Florida Psychoanalytic Center

Dana Birksted-Breen Fall 2023 Seminar ‘Sexuality, Time and the Psychoanalytic Mind’

April 6, 2023

Understanding Primitive Mental States

Susan Finkelstein, LCSW, Director

The Work of Psychoanalysis:

Sexuality, Time and the Psychoanalytic Mind

Presenter:

Dana Birksted-Breen

Former Editor-in-Chief, The International Journal of Psychoanalysis

FALL 2023 (Revised Format)

3:00pm-4:30pm EST

Program Dates: Thursdays, September 14, October 12, November 9, and December 14, 2023

This ongoing clinical and theoretical seminar will focus on the workings of the mind of the psychoanalyst during the analytic session which includes issues related to temporality, spatial dimensions and sexuality.  Attention will be paid to unconscious phantasy as it evolves in the session details between analyst and patient and their interlocking and overlapping vertices. We will consider issues to do with the setting, and consider, amongst others, the clinical concepts of countertransference and the Bionian notion of containment and how these are both understood and sometimes misused.  This semester we will discuss two essays at two consecutive seminars followed by a case presentation for two meetings. 

Dana Birksted-Breen, PhD is a training and supervising psychoanalyst and Distinguished Fellow of the British Psychoanalytical Society.  She is a former Editor of the New Library of Psychoanalysis books and a former Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis (2007-2022). Her latest book is The Work of Psychoanalysis, Sexuality, Time and the Psychoanalytic Mind, New Library of Psychoanalysis, Routledge 2016. Her most recent paper “Pathways of the Unconscious: When the Body is the Receiver/Instrument” was published in the Centenary issue of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis (issue 6, 2019).  She conceived and co-curated an exhibition at the Freud Museum, London, “The Enigma of the Hour, One Hundred Years of Psychoanalytic Thought” (June- August 2019) and a short film about it   https://vimeo.com/383978034

Learning Objectives:

Upon completion of this program, participants will be able to:

1) Define the psychoanalytic concepts of time, spatial dimensions, sexuality and their interplay in the transference and countertransference dynamic.

2) Define Bion’s concept of containment and differentiate between its authentic use and its misuse in the countertransference situation. 

Relevant Readings:

Birksted-Breen  D. (1989) ‘Working with an Anorexic patient’ International J.  Psycho-Anal 70 part 1 29-40.

Birksted-Breen  D. (1996 )  ‘Phallus, Penis and Mental Space’ International J.  Psycho-Anal 77 : 649-657

Birksted-Breen  D. (2003) ‘Time and the Après-coup’ International J.  Psycho-Anal 84:1501-1515

Birksted-Breen D.( 2009)  ‘Reverberation Time, Dreaming and the Capacity to Dream,  International J.  Psycho-Anal 90 : 35-51

Birksted-Breen  D. (2012) ‘Taking Time, The Tempo of Psychoanalysis’  International J.  Psycho-Anal 93:819-835   

Birksted-Breen  D. (2016) ‘Bi-ocularity, The Functioning Mind of the Psychoanalyst’ International J.  Psycho-Anal 97:25-40

Birksted-Breen D. (2019) Pathways of the Unconscious: When the Body is the Receiver/Instrument, IJP Centenary issue, International J.  Psycho-Anal 100 1117-1133

Other authors might include articles by Mervin Glasser, Ignes Sodre, and John Steiner.

Susan N Finkelstein, LCSW is a Training analyst at the Contemporary Freudian Society and Faculty/Member of IPTAR. She developed Understanding Primitive Mental States, a study group where she teaches: The Internal World and Its Objects, The Claustro-agoraphobic Dilemma, Clinical Klein, The Not-I Patient.  At APsaA she co-chairs a discussion group with Nasir Ilahi on Schizoid Modes in Borderline and Narcissistic Patients.She is in private practice in NYC in psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, couple therapy and clinical supervision..  She is a member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis and has a co-edited book with Professor Heinz Weiss, “The Claustro-agoraphobic Dilemma in Psychoanalysis: The Fear of Madness,” Routledge (2022).

Continuing Education Credits:

Licensed Psychologists: Susan N. Finkelstein, LCSW, PC is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0020.

Social Workers: Susan N. Finkelstein, LCSW, PC is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #0262. 

CE credits are granted to participants with documented attendance of the entire program.  No partial credits will be offered.  It is the responsibility of the participants seeking CE credits to comply with these requirements. Upon completion of this programs and evaluation forms, participants will be granted 6 CE credits. 

Program Fee: $540

To Register:

Please contact Susan Finkelstein to register and make payment arrangements.

Cancellation Policy: No refunds, except for a medical emergency.