Extension Division
The Center for Modern Psychoanalytic Studies, founded in 1971, holds an absolute charter from the State of New York to offer a Certificate in Psychoanalysis and is recognized by the State of New York as a licensure qualifying institute for those seeking licensure in psychoanalysis.
Modern Psychoanalysis rests on the theoretical framework and clinical approach of Sigmund Freud and the innovative techniques of Hyman Spotnitz and Phyllis W. Meadow. Its cornerstone is emotional communication, the practice of which allows for the loosening of repetitive and rigid patterns of thinking and behavior. This technique along with others has revolutionized the psychoanalytic field, expanding treatment to the full range of emotional disorders. These interventions have proven valuable to those working in the varied fields of social work, mental health, education, the law, business, and the arts among others.
2021 Spring Extension Division Brochure [download print version]
Upcoming
One-Semester Introduction to Modern Psychoanalysis (survey course open to the public)
Ten Thursdays at 7:10 PM – 8:40 PM
September 17 – November 19
15 CE CREDITS FOR PSYCHOLOGISTS AND SOCIAL WORKERS
This popular course offers the fundamentals of modern psychoanalytic theory and technique to those considering psychoanalytic training. Topics include transference, resistance, countertransference, and emotional communication. Open to clinicians and the public.
The Storm Has Arrived: Psychoanalysis Faces a Human Emergency Can the Social Dreaming Matrix Provide a Generative, Creative Path Forward? (Online Presentation)
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2026 | 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM (Eastern)
2 CE Credits for Psychoanalysts, Psychologists, and Social Workers
As global crises of dehumanization and meta-dehumanization—political, ecological, and moral—intensify, psychoanalysis faces an ethical reckoning and a paradigmatic opportunity.
Presenter: George Bermúdez
Systemic Re-Transmission of Trauma: Defending Against the Lost and Found (Online Presentation)
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2026 | 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM (Eastern)
2 CE Credits for Psychoanalysts, Psychologists, and Social Workers
This case presentation will discuss the ongoing societal intrusions that emotionally handicapped the interracial therapeutic relationship of the psychoanalyst and the patient.
Presenter: Felecia Powell-Williams
Psychoanalysis as a Form of Play: Considering Interpretation and Mourning in Relation to Play (Online Presentation
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2026 • 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM (Eastern)
2 CE Credits for Psychoanalysts, Psychologists, and Social Workers
Winnicott’s (1968) assertion that all psychoanalytic treatment is a highly specialized form of play implies that a central aspect of analytic work is helping patients to hold paradoxical realities. For example, experiencing the transference involves holding the analyst as real and unreal at the same time.
Presenter: Steven H. Cooper
Past
A Long Road to Clinical Discovery: Bion and Psychosis (Online Presentation)
Saturday, April 18, 2026 | 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM (Eastern)
2 CE Credits for Psychoanalysts, Psychologists, and Social Workers
This presentation builds on and goes beyond Bion’s rich reflections on psychosis to a consideration of more recent investigations into the nature of this form of psychopathology. [Read more]
Presenter: Franco De Masi
Shame and the Erotic Mind: A Psychoanalytic Lens on Sexuality, Desire, and the Therapeutic Relationship (Online Presentation)
Saturday, May 9, 2026 | 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM (Eastern)
Presentation via Zoom - Registration OPENS 1/20/2026
2 CE Credits for Psychoanalysts,Psychologists, and Social Workers
This workshop explores the complex role of shame in erotic life and the therapeutic process. Drawing from her book, Psychoanalytic Sex Therapy: Exploring the Unconscious Life of Sexuality (Routledge, 2026), Juliane Maxwald integrates psychoanalytic, relational, and somatic frameworks to illuminate how sexual symptoms often conceal unspoken shame, attachment longing, and the fear of exposure. [Read more]
Presenter: Juliane Maxwald
The Generative Power of Living Through Death in States of At-Onement (Online Presentation)
Saturday, March 28, 2026 | 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM (Eastern)
2 CE Credits for Psychoanalysts,Psychologists, and Social Workers
Working within a Winnicottian model of deep mutual regression, Ofra Eshel describes reaching back emotionally to a moment of early traumatic breakdown when the patient psychically confronted extinction. [Read More]
Presenter: Ofra Eshel
Discussant: Dan Gilhooley
Creative Clinical Writing Workshop (Online Presentation)
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2026 | 10:00 AM – 12:30 PM (Eastern)
2 CE Credits for Psychoanalysts,Psychologists, and Social Workers
In this workshop, participants will learn to write richer, more accessible, and creative clinical narratives. [Read more]
Presenter: Therese Ragen
Psychoanalysis and Identity Formation in Fashion (Online Course)
February 4 through April 15, 2026 | Wednesdays, 7:00 – 8:30 PM (Eastern)
[15 CE Credits for Psycoanalysts, Psychologists, and Social Workers]
This course will explore identity formation in fashion and style expression in the context of relationship to early caregivers, focusing on reaction formations, the development of the superego, the mirror stage, and the skin ego. [Read more]
Instructor: Golzar Selbe Naghshineh
Materiality in the Psychic Encounter (Online Presentation)
[2 CE Credits for Psychoanalysts, Psychologists, and Social Workers]
Presenter: Nini Kerr, DPsych, MBACP, FHEA
This presentation explores the interobjective dimension of psychic life through the lens of Fairbairn’s object relations theory, positioning it as an extension to the more traditionally applied intersubjective approaches in psychoanalysis. [Read more . . .]
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ACAP
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New Books in Psychoanalysis