Program Cancelled - To Be Rescheduled

"Fragile Containers: Social Upheaval

and Its Impact on the Therapeutic Dyad"

with Lee Rather, PhD and Amy Levy, PsyD

Program Description
With the acceleration of social change, economic uncertainty, global political upheaval, climate change, and technological development, the contemporary psychotherapist is increasingly confronted with the impact of the outside world on the sanctity of the consulting room. Diagnoses and patient reports of anxiety, perfectionism, and overall vulnerability appear to be increasing dramatically. More than ever, the contemporary therapist needs tools to think about not only intrapsychic and the interpersonal dynamics, but also cultural and existential dynamics in order to consider the impact of these forces on the individual and collective psyche. Making reference to the work of theorists such as Wilfred Bion, Ernest Becker, Christopher Bollas and Carlo Strenger to help psychotherapists formulate and discuss the manic and melancholic aspect of modern life.

Program Cancelled

About the Presenters

Lee Rather, PhD, is a Personal & Supervising Analyst at the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California and a faculty member at the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis. He has taught and lectured extensively on the work of Freud, Ferenzci, Klein, Kohut, Winnicott, Bion, Matte-Blanco, Meltzer, Ferro, and the American Relationalists. He is in private practice in San Francisco where he provides psychoanalysis, individual and couples therapy, and professional consultation.

Amy Levy, PsyD,  is a Psychoanalytic Psychologist who trained in San Francisco and Los Angeles, California. She has published and presented on her elaborations on Wilfred Bion’s theories as well as hysteria. Dr. Levy has also presented professionally on psychoanalytic group work and theory. Dr. Levy taught psychoanalytic and group theory in various graduate programs in California and has worked as a forensic and assessment psychologist in Los Angeles. Since moving to North Carolina, she has renewed her interest in psychoanalytic teaching and writing. Dr. Levy maintains a private practice in Durham, treating adults and adolescents.

Leaning Objectives: By the end of the session, learners should be able to:

1.Describe the cumulative impact of the contemporary cultural surround on the individual psyches of their patients.
2.Explain the fundamentals of the theory of the group unconscious as described by Bion and others.
3.Describe the impact of the group and culture in terms of the internalization occurring in the superego and the preconscious ego.
4.Explain the differences between “interpretation” and “interpolation”. 

Program Cancelled

1.       Describe the difference between presenting problems best understood in s of family history and those best understood in terms of the dynamics of the collective.

2.      Explain how to make interpretations that do not use “external reality as a defense” but takes in these realities as true psychological factors.

3.      Apply Carlo Strenger’s theory of the “fear of their insignificance” to better understand splitting and tribalism in the narcissistic structures of patients’ emotional worlds.