CANCELED: Modern Psychoanalysis: Beyond the Interpretation Principle

Seven Actors, Sixty Analysts, One Conversation

2 CE credits for Licensed Psychoanalysts and Social Workers

Practitioners and General Public: $40  |  Students: $10

Christopher Russell’s presentation is a staged reading.  A cast of seven, led by Hyman Spotnitz, Phyllis Meadow, and Sigmund Freud, engage in a spirited discussion about the theory and practice of modern psychoanalysis.  The dialogue is composed entirely of excerpts from the existing literature; each analyst advocates for his or her position on central psychoanalytic concepts.  Starting with transference and resistance, we enter the treatment room, where the contract and various applications of technique are discussed.  Next, Dr. Meadow asks us to consider two questions: What are the bases of therapeutic action?  And how, if not by interpretation, can the analyst promote growth in the patient?  A range of issues in theory, practice, and training will be explored, leading to a discussion of how to define the goals of treatment.  Examining these diverse ideas through the medium of performance will clarify modern psychoanalytic perspectives on them and animate further debate.

Christopher Russell, MA, LP, is a modern psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City. He received his master’s degree in psychoanalysis from the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis and his certificate in psychoanalysis from the Center for Modern Psychoanalytic Studies.