Reframing the Frame: Creativity and Discipline in Relational Psychoanalysis
An All-Day Conference
Saturday, January 13, 2007 at the New School Tischman Auditorium
66 West 12th Street (between 5th and 6th Avenue), New York, NY

Co-Sponsors
Clinical Psychology Program, New School for Social Research
International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy
Conference Co-Chairs
Margaret Black, C.S.W.
Neil Altman, Ph.D.

Registering by Mail? Click here for the form.

It might be said that the first generation of relational theorists focused on deconstructing the classical psychoanalytic model, eschewing the analytic ideals of neutrality and abstinence, and challenging the one person model of mind in which a knowing analyst had objective access to the contents of a patient’s mind. Relational analysts focused instead on creating an intersubjective potential space in which the analysis of mutual enactments between patients and analysts led to a symbolization of unconscious process and enhancement of self-reflective activity. Relational theorists developed a model of mind that emphasized multiple self/other organizations and a theory of change based on the creation of new experience which arose out of analyzing repetitive cycles of old, maladaptive interpersonal and internal object relations.

It is our belief that the second generation of relational theorizing will include a focus on articulating the specific types of analytic discipline which are essential to a relational treatment. Within a model that emphasizes process and the importance of the analyst’s subjectivity, how do we define effective and useful behavior? What are the defining elements of a creative and therapeutic analytic “frame?” How do we know how much is “enough” and when we have gone “too far?”

This conference will begin an exploration of these issues within an atmosphere we hope will be exciting and interactive. Session I will include a provocative and challenging clinical paper by Dr. Anthony Bass. Dr. Bass’s paper will be discussed by Drs. Philip Bromberg and Glen Gabbard. Session II will include a clinical case presented by Dr. Sue Grand, discussions by Dr. Hazel Ipp and Margaret Black, and include breakout groups that will examine the intersubjective details of the clinical material.

The conference schedule may be viewed here.