DESCRIPTION:

This two unit clinical seminar is designed as an introduction to contemporary object relations theory and practice. Students will learn about the roots of object relations theory in Sigmund Freud and its expansion in the British Psychoanalytic Society in the work of Melanie Klein, Donald Winnicott, and Wilfred Bion. The course will emphasize the Kleinian and post-Kleinian models. Students will learn about the internal object world, unconscious fantasy, projective identification, and psychotherapeutic work in the transference.

The class will meet once weekly, two hours per session. The seminar will be based on discussions of primary and secondary source readings. Students will read a paper or book chapter in preparation for each meeting. Class time will be spent in active engagement with the material, with brief lectures offered to provide an orientation to the discussion.

Caper, R. (1988). Immaterial facts: Freud's discovery of psychic reality and Klein's development of his work. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson.

Freeman-Sharpe, Ella (1930/1978). The analyst and the analysand. In E. Freeman-Sharpe, Collected Papers (pp. 9-36). New York: Brunner/Mazel.

Guntrip, Harry (1971). Psychoanalytic theory, therapy, and the self. New York: Basic Books.

Hughes, Judith (1989). Reshaping the psychoanalytic domain. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Joseph, Betty (1985/1989). Transference: The total situation. In Psychic equilibrium and psychic change (pp. 156-167). London: Routledge.

Joseph, Betty (1988). Object relations in clinical practice. In Psychic equilibrium and psychic change (pp. 203-215). London: Routledge.

Klein, Melanie (1940/1975). Mourning and its relation to manic-depressive states. In Love, guilt, and reparation, and other works, 1921-1945 (pp. 344-369). London: Hogarth Press.

Klein, Melanie (1946/1975). Notes on some schizoid mechanisms. In Envy and gratitude and other works,1946-1963 (pp. 1-24). London: Hogarth Press.

Kunst, Jennifer. (in press). Lessons from MacGuyver: Working psychoanalytically under less than optimal conditions. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic.

Mason, A. (2000). Bion and binocular vision. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 81 (5), 983-989.

Winnicott, D. W. (1969). The theory of the parent-infant relationship. International Journal of Psycho- Analysis, 50, 711-717.

This course is intended to be a working seminar. Therefore, students are expected to attend each class, to read each paper, and to be prepared to engage actively in class discussion. The reading is complex and demanding. Students should expect to spend approximately two hours outside of class in preparation. Students will prepare a written discussion question for each class, as a means of demonstrating that they have read the material and to stimulate class discussion. Course grade will be based on class attendance, preparation of discussion questions each week, and preparation of two essays (one at the mid-term and one at the end of the term).