Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research

A series of elective seminars is offered, beginning in the second half of the third year, to further amplify the candidates’ grasp of theory and process and to expand their psychoanalytic scholarship. Candidates must take a minimum of two electives (at least one clinical-theoretical) in the third year, a minimum of four electives in the fourth year, and continued supervision and four electives in the fifth year. The electives are given on a rotating schedule, with key electives offered more frequently. This system gives the candidates some choice in emphasis and timing of their educational experience and, with the guidance of the adviser, an opportunity to explore special interests in greater depth and a chance for further study in areas that need strengthening.

Elective seminars are offered in psychoanalytic theory, clinical technique, psychoanalysis as applied to other areas of knowledge, research, and child and adolescent psychoanalytic studies. All courses required for the child and adolescent studies program may be taken as electives in the adult program. Most often, elective seminars meet for 16 hours and are scheduled on Monday 11 a.m.–1 p.m. Occasionally, other times may be arranged.

Candidates can use their elective time to engage in research or independent projects that may extend for more than one elective period. Research projects are developed and executed under the mentorship of a faculty member and can take the form of a theoretical or clinical paper, or a clinical research project that involves data collection and data analysis. Requests by candidates for special seminars are considered by the Curriculum Committee and provided when possible. Some seminars are given only if a required minimum number of candidates elect them. Others may be given on a tutorial basis. Individual tutorials may be arranged on request under special circumstances.

To promote greater understanding of child development and child analysis, courses in the child and adolescent psychoanalytic studies program will be open to candidates in the adult program as year-long electives in the fourth and fifth year.

RESEARCH PROGRAM

Candidates have the option of undertaking a research program in lieu of some portion of the elective program. Candidates planning to take a research elective should discuss it with the chair of the Research Committee and submit the project in writing to both the chair of the Research Committee and the chair of the Curriculum Committee in the term before they plan to begin. The amount of elective credit that may be allotted is determined on an individual basis.

Fall

Sexuality and the Clinical Situation

m9624x

Dr. Rosenberg, course chair, Dr. Weiss, Associate Instructor. 16 hours (September - November). Monday 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.

This course explores human sexuality in its diversity and complexity, from a theoretical and clinical psychoanalytic point of view. Draws upon recent relational interest in sexuality as well as object relations, self psychology and ego psychology combined with in-depth clinical material in papers and presented by course instructors. The course focuses the candidate’s attention on the range and potential psychological uses of sexual fantasy and behavior. Special attention is paid to sexuality within the analytic and supervisory dyads and to countertransference issues in working with sexual material in order to manage and contain the anxiety, excitement and fantasies that sexuality itself evokes. At the conclusion of the course, candidates should have a broader picture of the varied forms, expressions and psychological meanings of sexuality as well as greater facility and comfort in exploring and interpreting it in the analytic and supervisory setting.

Drop-Out Experience

M9640

Dr. Powell. 8 hours (November - December). Mondays 11:00 - 12:45 p.m.

This 4 week clinical elective is focused on the ubiquitous but rarely discussed or written phenomena of analytic cases that drop-out of treatment. Especially early in training this can be a pivotal component to the development of a candidate’s analytic identity both positively and negatively. The goal of the course is to have various faculty and advanced candidates informally present their cases that ended prematurely to discuss how this impacted on the way they work, their developing identity as an analyst, whether obstacles or future problems were discussed within supervision and how we can reduce it’s occurrence. If possible the candidate’s supervisor will be available for his/her unique perspective. Relevant reading will be included in the discussion. Goal: At the end of this elective the candidates should have a better appreciation of the factors that lead to cases dropping out of treatment, appreciate the impact of this type of experience toward analytic identity formation and potentially reduce its occurrence.

Gender in the clinical situation

Psychoanalysis M9601

Drs. Brown and Vaughan. 16 hours (November - January). Mondays 11:00 - 12:45 p.m.

This course presents psychoanalytic concepts of gender from early conceptions of Freud, through feminist and relational revisions, to current theoretical and clinical concepts. Individual experience of gender is explored, including the overlapping contributions of bodily experience, mental life, and the interpersonal and social surround. The fluctuation between certainty and diffusion of certainty about the gender binary within the literature and within individual experience is a central theme. At the conclusion of the course, students will have an overview of the history of ideas, major contributions, and controversies within the psychoanalytic gender literature. Students will increase their understanding of how the gendered nexus of mind and body arises in psychoanalytic clinical work (e.g., recruited for resolving conflict, dealing with loss, organizing identifications, regulating self esteem, or establishing an individual's relation to the interpersonal environment).

Spring

Psychotherapy for Analysts

M9632

Drs. Caligor and Cherry, Chairs. Drs. Barasch, Douglas, Ornstein, Scheneier and A. Schwartz, Instructors; Dr. Rosenberg, Associate Instructor. 36 hours (February - June). Mondays 11:00 - 12:45 p.m.

Advanced candidates have assimilated a complex model of psychological functioning and pathology. They have also developed core clinical skills and understand how these clinical skills are applied in analytic treatment. In this course we explore how these clinical skills can be applied and/or modified to other forms of treatment. The course is organized around core competencies with focus on clinical decision-making, flexibility, and an eye towards optimizing outcome and attaining treatment goals. By the end of this course candidates will have an understanding of how psychoanalytic principles and techniques can be applied in a flexible and pragmatic fashion in the psychotherapeutic setting, and how clinical decision-making is informed by patient pathology, treatment goals, and theory of technique

Bowlby’s Contribution to Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis M9603

Drs. Coates and Scheftel. 16 hours (February - April). Mondays 11-12:45 p.m.

This elective will focus on the history and trajectory of John Bowlb's writings and the psychoanalytic origins of attachment theory. The course will provide an opportunity for candidates to immerse themselves in a rich body of literature that is at once scholarly, developmental, evidence based and integrative. In many ways Bowlby was a psychoanalyst ahead of his time, his contributions prefiguring current trends in infancy research and neuroscience that have come to inform and deepen our field. The readings will be augmented by films, including an interview with Bowlby near the end of his life, as well as a groundbreaking documentary made under Bowlby's auspices that documented the effects of early separations on young children. At the conclusion of the course, candidates will be able to locate Bowlby's prolific scholarship within current psychoanalytic thinking and theorizing, while exploring the question of what it was about Bowlby's writing that made him controversial within the psychoanalytic milieu of his time.

Psychoanalytic Therapy Updated: Overview of Transference-Focused Psychotherapy – Extended (TFP-E)

Psychoanalysis M9612

Drs. Caligor, Hersh, McCommon and Schneier. 8 hours (April - June). 11:00 - 12:45 p.m.

The goal of this course is to introduce analytic candidates to TFP-E, a contemporary model of psychodynamic psychotherapy for personality pathology across the range of severity (from neurotic level of personality organization through severe personality disorders), focusing on topics of particular relevance to analytic clinicians. At the completion of this course participants will be able to make use of TFP principles and techniques in their daily practice to: 1) complete a thorough assessment and sharing diagnostic impressions with the patient as a prelude to treatment, 2) establish a treatment frame and treatment goals while understanding their functions in clinical process and outcome, 3) utilize a systematic approach to identifying a focus of intervention, 4) anticipate and manage transference and countertransference developments in patients at different levels of severity of pathology, 5) utilize TFP principles and techniques in supportive therapy, psychopharmacology practice and crises in treatment, 6) utilize a contemporary model of mechanisms of change in psychodynamic treatment focusing on reflective processes, character analysis, and structural change.