Spring 2009 Course Descriptions

Course Descriptions

Human Development - This sequence of courses offers students the experience of participating in and observing how emotional needs and conflicts unfold in psychoanalysis and how the analyst works with their repetition in this process.

GPSA501 Human Development: 0-3 Years of Life
In this course, we study the normal developmental process of the first three years of life. Infants move from symbiosis to separation and individuation while maturing biologically and neurologically. The child forms a healthy sense of self and competence in relation to the mother and the environment. Through readings, discussion, case presentation, and experiential emotional education, students will develop an deep appreciation for the developing infantile mind.

GPSA502 Human Development: 3 Years to Adolescence
This is the period when children master their civilization. The development of language, the resolution of the oedipal drama, and the accomplishments of latency may be affected by environmental failure. If all goes well, the child moves out of the magical thinking patterns of early childhood and develops the ability to engage in goal-directed behavior, abstract reasoning, and social relationships. Students will study this period through readings, case presentations, and personal experience.

GPSA503 Human Development: Adolescence-Young Adulthood
The development of the psychic structure during puberty will be examined, concentrating on the expression of the basic drives as the individual emerges and separates from the dependencies of childhood and eventually leaves home to start life on his or her own. Freud’s hallmark of maturity, “the ability to work and love,” will be used to study the conflicts and resistances of these crucial stages.

GPSA504 Human Development: Adulthood: Middle and Later Years
This class will explore the special issues of adulthood: creating a family, child rearing, aging and enjoying gains while experiencing losses. Working with adult, middle-aged and older patients, analysts find that the potential for emotional development never ends. HISTORY - This series of courses places psychoanalysis in a historical perspective. These
courses consider the widening scope of psychoanalysis from nineteenth-century Freud through the present.

GPSA510 History of the Psychoanalytic View of Women
This course examines the evolving views of women’s psychic development and roles in society from both psychoanalytic and sociological perspectives.

GPSA511 History of Psychoanalytic Theory: The Beginnings
In this period, Freud discovers the “talking cure” and finds the physiological basis of emotional life, as he develops a theory of unconscious motivation. he then expands his theory in regard to anxiety, the death instinct, and the dual drives. Through readings, case studies, and discussion, students will be introduced to the evolution of psychoanalytic thought and the lasting importance of Freud’s discoveries.

GPSA512 History of Psychoanalysis: 1905-1925
Freud continued to develop and expand his theory and technique. This course will focus on Freud’s major writings of this period.

GPSA513 Between the Wars: The Development of Psychoanalysis in the 1920’s and 1930’s:
Freud’s discovery of the superego, the dual drive theory, and the problem of the negative therapeutic reaction will be explored, together with the contributions of W. Reich (character analysis) and M. Klein (the treatment of children and psychotics).

GPSA514 History of Psychoanalysis: 1940-1960
Major figures of the psychoanalytic movement working and writing between the years 1940 and 1960 will be studied. Figures will include Sullivan, Erikson, Fairbairn, and Winnicott, among others.

GPSA515 History of Psychoanalysis: 1960-1975
Writings from major figures such as Mahler, Kohut, and Kernberg will be explored.

GPSA516 History of Psychoanalysis: 1975-Present
This course focuses on the historical context in which contemporary schools emerged and evolved. Writings from major figures such as Lacan, Stern, Searles, Kernberg, Lichtenberg, and Spotnitz will be explored.

PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY- Theory courses examine the metapsychology of
psychoanalytic treatment. “What is the mind?”, “What is illness?”, “What is cure?” are questions to be addressed through the study of various analytic orientations. These courses give students a broad foundation in classical and contemporary theories of psychoanalytic motivation.

GPSA521 Basic Psychoanalytic Concepts
According to Freud, psychoanalysis is any line of inquiry that starts with the study of transference and resistance. These bedrock concepts give us entree to unconscious dynamics such as narcissism, defenses, and the structure of the mind. Through readings, case material and reflective talk, students will gain a grasp of the fundamentals of psychoanalytic theory.

GPSA522 Modern Psychoanalytic Theory
Students will learn how psychoanalysis was expanded, in technique and theory, to include more severe emotional disorders and the treatment of children, adolescents, and groups. The contributions of Melanie Klein, Donald W. Winnicott, and Hyman Spotnitz, among others, will be studied.

GPSA523 Anxiety and Defense
By 1926, Freud had concluded that defenses are mechanisms for the control of anxiety. This course will trace the development of Freud’s thinking on anxiety and study the modern psychoanalytic view as well.

GPSA524 Psychoanalytic Theory of Dream Interpretation
Through readings, discussions, and dream presentations, students will learn how psychoanalysts understand and work with dreams, “the royal road to the unconscious.”

GPSA525 Understanding the Repetition Compulsion
Understanding the repetition compulsion enables the analyst to intervene in ways that result in character change. This course studies one of Freud’s most valuable contributions for understanding psychodynamics.

GPSA526 Resistance and Defense
Psychic defenses are essential tools available to us for dealing with psychic pain. This course will study the use of defenses, from projection and splitting to repression and sublimation, in relation to emotional, psychosexual, and cognitive development. This course will consider mental illness a maladaptive psychic defense process, and psychoanalytic cure a state of mental well being in which thoughts, feelings, and impulses can be tolerated comfortably without resorting to inappropriate action or self-destructive defense.

GPSA527 Drive Theory
This course will study Freud’s shift from the single drive theory (libido) to the dual drive theory (libido and aggression). Questions to be explored include: Is there a death instinct? Are drives inherent sources of energy or simply reactions to frustration that propel the individual? How does drive theory shape the formulations and interventions of psychoanalytic treatment?

GPSA528 Narcissism, Aggression, and the Preoedipal Personality
This course will study aggression as a dominant force in the preoedipal personality. Readings, class discussion, and case presentations will focus on whether and how psychoanalysis can enable patients to integrate their destructive impulses and give up acting on desires for murder and revenge.

GPSA529 Transference and Countertransference
Freud discovered that transference--the collection of thoughts, fantasies, wishes and feelings experienced by the analysand toward the analyst--was a valuable tool both in understanding the development of neurosis and designing its treatment. At the same time, he concluded that the complex of thoughts, feelings, wishes, and fantasies aroused in the analyst in the presence of the analysand represented an obstruction to the analysis. This course will trace the evolving view of countertransference, first, as unwanted complications in the analysis, to the current view that they are powerful and indispensable tools in the treatment process. The recognition of induced feelings has proved to be particularly useful in the treatment of preverbal narcissistic issues. The theory of transference and countertransference will be illustrated with case material.

GPSA530 Attachment: Drives and Object Relations Theory
This course will explore how the fetus and early infant relates and attaches to its mother. Students will study psychic development from the first nine months and the circumstances of birth; the significance of the mother-infant bond; and the effects of this early attachment on later development and success in life. The class will explore the work of theorists such as John Bowlby, Margaret Mahler, Alessandra Piontelli, Candace Pertan, and Joseph LeDoux.

GPSA531 Group: The Ego and the Mechanisms of the Family
Modern analytic group psychotherapy serves to elicit and resolve the resistance of individual members, subgroups, and the group as a whole. Resistances are understood as the individuals’ characteristic modes of functioning which emerged in adaptation to the pressures and stress of their very first group--the family. Resistance enabled the individual to survive in the original setting and can provide important information about the individual’s life history. The role one adopts in a group reflects the behavioral patterns developed in the face of psychological exigencies in the family.

GPSA533 Theory: Psychoanalysis and Spirituality
Religion and psychoanalysis historically have been seen as enemy systems. Yet Freud understood the word ‘psyche’ as the equivalent of the English ‘soul’. Both psychoanalysis and religion deal with universal questions: What is the nature of the human being? What is love? What is hate? What is the nature of evil? What is a good life? What is the role of the individual? What is the role of the group? What is faith? How do we live with the reality of death? What is the soul? This course will examine the conflicts and the unities in the study os psychoanal;ysis and spirituality through clinical and theoretical material.

GPSA534: Additional Theory Course Electives
These topics permit the inclusion of creative and timely theoretical subjects relevant for psychoanalytic counseling.

PSYCHOPATHOLOGY - These courses focus on a psychodynamic understanding of symptoms, core conflicts, and characteristic defenses inherent in mental illness.

GPSA541 Severe Emotional Disorders: Primitive Mental States
This course will introduce students to early survival mechanisms that once were useful adaptations to the maturation process, but that later in life because of failures in the environment, became maladaptive and compulsive. Aggression is recognized as a dominant force in the developing personality. The importance of observing stimulation levels and respecting how the patient communicates his needs and thoughts will be emphasized. Schizophrenia and borderline pathology will be studied.

GPSA542 Character Psychopathology and Defenses
This course studies major psychic defenses as they become the basis of enduring personality structure. Such character structures as: narcissistic, depressive, schizoid, paranoid, masochistic (self-defeating), among others will be examined.

GPSA543 Psychopathology Elective
Topics to be studied will vary from semester to semester. RESEARCH - The Research curriculum presents methodological issues and guides the formulation of questions for study, from the Master of Arts level through the final project in the Certificate Program.

GPSA551 Introduction to the Psychoanalytic Research Method
Research is an essential part of psychoanalytic work. The right treatment for each individual must be discovered based on ongoing research. In this class, students will study relevant research literature and learn to observe, hypothesize, and think of clinical interventions.

GPSA553 Research Methods and Thesis Advisement/Case Presentation
Students will write a case study of an Externship patient whom they have been observing. A salient feature of the patient’s character will be used to glean his or her primary unconscious dynamics. Students will also conduct an in-depth review of relevant literature. The thesis in the MA program and the case final project presentation in the Certificate program are opportunities is an opportunity for students to integrate their conceptual learning with their clinical skills.

GPSA555 Proposal Writing
In this course, students will learn how research is conducted on a single case and develop a proposal for the final project in the Certificate program. Students will prepare a narrative of the case dynamics which describes the course of treatment and presents a research question about some aspect of the case that puzzles the student; show how the therapist listens in order to form an impression of the patient’s emotional experience; write a review of the clinical literature that relates to the research question; and describe a methodology that states how the data will be collected and analyzed.

GPSA760 Final Project Research Tutorial
Students in the Certificate program work individually with a research supervisor who assists them in completion of the proposal for the final research project, data collection and interpretation, case discussion, findings through completion, approval and final presentation of the paper.

CLINICAL STUDIES - These courses are taken in conjunction with the Externship Placement Experience and the Consultation Center Candidacy.

GPSA701-702-703 Externship Placement and Seminar
The Externship Experience is conceived as an opportunity to study serious psychopathology and develop psychoanalytic listening skills. Students learn how to recognize severe psychopathology and how to deal with their own feelings when encountering it. Students will study the dynamics of three hospitalized or post-hospitalized patients for 50 hours each. Students will take the Externship Seminar for the duration of the Externship Placement. In the first semester, students will learn to recognize symbolic thinking, unconscious motivation, and defenses in relation to the Externship cases. In the second semester, students will study primitive transference and resistance states and their application in clinical settings. They will experience the meaning of the “one person” psychoanalysis. In the third semester, students will concentrate on countertransference as a clinical tool and technical approaches to the treatment of serious disorders.

GPSA750-7575 Clinical Case Seminar
Prerequisite: Consultation Center Candidacy status. Students take this course for the duration of their Consultation Center work. It is designed to help students work psychoanalytically with patients, to recognize early resistances in treatment, and to understand induction and countertransference resistances in treatment. A minimum of four semesters of this course is required.

GPSA758 Continuing Case Presentation
This course offers an in-depth study of the dynamics of one to three cases presented continuously by students throughout the course of the semester. Students in the Certificate program who have taken a minimum of four semesters of Clinical Case Seminar may substitute this course. This course is open to all students as an elective.

GPSA720 Supervised Group Studies for Externship
Students enroll in Supervised Group Studies (SGS) for the duration of their externship Experience. Three students meet with a faculty member to process their experience with Externship cases. Students present regular process notes . At least three semesters of SGS are required.

GPSA730 Supervised Group Studies for the Consultation Center
Three students meet with a supervisor to present cases to understand their dynamics. Four semesters of Supervised Group Studies are required. Students regularly present process notes.