CMPS Annual Conference: Leaning into the Message

Three Perspectives on Working with Psychosis

5 CE Credits for Psychoanalysts, Psychologists, and Social Workers

Limited In-Person Seating at CMPS, 16 West 10th Street, New York City and Online via Zoom

Admission: $150 | Students with ID: $40

In-Person (Full)

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Psychosis is often viewed through a medical model that further alienates the individual so described. Freud famously identified the seemingly insurmountable challenges of working analytically with psychosis, especially the difficulties in establishing a working alliance and building the transference. In contrast, we can see ways in which people are driven mad by their experience, in line with Lacan’s view of psychosis as a position that marks a fundamental alienation from the social structure. This conference will focus on psychosis as an idiosyncratic medium of communication—an avenue to discovering the unconscious—and will discuss various approaches to working analytically with it.

Danielle Knafo, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst with expertise in the treatment of psychosis. At Long Island University’s clinical psychology doctoral program, she chaired a concentration on serious mental illness. She is on the faculty and a supervisor at NYU’s Postdoctoral Program in Psychoanalysis. She has written and lectured extensively on psychoanalysis, trauma, and psychosis. Her most recent book is From Breakdown to Breakthrough: Psychoanalytic Treatment of Psychosis (Routledge, 2024).

Marilyn Charles, PhD, ABPP, is a psychoanalyst and staff psychologist at the Austen Riggs Center. As Chair of the Association for the Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society (APCS), she is committed to mentoring future generations of psychoanalytic scholars, clinicians, and researchers. Her own research focuses on creativity, psychosis, metacognition, and the intergenerational transmission of trauma. She has published and presented widely. Books include Working with Trauma: Lessons from Bion and Lacan (2011) and Echoes of Trauma: Meaning and Identity in Psychoanalysis (forthcoming).

Josie Oppenheim, PsyaD, is a supervisor, training analyst, and on the faculty of the Center for Modern Psychoanalytic Studies and the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis. She is an editor at Psychoanalytic Inquiry and has authored numerous papers on psychoanalysis and cultural topics. She is a Gradiva Award nominee and a recipient of the Phyllis W. Meadow Awards for Excellence in Psychoanalytic Writing and Psychoanalytic Research. She is in private practice in New York City.

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If you need to register from outside the Unite States please visit https://www.cmps.edu/Registration-for-NonUS-Residents

Register to Attend via Zoom