In This Issue
NPS Board of Directors
Letter from the President
Letter from the Director of Training
Letter from the Candidate President
Regional and International News
Since You Asked...
Special Report
NPS Society News
NPS Institute News
Candidate News
Members in Action
Quick Links
Quick Links
Selected Facts
Newsletter of the Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society
Winter 2013
Greetings!

Caron Harrang

Welcome to the winter edition of Selected Facts: Newsletter of the Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society. In the several months since our fall issue, the outdoor greenery may be in a state of dormancy, but not NPS. As you will see from the Letter from the President, we are in the midst of what he calls a quiet revolution of ongoing growth and change. The details of these activities and, more importantly, the spirit in which these changes are occurring are also apparent in the Letters from Director of Training, Maxine Anderson, and from Candidate President, Julie Hendrickson.

 

Also in this issue are details about the IPA Congress in Prague this summer, including a complimentary breakfast gathering for all CIPS members, candidates, and invited guests. If you are planning to attend the conference, don't miss this opportunity to connect with CIPS colleagues from IPTAR, LAISPS, NPS, and PCC.

 

In the section we call Since you Asked..., we feature an interesting interview of psychoanalyst Jim Gammill provided to us by one of our readers, Meg Harris Williams. In response to the essay Daniel Benveniste wrote about the Klein/Freud photo (see Regional and International News), Ms Williams wrote to us to say that her interview of Gammill contained his recollections about Klein's relationship with Freud. It is a fascinating bit of psychoanalytic history that we are fortunate to be able to share with our readers.

 

A Special Report on the just completed NPS Open House is also included in this issue. As well, candidate Lynn Cunningham provides a thoughtful look forward as we prepare for a new analytic training class in September 2013 (see Candidate News). And, as regular features, we have committee reports and a column we call Members in Action highlighting the accomplishments of our highly regarded members.

 

Caron Harrang, LICSW FIPA

Managing Editor

NPS Board of Directors

 

Officers:

President: David Jachim

Past-President: Judy K Eekhoff

Recording Secretary: Naoko Oguchi

Treasurer: Marianne Robinson

 

Directors:

Maxine Anderson

Dana Blue

Judy K Eekhoff

Maxine Nelson (candidate representative)

 

Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society 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 psychoanalyst, candidate, 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.

Letter from the President

David Jachim
Spring is just around the corner. There are expectations of changes. Warmer temperatures, longer days with increased sunlit hours, and all the green. Changes are brewing within NPS as well. If you were able to attend our Open House earlier this month, you would have heard me speak of the quiet revolution happening within our organization. Starting with our newly constituted Board of Directors (three past members, three new members, and a candidate representative), NPS has begun to address the many contemporary challenges to psychoanalytic training, practice, and community building.

 

Since the last edition of our newsletter, we have witnessed technological advancements at the NPS office such as the addition of Wi-Fi and a digital projector for training. New, user-friendly lighting has been installed, and supplementary heating sources have been added. Our website (www.nps.us.com) continues to be updated almost daily, including newly scheduled events and articles by Community Members. Selected Facts, our house organ e-newsletter, continues to grow in popularity, garnering praise from many corners. In the very near future, we will be exploring YouTube postings, including interviews of and mini-lectures by NPS faculty members.

 

On the training side, there are advancements as well. As you will see in Maxine Anderson's letter, we will be initiating a new analytic training class in the fall of 2013. We are still accepting applications for the fall class, with a few spots still available. Also, current NPS candidates will benefit from visiting professor and training analyst Avedis Panajian, from Los Angeles, when he instructs both our didactic and clinical seminars next month. Our monthly Scientific Meetings program continues to grow in popularity (standing room only) with Oscar Romero, MD FIPA, scheduled to present an original paper in March on Lacan's work as it informs his clinical sensitivity, especially with respect to the theme of time. In addition, our psychoanalytically oriented community course list has increased to include Treating Trauma Psychoanalytically (2nd edition), Working Analytically with Children (beginning in March), and Infant Observation (fall 2013).

 

I am especially happy to announce that the NPS Board has approved the establishment of a Scholarship Fund for analytic training, with 10% of all profits from NPS special events going to that fund. Another extremely significant project approved by the Board is the formation of an Accreditation Committee (Maxine Anderson, Dana Blue, Caron Harrang, and myself), charged with pursuing application for analytic training accreditation by the Accreditation Council for Psychoanalytic Education (ACPE). ACPE has set rigorous criteria leading to accreditation that will ensure the highest level of analytic training in the country and place us in an excellent position when state and national licensure for psychoanalysts becomes a reality.

 

What is most exciting at NPS is the growth of the NPS Community, highlighted by the increasing number of Community Members. If you are already a Community Member, there are many opportunities to be involved in our quiet revolution, such as joining one of our very active committees: Publications Committee, Outreach Committee, Accreditation Committee or EBOR 2014. If you are not yet a Community Member but are interested in contemporary psychoanalytic issues, thinking, and education, please consider joining. Information on becoming a Community Member can be found on our website by clicking here.

 

Spring is the season of revolution. Please join us.

 

David Jachim, PhD FIPA

President, Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society 

Letter from the Director of Training

Maxine Anderson

While we continue in our ongoing psychoanalytic study and training, it does feel as if we have a new spring in our steps since relocation last summer to our new quarters at 2701 First Avenue, Suite 120, in Belltown. Our new location, and having our own space, seems to offer new opportunities.

           

As Director of Training for the NPS Institute, it is my pleasure to coordinate with the various committees that oversee all of the operations of the Institute, including Admissions, Curriculum, Progression, Training Analysts, Faculty Development, Outreach, Dean of Students, and Candidates. In our monthly Education Committee meetings (comprised of the chairs of the aforementioned committees and groups), we coordinate relevant activities and intersecting interests of the moment, aware that both the Institute and the Society are growing as a result of our mutual efforts in ways we cannot always predict. Key in our efforts is the mutual regard for our various views and ongoing concern for the growth of NPS.

           

One of the recent outstanding developments, in my view, is the NPS website (www.nps.us.com). Under the leadership of Caron Harrang and Dana Blue, the website has become an attractive, accessible hub, archive, and organ of communication for the creative individual and organizational efforts within NPS. For those not yet familiar with this resource, let me draw your attention to where you can learn more about current institute activities. For instance:

 

In our psychoanalytic training program, we are planning to begin a new class in the fall of 2013. For details, click here.

 

In our outreach efforts, NPS faculty members are offering courses to the psychoanalytic psychotherapy community. One current popular course is offered by Judy K Eekhoff. For additional information, see link.

 

The Infant Observation faculty (Marianne Robinson, Chair) is also planning courses on Infant Observation both for psychoanalytic candidates beginning training in the fall and for our psychotherapeutic community. More information will be forthcoming.

 

An Open House was held on Sunday, February 10, to welcome members of the community who might have various levels of interest regarding courses and training. Please see link.

 

The NPS faculty is planning an institute-wide, daylong workshop with psychoanalyst and educational consultant Deborah Cabaniss in November 2013, which will focus on principles outlined in her article entitled "Teaching Psychodynamics in the Twenty-first Century" (JAPA 60 #3 pp 483-92).

 

The fruit of these and other efforts may be seen in the quality of the dialectic experience, in our learning from each other, and from our own experience within the group, which we often enjoy. A brief illustration would be my own experience at a recent Scientific Meeting of the NPS Society. As in several of the previous papers, this past month's paper, by Judy K Eekhoff, offered a rich clinical experience relevant to some clearly stated theoretical considerations. It was an emotionally and intellectually stimulating paper, moving several members of the audience to enter the ensuing discussion, which sparked our further thinking, both clinically and theoretically. Notably, the discussion did not end with the conclusion of the meeting. Rather, it continued online in the NPS Community listserv for several days in ways that brought continuing enrichment. For me, this opportunity for continuing dialogue is part of the richness within our community. With our varying views offered amidst respect, there is time and space and the invitation for our individual (and perhaps group) thoughts and feelings to evolve and to be shared.

 

With additional time and space, hopefully new opportunities will continue to emerge for each of us to learn and grow individually and within our NPS professional community. All this is part of the vigor that I see in the institute and the society currently.


Maxine Anderson, MD FIPA

Director of Training

Letter from the Candidate President

Julie HendricksonThis time of year finds the candidate group in the thick of the academic year. There are Friday afternoon seminars, once-a-month Scientific Meetings, monthly committee meetings attended by candidate representatives, monthly candidate cohort meetings, report writing, preparation for weekly seminars, and case write-ups for supervision, as well as our clinical work keeping each of us engaged and full. It's exciting to be part of a creative work group in the process of learning and expanding its capacities. An evolution of this group's process is a candidate retreat scheduled for March 10th. This will be the first time the candidate group has held a retreat for the purpose of continuing the discussions that have begun in our monthly candidate meetings. It's also an opportunity for this cohesive group to meet more informally in the relaxed atmosphere of a candidate's home to continue the feeling of togetherness as we progress through our training.

 

There are candidates among us teaching and sharing their developed analytic skills with the community. This spring, David Parnes and Nicole Wiggins are offering a six-week clinical seminar, Working Analytically with Children, that will focus on a British Object Relations approach to play therapy. Earlier in February, Nicole Wiggins and I began teaching an eight-week British Object Relations course to students of the Seattle Psychoanalytic Society and Institute's adult psychoanalytic psychotherapy program (AAAP).

 

As Candidate President, I have a unique perspective on the activities of the NPS analytic training program and institute. I experience the rigors and responsibility of being a candidate along with the satisfaction of learning in the camaraderie of peers. I also experience and witness the workings of the institute along all levels, from the Director of Training leading the Education Committee on issues related to the training, to the candidate group discussing their experience of the training and providing feedback to be considered for future learning. Always, I'm impressed by this group of dedicated, committed individuals throughout the Institute volunteering countless hours in order that psychoanalysis live on for the benefit of society.

 

Julie Hendrickson, MA LMHC

Candidate President

Regional and International News

Freud et al

6th International Psychoanalytical Association Congress, 1920, Hague, Holland.  

Front row, left to right: 3) Anna Freud, 6) Sandor Ferenczi. 12) Karl Abraham.  

Row two: 3) Ernest Jone, 5) Ernst Simmel, 7) Oskar Pfister, 8) Sigmund Freud, 9) Otto Rank, 11) Melanie Klein, 13) Theodor Reik. Row three: 5) (behind Simmel) Philip Sarasin, 9) (behind Rank) J.H.W. vanOphuijsen. Last row: 8) Max Eitingon, 9) Paul Federn, 12) Carl Muller-Braunschweig (?). 

  

International Psychoanalytical Association 48th Congress
Hilton Prague, Czech Republic
July 31 to August 3, 2013

"Facing the Pain: Clinical Experience and the Development of Psychoanalytic Knowledge"

About the Congress: Analyst and patient alike face psychic pain in the clinical experience. How do such encounters in the consulting room inform the ways we develop psychoanalytic theory and, on a more fundamental level, the very groundwork of our knowledge? In addition, cultural and societal factors, such as the global economic crisis, political repression, and upheaval, influence our patients and our selves and affect our clinical work. This Congress will focus on how the psychoanalytic process is gradually transformed from the analyst's initial and inchoate conceptualizations to more coherent and polished theories that can be communicated and possibly investigated by empirical methods.

  

Read more here.

 

Special Note: The Confederation of Independent Psychoanalytic Societies will host a welcome breakfast for all CIPS members, candidates, and invited guests at the IPA Congress. The breakfast will be held Friday, August 2, 2013, from 7:00 to 8:00 am, in the Chez Louis Salon at the Prague Hilton and conference site. Please join us and feel free to bring colleagues who may be interested in learning about CIPS.

Since You Asked... 

In the last edition of the newsletter (fall 2013), we published a paper by NPS Community Member Daniel Benveniste, PhD, on the only known photograph of Freud and Klein together (shown above) entitled "Sigmund Freud and Melanie Klein: You Get the Picture" (see link). Daniel's paper generated much interest, including an email to the editor from psychoanalyst, writer, and artist Meg Harris Williams. Regarding psychoanalytic history, Meg thought readers might be interested in an interview she and her husband conducted with psychoanalyst Jim Gammill, primarily centered on his relationship with Donald Meltzer and including some interesting references to Melanie Klein's relationship with Freud. Thanks to Meg's response to the newsletter, we are pleased to be able to share a window into the back-story of the development of British Object Relations theory, which, ironically, includes the powerful influence of several Americans. Click here to read the complete conversation between Meg and Adrian Williams and Jim Gammill at his home in Paris on October 29, 2011.

Special Report: NPS Open House - Celebrating Community

 

2013 Open House Handshake

Daniel Benveniste (left) accepting award from NPS President David Jachim

 

Caron Harrang, Reporter

Maxine Nelson, Photographer

 

Every year in early spring, NPS hosts an Open House. Other analytic institutes all over the United States do pretty much the same thing as a way to generate interest in psychoanalytic training and build a new candidate cohort. This year, the NPS Outreach committee decided to take a different tact. Instead of focusing exclusively on our first-rate training uniquely focused on British Object Relations theory, we chose to celebrate our community of analyst, candidate, and community members. This last group, community members, is a new category of membership designed to give psychoanalytic psychotherapists, academics, and others interested in the application of psychoanalytic principles to any aspect of life greater access to the work life of the organization. As such, we felt this group deserved special recognition. And, since welcoming our doors to these members, we have benefited greatly from their participation on various committees, which in turn has helped the organization to develop and grow. In recognition of their contributions, the NPS Board of Directors has initiated an annual Community Member Outstanding Service Award to be given to an individual who has demonstrated his or her commitment to NPS through committee work and other scientific or service activities.

 

The recipient of the first award presented by David Jachim at the Open House went to community member Daniel Benveniste, PhD, who has served on the NPS Publications committee for the past two years. Daniel, who has a strong background in publications as a founding member of the editorial board for the psychoanalytic journal Fort Da, helped us to envision the beginnings of the Selected Facts newsletter and to believe that it could become a reality. He also discovered and helped us gain permission to use the only known photograph of Sigmund Freud and Melanie Klein together (shown above in the Regional and International News section of the newsletter). As a psychologist deeply interested in psychoanalytic history, Daniel also wrote an interesting paper on the origins of this photograph, published in the last issue of the newsletter (see article above, under Since You Asked...). His infectious humor and good will made working with Daniel a delight. In stepping down from the Publications Committee as of this month to allow more time for his own writing projects, he will be sorely missed.

 

Of course, the organization would not exist and could not function without the vigorous efforts of the NPS Board of Directors, the Institute Education Committee, and all of the committees that support the Society (Outreach, Scientific Meetings, and Special Events/EBOR). For more on these efforts and accomplishments, see David Jachim's Letter from the President and Maxine Anderson's Letter from the Director of Training (above).

 

Also part of the Open House was a group discussion that followed the President's address and presentation of the service award. Current candidates (Anna Delacroix, Julie Hendrickson, Maxine Nelson, and David Parnes), Director of Training Maxine Anderson, Dean of Students Dana Blue, and several other analyst members met with applicants and those interested in learning more about psychoanalytic training for an informal conversation and to answer questions. Discussion centered on what had motivated those present to pursue analytic training. This open and frank exchange provided a window into the experience of psychoanalytic training for applicants and potential applicants as well as a time of reflection and sharing amongst current candidates and faculty. The consensus seemed to be that the process of becoming a psychoanalyst and formation of an analytic identity is ongoing. The horizon line remains out ahead, always. When an analytic community can hold this realization, it can be a source of inspiration and creative potential. If not, institute life and analytic work can feel stagnant and unrewarding, pointing, again, to the importance, dare I say, the essential need for working together within a strong and vital professional community.

 

This dialectic between creative potential and the many challenges that come with growth were also echoed in David Jachim's state of the organization address that commenced the Open House. In it, he reminded us of the many significant positive changes within NPS within the past year as well as some of the pitfalls that can occur in the wake of what he referred to as the quiet revolution of organizational development and change.

 

Last, but certainly not least, we want to acknowledge Community Member Marian Evans (Gracious Gourmet Catering), who provided delicious light fare for our event. Also, a special thanks goes to the Second and Lenora Starbucks (Erica Walvoord, Manager) and Macrina Bakery (Rachel Semasko, Manager) for donating coffee and baked goods for our event. Their generosity and community spirit are part of what makes our relocation to the Belltown neighborhood especially agreeable.

NPS Society News

 

EBOR 2014 Committee - Dana Blue and Caron Harrang

 

Dana Blue (Co-Chair) Dana Blue 2

Caron Harrang (Co-Chair)

 

Plans for EBOR X are already forming, with the organizing committee being co-chaired by Dana Blue and Caron Harrang. Although it is a ways off, we encourage everyone to mark your calendars for October 17-19, 2014, for the tenth international conference focusing on Evolving British Object Relations. The conference theme, although the exact title is still forming, will address the role of reverie in the analyst's understanding of process and technique.

 

If you are interested in helping shape this important NPS special event, please contact either Dana here or Caron here.

 

Outreach Committee - Caron Harrang

 

Maxine Anderson

Dana Blue

Caron Harrang (Chair)

David Jachim

 

The main focus of Outreach at this time was on hosting the just completed February 10th NPS Open House and celebrating our diverse and growing community. See our special report above for details of this celebratory event.

 

Publications Committee - David Jachim 

 

Lynn Cunningham (candidate representative)

Caron Harrang

David Jachim (Chair)

Maxine Nelson

 

The Publications Committee continues to monitor and improve our two main vehicles of communication with the professional and lay public via our website (www.nps.us.com) and the Selected Facts newsletter.    

 

The Committee wishes to acknowledge the contributions of Community Members Daniel Benveniste and Stephen Shehorn, both of whom have stepped down after several years of work with us. We wish them well and are now able to consider the possibility of new volunteers (analyst members, candidates, or community members) to our committee. Interested individuals are invited to contact David Jachim by clicking here. We are specifically interested in those who have experience with journal publication or interest in serving as website monitor to make sure our information is accurate and up to date.

 

Relocation Committee - Dana Blue and Caron Harrang

 

Dana Blue (Co-chair)

Lynn Cunningham (candidate representative)

Caron Harrang (Co-chair)

 

With much of the settling-in to our new location well underway, relocation activities are currently centered on adding features that will strengthen the Institute and the Society functions. Since the last issue of Selected Facts, significant improvements have been made to the lighting, and carefully chosen artwork is slowly finding its way onto the NPS wall space. A digital projector has been purchased that will allow faculty to incorporate PowerPoint presentations into their teaching and develop meaningful distance teaching and learning opportunities.

 

Scientific Meetings - Jeffrey Eaton

 

Jeffrey Eaton (Chair)

Barbara Sewell
Jeff Eaton

 

Scientific Meetings feature original paper presentations, or classical psychoanalytic papers chosen for their relevance to contemporary psychoanalytic understanding, presented by our psychoanalyst members and provide a venue for discussion and debate of evolving psychoanalytic theory and its application in clinical practice. Scientific Meetings are open to members of the Society and other mental health professionals (including graduate students in medicine, nursing, psychology, social work, and other mental health disciplines) interested in learning more about psychoanalysis, generally, and the British Object Relations approach, in particular. For those who may be considering advanced training in psychoanalysis, these meetings provide an excellent way of getting to know our analyst members, most of whom also teach in the Institute. For more information about meetings scheduled for the 2012-13 academic year click here.

NPS Institute News

 

The Education Committee consists of the Director of Training, Dean of Students, Candidate President, and committee chairs from Curriculum, Faculty Development, Outreach, and Training Analysts. The Director of Training chairs the EC and is head of the NPS Institute. The first report below pertains to the EC as a whole. Subsequent reports are from each of the subcommittees.

 

Education Committee - Maxine Anderson        

 

Maxine Anderson (Chair and Director of Training)

Dana Blue (Dean of Students)

Caron Harrang (Outreach)

Julie Hendrickson (Candidate President)

Esti Karson (Faculty Development)

Mirta Berman-Oelsner (Training Analysts)

David Rasmussen (Curriculum)

Marianne Robinson (Progression) 

 

For an overview of the Education Committee's recent activities, see the Letter from the Director of Training (above).

 

Curriculum Committee -  David Rasmussen

David Rasmussen 

 

Maxine Nelson

David Rasmussen (Chair)

Barbara Sewell (candidate representative)

 

The Curriculum Committee meets three to four times per year to review candidates' feedback about courses and seminar leaders and instructors, to review syllabi being developed for the next term, and to discuss teaching assignments for the coming year. In anticipation of a new class beginning in September 2013, the Curriculum Committee is currently making plans for courses and teaching assignments for the 2013-2014 Academic year.

 

Faculty Development Committee - Esti Karson

 

Esti Karson (Chair) Esther Karson

 

Save the Date: Faculty Development Special Event on November 9, 2013

 

We are pleased to announce that Deborah Cabaniss, PhD FIPA, a prominent expert in psychoanalytic education from Columbia University, will be coming to Seattle for a full day experiential learning conference. The goal of the event is to delve into the topic of teaching psychoanalysis. NPS is sponsoring her visit in conjunction with SPSI, with the hope that faculty and candidates from both institutes will grapple together with the complexity of optimizing the transmission of psychoanalytic knowledge and expertise. We hope that this endeavor will enrich our understanding of how to communicate our knowledge to current and future generations of candidates.

 

Details on cost, location, and exact times will follow in a future issue of the newsletter and on our website events calendar.

  

Progression Committee -

Marianne Robinson 

 

Dana Blue

Caron Harrang

David Parnes (candidate representative)

Marianne Robinson (Chair)

 

The mission of the Progression Committee is to monitor and support candidates' development throughout the course of psychoanalytic training at Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society. The goal of this undertaking is to ensure that candidates fulfill the requirements necessary for graduation and realize their potential as psychoanalysts. The committee is composed of a chairperson and two (2) to four (4) full members of the society with appropriate experience and one (1) candidate representative. The candidate does not attend the committee's discussions regarding individual candidates. Rather, the candidate member serves as liaison between the committee and the candidate cohort on matters of policy and procedure.

 

Since the last edition of Selected Facts, I am pleased to report that Dana Blue and Caron Harrang have agreed to join the committee. Additionally, I'd like to report that David Parnes has agreed to serve as candidate representative. When needed, ad hoc committees will also be used to carry out specific progression tasks. The committee is currently conducting yearly meetings with each individual candidate. Future plans include group meetings with NPS faculty and supervisors to carry out our mission. The committee will also be working to revise and update the progression handbook.  

 

Training Analysts Committee -   Mirta Berman-Oelsner

Mirta Berman-Oelsner

 

Maxine Anderson

Cecile Bassen

Mirta Berman-Oelsner (Chair)

Elie Debbane

Judy K Eekhoff

Ken King

Robert Oelsner

Marianne Robinson

Oscar Romero 

Don Ross

 

The committee holds monthly meetings in which NPS training analysts are invited to participate. It is a forum where themes and issues related to training analysis and educative consultations are discussed. The goal of these meetings is to enrich our experience and to be open and creative to the challenges that the task brings to us and to the Institute.

Candidate News

 

Lynn Cunningham, Reporter Lynn Cunningham

 

What's Next?

 

Because fifth-year candidates are nearing the end of our didactic studies, it seems a good time to reflect on how we've changed and to wonder how next year might look. I say "look" because it's conventional language, but actually I mean "feel," which is more accurate. Come June, the structure of our candidate learning process suddenly alters. Like a mini-graduation, certain assumptions and comforts we've relied on for five years abruptly fall away. The need to acknowledge gains and losses comes due again.

 

Fridays are going to feel quite different without the familiar two-class structure we now take for granted. The first thought that comes to mind is that we've always gathered at 5 pm for debriefing, usually over a glass of wine. This hour has been a convenient demarcation, giving permission to temporarily exchange the intense work of learning for a little relaxing and gaiety. Somehow our established routine doesn't feel so compatible with the timing of next year's case conference. Will we evolve into a coffee klatch? Maybe we'll just disperse and pursue previously set-aside interests. But there are other real losses also, such as no longer engaging with the minds of our training analysts (and visitors) on a regular basis. And another thing: I'll miss the organizing syllabus that is passed out at the beginning of every term. It's somewhat irritating to concede that every freedom comes with its mute appeal to take personal responsibility for refashioning our time and energy.

 

There's a subtle sense of formality embedded in a transition. In 1909, anthropologist Arnold Van Gennep observed these various proceedings, which he called rites of passage, thus giving meaning to the reflexivity of social process. He discovered that by verbal and non-verbal means, we impose innumerable constraints and boundaries to keep chaos at bay. So, for a while, we candidates will find ourselves mid-passage, existing in a liminal period, neither where we were nor where we will be. One class drops away, and we are set free to create something new out of the precious time we snatch back. By degrees, we'll each achieve a new state of stability in which our ambivalent feelings are transformed into certainty. As the preoccupying identification with our former selves is given up, we'll gradually view our world differently, stepping up and out in new directions.

 

We've proven to be a sturdy group of therapists, classmates who undertook the study of a sophisticated Object Relations syllabus, and colleagues who have grown appreciative and supportive of each other's learning process. We've celebrated feats (and feasts) and triumphs as well as shared in the sadness that accompanies some unanticipated personal change and loss. After having become a cohort who can rely on each other, we sought out our senior candidates for their support and wisdom and friendship. And, come September, we will offer our collective insights to the new class of NPS candidates.

 

Lynn Cunningham, LICSW, is a candidate at Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society and a member of the Publications Committee.

Members in Action

 

Dave Parnes, Reporter David Parnes

  

On February 6th, Shierry Nicholsen, PhD FIPA, presented a paper entitled "Varieties of Temporal Experience in the Psyche and the Session," sponsored by the Pacific Northwest Psychoanalytic Society. In this paper, Shierry explored the nature of time as it pertains to aspects of patients' psychopathology and the clinical process. She offered a conceptual framework in which to consider aspects of temporal experience encountered in clinical work, including trauma as the unpast and the repetition compulsion; waiting in relation to early and late; procrastination and work (psychic and otherwise) in its essential relation to time; the future and one's relation to possibility; temporal experience as reflected in language; and rhythm and synchronization in the interpersonal realm.

 

Shierry Nicholsen, PhD FIPA, a graduate of NPS, is a psychoanalyst and psychotherapist in private practice in Seattle. She serves on the faculties of the Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society and Seattle Psychoanalytic Society and Institute and is a frequent presenter to groups in the Seattle analytic community. She has an abiding interest in creativity and the arts and a current interest in French psychoanalysis.

 

Caron Harrang, Reporter

 

Robert Oelsner, MD FIPA, directed the 13th London Clinical Seminars meeting in the United Kingdom February 20-24, 2013.

 

Next month (March 1-3), Robert is also leading the Biannual All-Regions Technical Case Conference for candidates of the German Psychoanalytic Society at the International Psychoanalytic University in Berlin. This case conference has been conducted twice yearly since 2008.

 

Here in the US, Robert continues to lead seminar groups for two San Francisco psychoanalytic societies, SFCP and PINC, on a variety of topics, currently on Donald Meltzer's Extended Metapsychology and on Contemporary Perspectives on Projective Identification.

 

Mirta Berman-Oelsner, LHMC FIPA, runs an ongoing consultation group in San Francisco. On February 3, 2013, she taught the seminar Understanding and Handling Aggression of Preschoolers for the Child Developmental Program of the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis. She also attended the 13th Annual Meeting of the London Clinical Seminars in the United Kingdom.