The New York Institute for Psychoanalytic Self Psychology

Third Year

Most courses meet once a week for 15 weeks, at 90 minutes per session. In order to receive credit for a course, no more than three absences are permitted during a semester. In extenuating circumstances, the candidate may request from the instructor permission to do extra work as compensation for further absences.

302.0 Processes of the Unconscious: Fantasy, Dreams, and Symbolism

This course will highlight the central role of fantasy, dreams, and symbolism in psychoanalytic treatment. The similarities and differences between the self-psychological perspective and traditional view will be examined. Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams will be a primary text.

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303.0 Theory of Psychopathology II: Severe Self Disorders

This course is a continuation of course 204.1. There will be particular focus on the psychopathology of borderline and psychotic self disorders, with emphasis on the archaic nature of the selfobject transference typical of these disorders. Symptoms such as anxiety, depression, phobias, conversion reactions, obsessions, compulsions, and perversions will be looked at in relation to these disorders. Crayton Rowe's contribution of the undifferentiated selfobject transference will also be studied to explicate these symptoms further.

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302.1 Fantasy, Dreams, and Symbolism: A Clinical Practicum

This seminar will be a followup on the previous theoretical course (302.0) and will examine the dream in clinical practice. The dream and its interpretation will be reviewed from a self-psychological perspective and within the treatment situation. In addition to Kohut's writings, the works of other authors who have contributed to the literature on dreams in self psychology will be discussed.

304.1 Contrasting Views in Self Psychology

This course will review the writings of those contemporary authors whose theories have contributed different perspectives to diagnosis and psychopathology in self psychology. These new theories, which will be examined and contrasted with mainstream self psychology, will be Intersubjectivity, Contextualism, Optimal Responsiveness, Motivational Systems, Attachment Theory, and others. Process material contributed by both the instructor and the students will be used to demonstrate how different theories lead to distinctly different interpretations.
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