Contributions of Infant Research to Adult Treatment:

Development and Therapeutic Action

Online: May 30 - June 12, 2016

This one-hour online presentation is taught by Frank Lachmann, PhD, a faculty member in our Luminary Series, and represents a distillate of his cur­rent thinking about the interface between psychoanalytic constructs and the application of those theoretical concepts to the clinical situation.

From the empirical studies of mother infant dyads, three principles of organizing experience have been reaped that have life-long applicability. These principles describe how from birth on what we represent and what we remember, how we feel and how we behave are derived from experiences that are co-created by our self in relation to others. When our understanding of early development, transference, and the organization of the mind are applied to psychotherapy we require and acquire a broader conceptual and therapeutic perspective that integrates these principles into effective therapeutic technique.

Specific learning objectives:

• Identify and treat the underlying conflicts in adult patient that derive from early dyadic miss attunements that manifest as adult character pathology and prompt some patients to appear to be so difficult to treat.

• Broaden, enhance, and alter their understanding of the sources of the self-esteem vulnerabilities at the root of difficulties a therapist may experience in engaging with some patients.

• Identify the ”leading edge” of patients’ difficulties and recognize the ways in which their obstructive, aggression ad/or self damaging behaviors fulfills vital attachment needs and regulates self-esteem.

   

LS16-4 | 1 CE Credit | $45

Frank M. Lachmann, PhD, is teacher and supervisor as a member of the Founding Faculty of the Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity, New York; and Clinical Assistant Professor, in the NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. He is author or co-author of more than 150 journal publications. He has been a co-author with Joe Lichtenberg and Jim Fosshage on five Books, including Self and Motivational Systems, The Clinical Exchange, A Spirit of Inquiry, Psychoanalysis and Motivational Systems, and Enlivening the Self. With Beatrice Beebe he wrote Infant Research and Adult Treatment and Origins of Attachment. He is sole author of Transforming Aggression: Psychotherapy with the Difficult-to-Treat Patient and Transforming Narcissism: Reflections on Empathy, Humor, and Expectations. He is a member of the Council of the International Association of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology, and an Honorary member of the Vienna Circle for Self Psychology, the William Alanson White Society, and the American Psychoanalytic Association.