investigation into listening to psychoanalytic process

Presenters: Barry Dauphin, Ph.D., Sarah Pouliot, Ph.D., and Stacey Nefouse, M.A.

 

ABSTRACT: This presentation addresses research into the role prosody plays for psychoanalytic work in understanding communications in the psychoanalytic process and making inferences about them. A single narrative of a psychoanalytic session was dramatized by a professional actress and audio recorded in two different versions, as the actress created different kinds of characters while using the exact same words. Two groups of psychoanalytic practitioners each listened to one version and rated the “patient,” intervention strategies, and countertransference reactions. Implications of the similarities and differences in the “hearing” between groups are discussed in terms of the nature of compromise formations as including the totality of communication, not only the what of the spoken but also the how. The presentation also discusses questions about the role of empirical research for psychoanalytic work.

 

BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENTS: Barry Dauphin, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Psychology and Director of the Ph.D. Clinical Psychology Program at the University of Detroit Mercy. He is president of MSPP.

 

Sarah Pouliot, Ph.D. recently received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from UDM.

 

Stacey Nefouse, M.A. is in the Ph.D. Clinical Psychology program at UDM. 

 

NOVEMBER 2010

 

The Transformation from Deadness to Human Relatedness: 

A Case Presentation

Paper Presentation by Karen E. Baker, LMSW

 

ABSTRACT: Schizoid patients live in states of mind characterized by psychic and emotional deadness.  The process of change can be an arduous journey for the patient and the

therapist. This paper describes the points of transformation that moved the patient from emotional deadness to emotional relatedness.  A clinical case is presented discussing the process of change that resulted from the analysis of schizoid defenses and sadomasochistic defenses. The points of greatest transformational change occurred within the

transference/countertransference paradigm.

 

BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENTS:  Karen Baker, LMSW is a Clinical Social

Worker/Psychoanalyst in private practice in Ann Arbor where she sees children, adolescents and adults.  She is an analyst and on the faculty at the Michigan Psychoanalytic Council and is the current VP for Programs. She has been a family consultant at the Allen Creek Preschool and also served as a member of the Board of Directors from 2005-2008.  Ms Baker is the Board Secretary of the American Association for Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work. This paper along with a discussion paper by Jerrold Brandell, Ph.D. has been published in the June/September 2008 issue of  Smith College Studies in Clinical Social Work.

 

 

OCTOBER 2010

 

The Impact of Childhood Sexual Abuse on Adult Object Relations

Paper Presentation by Kristen Miller, Ph.D.

  

ABSTRACT: Childhood sexual abuse is a grievous threat to the development of healthy object relations.  Using both object relations and social cognitive theory, the Social Cognition Object Relation Scale – Global Rating (SCORS-G) method provides a quantitative method for measuring relational capacities using narrative material.  This presentation examines the use of SCORS-G with urban adult women, examining the differences between victims of childhood sexual abuse and non-victims using early memory narratives.  Significant differences were found between the groups on dimensions related to affect, emotional investment, aggression, self-esteem and identity.  Case examples will also be presented. 

 

BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENTS: Kristen Miller, Ph.D. recently completed her doctoral degree at the University of Detroit-Mercy.  She practices psychodynamic psychotherapy in Troy, MI and conducts psychological assessments for Michigan Rehabilitation Services.  She is a pre-matriculation candidate at the Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute and teaches undergraduate psychology courses at Lansing Community College.  

 

APRIL 2010

 

Multiple Subjectivities: 

A Relational Approach to Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)

Paper presentation by Maria Slowiaczek, Ph.D.

 

ABSTRACT: In treating a patient with DID, the analyst enters into a world of multiplicity where each alter wants to be approached with an openness to their differing developmental needs and distinct subjectivities.  The analyst’s attunement to these multiple subjectivities helps to process traumatic experiences and to develop new capacities for relatedness and self-awareness.  Within the context of the analytic relationship, the alter personalities begin to engage in relationships with each other, moving from a position of isolation to cooperative, internal communication.  In the case described in this paper, a traumatized child alter who cannot speak learns to use her hand as a puppet to communicate.  She begins to process her traumatic experiences, to grow into new ways of relating and to communicate with other alters.

 

BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENTS: Maria L. Slowiaczek, Ph.D. is in private practice in Ann Arbor where she works with adults and couples.  She did her analytic training at The National Training Program in Contemporary Psychoanalysis in New York.  She has taught and supervised graduate students at the University of Michigan for 14 years.  She is active in the International Association for Psychoanalytic Self Psychology where she is on the Council, the Advisory Board and also Chair of the Welcoming Committee.

 

 

MARCH 2010

 

JOINT PRESENTATION

with

U of M INTERDISCIPLINARY PSYCHOANALYTIC STUDIES PROJECT (UMIPS)

Narcissism, ego ideal and the superego in the current financial crisis
             Paper presentation by Michael Shulman, Ph.D.

 

ABSTRACT: The current financial crisis emerges historically as a paroxysm of modern economic deregulation. It is a phenomenon linked psychologically to idealizations, both of the notion of deregulation and of powerful financial figures. Freud’s work suggested a series of basic understandings of idealization’s functioning in large group psychology. His conceptualizations of narcissism, ego ideal and the superego's origins are organized around a central relational paradigm of onlooker(s) and idealized object. Applying this paradigm of idealization, and appreciating its origins in the parent-child relationship, I consider accounts of financial child geniuses in an effort to illuminate one psychological piece of the origins of this particular crisis of public trust.

 

BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENTS:  Michael Shulman, Ph.D. is a Clinical Instructor of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan, as well as a psychoanalyst and psychologist in private practice in Ann Arbor.  A graduate of Wesleyan University, the University of Michigan, and the Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute (MPI), he is currently on the faculties of MPI and Madonna University, as well as U-M.  He is also current Co-Chair of the Committee on Psychoanalysis and Undergraduate Education of the American Psychoanalytic Association.

 

 

FEBRUARY 2010

 

Wang Fo and an Ethic of Free Association:
Poetic Imagination, Mythical Stories, and Moral Philosophy

Paper presentation by Patrick B. Kavanaugh, Ph.D. 

 

ABSTRACT: As medicine articulates a code of ethics for the analytic practitioner as a healthcare professional, literature suggests an ethic for those practitioners who understand and interpret themselves outside of a healthcare matrix, e.g., as an artist, poet, or philosopher. This essay examines the Taoist fable from ancient China, How Wang Fo Was Saved, in terms of the ethic and values embedded in its organizing themes. This fable suggests an emotional, ethical, and intellectual attitude that complements and enfolds within the associative-interpretive process, the heart of psychoanalysis. In the context of process material, consideration is given to an ethic of caring and theory of moral obligation that derive from these values as illustrated in the narrative of Small Change Makes Cents, the story of a young man seen shortly after his third psychiatric hospitalization. The complex interweave of literature and narrative story -coupled with the practitioner's ways of being, knowing, and presencing - yields an Ethic of Free

Association.

 

BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT:  Dr. Kavanaugh is a former president of the Academy for the Study of the Psychoanalytic Arts and the MSPP. He is the philosopher-in-residence (in psychoanalysis) at the Center for Psychoanalytic study (Chicago) and is in private practice in Farmington Hills, Michigan.