THE ESSENTIAL OTHER:
GENERATIVITY, RESILIENCE AND NARRATIVE
featuring panels on Schools, Emotional Resilience and LGBT teens
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 21, 2013
a conference honoring the life and work of Bertram Cohler, Ph.D.
at Francis W. Parker School, 330 West Webster, Chicago, IL 60614
Sponsored by Section II of Division 39 of the American Psychological Association,
Francis W. Parker School and the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis and DePaul University
Bert Cohler was a child and adolescent psychoanalyst highly respected for his compassion and
innovation. He was an internationally recognized expert on human development based on his
research studies of parenthood, aging and the function of life stories. As a professor at the
University of Chicago he was hugely generative, launching many researchers on their careers as
well as introducing thousands of undergraduates to psychoanalytic thought. Among the many
books and papers that Dr. Cohler contributed to psychoanalytic scholarship was The Essential
Other, a book co-written with Robert Galatzer-Levy that contributed to a developmental
psychology of the self. In addition, Bert was a founding member of Section II, the child and
adolescent section of Division 39, the psychoanalytic division of the American Psychological
Association. This conference will be devoted to an appreciation of Bert’s many
accomplishments, including his “essential” contributions to psychoanalytic notions of such
concepts as generativity, resilience and narrative. One of Dr. Cohler’s areas of particular concern
was the lives of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered children and adolescents, and so there
will be a panel devoted to this work. In addition, there will be a panel devoted to a consideration
of the role of schools in facilitating psychological development as well as a panel dedicated to an
examination of psychological resilience. Dr. Robert Galatzer-Levy will give a keynote address in
which he re-examines their ground-breaking book from the perspective of the past 20 years.
Conference Chair: Christine C. Kieffer, Ph.D., ABPP (CCKPHD@aol.com)
Planning Committee: Daniel B. Frank, Ph.D., Robert Galatzer-Levy, M.D., Molly Romer
Witten, Ph.D., Andrew Suth, Ph.D., Marshall Kordon, Psy.D., Thomas Barrett, Ph.D.
OUTLINE OF PROGRAM
8:15-8:45
Registration and Coffee
8:45-9:00
Welcome –Christine C. Kieffer, Ph.D. & Daniel B. Frank, Ph.D.
9-9:45
Plenary
9:45-10:00
Break
10-11:15
Panel on Schools - Christine C. Kieffer, Ph.D., Daniel B. Frank, Ph.D.,
Marshall Kordon, Psy.D., Michel LaCocque, M.A.
11:15-11:30
Break
11:30-12:45
Panel on Resilience Molly Romer Witten, Ph.D., Barbara Bowman,
Isaac Galatzer-Levy, Ph.D.
12:45-1:45
Lunch
1:45-3
Panel on GLBT - Andrew Suth, Ph.D., Bruce Koff, LCSW,
David deBoer, Ph.D., Amanda Klonsky, M.A.
3-3:15
Break
3:15-4:00
Reflections on Essential Others and comments on the day
4:00
Reception
Robert M. Galatzer-Levy, M.D.
PRESENTERS
Barbara Bowman the Irving B. Harris Professor of Child Development at Erikson Institute is
one of the Institute’s founders and served as its president from 1994-2001. Her specialty areas
are early education, cultural diversity, and education of at-risk children. She has over 50
publications, including articles, book chapters, and edited volumes. She is a frequent consultant
on early care and education and a speakers at conferences and at universities in the United States
and abroad. Bowman has served on numerous professional boards, including the Family
Resource Coalition and the National Association for the Education of Young Children, of which
she was President (1980-82). She has been on a variety of professional committees, including
editorial boards, panels for the National Research Council (she chaired the committee on Early
Childhood Pedagogy), and appointed boards (Illinois Early Learning Council). Currently, she is
on the boards of trustees for the Great Books Foundation and Erikson Institute. Honors include
honorary doctorates (Bank Street College, Roosevelt University, Dominican University,
Governor’s State University, Lewis University, and Wheelock College), the McGraw Hill Prize
in Education, the Sargent Shriver Award for Equal Justice, the Chicago Historical Society Jane
Addams Award, and a Golden Apple award for Community Service.
David deBoer, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist, is Associate Director of the Wellness Center at
Loyola University, Chicago. He also is in private practice in Chicago where he provides
individual and couples treatment with adults and adolescents.
Daniel B. Frank, Ph.D. is Principal of the Francis W. Parker School in Chicago, and the
Executive Editor of Schools: Studies in Education, an international journal published by the
University of Chicago Press that is dedicated to understanding the subjective experience of
school life. Dan is a member of the School Liaison Committee of the American Psychoanalytic
Association, and is the recent past-Executive Director of the International society for the
Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations. He speaks and writes about leadership in organizations
and the psychology of school culture. Dan has been a lecturer in Psychiatry at the University of
Chicago and formerly taught in the Teacher Education Program at the Institute for
Psychoanalysis in Chicago. Dan is a graduate of the University of Chicago, Amherst College and
the Francis W. Parker School.
Isaac Galatzer-Levy, Ph.D. is a member of the research faculty at the NYU School of Medicine
Department of Psychiatry and is a Primary Investigator in the Steven and Alexandra Cohen
Veterans Initiative Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury
Research. Dr. Galatzer-Levy is also on the adjunct faculty of Columbia University’s Department
of Clinical and Counseling Psychology. He completed his doctorate in Clinical Psychology at
Columbia University in 2010 under the mentorship of George A. Bonanno and completed a
postdoctoral fellowship in biological psychiatry and posttraumatic stress at the NYU School of
Medicine and holds a current position at the Center for Health Informatics and Bioinformatics
also at NYU. Dr. Galatzer-Levy’s research focuses on the application of advanced data modeling
methods to identify and predict common patterns of adaptation following significant stressful
and potentially traumatic life events.
Robert M. Galatzer-Levy, M.D. is training and supervising analyst and supervisor in
Child/Adolescent psychoanalysis on the faculty at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis
where he teaches and supervises. He is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and
Behavioral Neuroscience ath the University of Chicago Dr. Galatzer-Levy’s private practice in
Chicago focuses on psychoanalysis and psychotherapy for children, adolescents and adults as
well as forensic matters. He is the author of over 120 papers and five books. He is presently
writing a book, From Forty Years of Chaos, applying principles of non-linear dynamic systems
theory to psychoanalysis. He and Bert Cohler were close collaborators for a quarter of a century.
Christine C. Kieffer, Ph.D., ABPP - Conference Chair Dr. Kieffer is a child/adolescent and
adult psychoanalyst as well as a clinical psychologist. She serves on the faculties of the Chicago
Institute for Psychoanalysis where she teaches and supervises. She also teaches and supervises
child psychiatry fellows, residents and post-docs at Rush University Medical School and Medical
Center in the Depts. of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science. Dr. Kieffer has published numerous
papers, has co-edited 3 books and has an upcoming book on therapeutic action, Mutuality,
Recognition and the Self that will be published by Karnac in early 2014. She serves on the
editorial boards of the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association (JAPA),
Psychoanalytic Inquiry and the International Journal of Self Psychology. Dr. Kieffer has a
private practice in which she provides individual psychoanalysis and psychotherapy with
children, adolescents and adults, and also provides couples/family therapy in Chicago and
Winnetka.
Amanda Klonsky, M.A. is a clinical social worker who attended the University of Chicago. She
is Program Director at Free Write Jail Arts and Literary Program.
Bruce Koff, LCSW is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Live Oak, a
psychotherapy group practice in Chicago, where he devotes his time to promoting the well-being
of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer-identified people. He formerly was the
Executive Director of the Center on Halsted, and also served as the Clinical Director of the
Evelyn Hooker Center for Gay and Lesbian Mental Health, a program of the University of
Chicago, Department of Psychiatry. He is also adjunct faculty at the Jane Addams School of
Social Work at the University of Illinois, Argosy University and lecturer at the University of
Chicago School of Social Service Administration. He is the co-author of Something to Tell You:
The Road Families Travel When a Child is Gay, published by Columbia University Press (2000.)
Marshall Kordon, Psy.D. is a clinical psychologist in private practice with over 20 years of
clinical experience in working with adults, children and adolescents and families in inpatient,
outpatient and residential settings. Dr. Kordon is a child, adolescent and adult psychoanalyst. He
is a graduate of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis where he is a faculty member.
Michel LaCocque, M.A. is a middle school counselor at the University of Chicago Laboratory
School where he has worked for 26 years. He has a special interest in learning and clinical work
and also has a private practice.
Andrew Suth, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor at Illinois School of Professional Psychology,
and a member of the core faculty at the Institute for Clinical Social Work. Andy earned his
doctorate in the Department of Comparative Human Development at the University of Chicago.
He later taught in that department and served as the assistant director of the mental health track.
Andy had the honor of having Bert Cohler as a dissertation chair, advisor, mentor and friend.
Andy has been teaching psychoanalytically and psychodynamically oriented topics for 11 years,
including courses in Mourning and Loss, History and Systems of Psychology and Projective
Personality Assessment. In addition to teaching in the Psychoanalytic Concentration at ISPP, he
is the past coordinator of the Neuropsychology Concentration. Andy previously served as a
national co-chair for APA’s Division 39 (Psychoanalyis) 2010 annual conference in Chicago
entitled, “Wild Analysis: Then and Now”. He maintains a private practice in both psychotherapy
and assessment in Chicago.
Molly Romer Witten, Ph.D. has a private practice in adult and child psychoanalysis and
psychotherapy, with a specialty in infant mental health and issues of development and relating.
In addition to her private practive, Dr. Witten holds an adjunct faculty position in the Infant
Mental Health Certificate Program at the Erikson Institute. She is faculty at the Chicago Institute
for Psychoanalysis. Dr. Witten is the Director of the Parent-Child Workshops, a relationallybased preschool, parent-child play group in Chicago. She has published in the areas of diagnosis
and treatment of depression in infancy, evaluation of attachment in foster children,
developmentally appropriate psychotherapy for children under three, autism, pervasive
developmental disorder, child maltreatment, family therapy, trauma and developmental
processes, and theory of development of mind.
Accreditation
Physicians: This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the Essential Areas and Policies of
the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint sponsorship of the
American Psychoanalytic Association and the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. The American Psychoanalytic
Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians and takes
responsibility for the content, quality and scientific integrity of this CME activity.
The American Psychoanalytic Association designates each educational activity for a maximum of 5 hours in
category 1 credit towards the Physicians Recognition Award. Each physician should claim only those hours of credit
that he or she actually spent in the educational activity. Disclosure information is on records indicating that
participating faculty members have no significant financial relationships to disclose.
Psychologists: The Institute for Psychoanalysis of Chicago is approved by the American Psychological Association
to offer continuing education for psychologists. The Institute for Psychoanalysis maintains responsibility for this
program
Social Workers: The Institute for Psychoanalysis of Chicago is approved as a continuing education sponsor for
social workers by the Department of Professional Regulations of the State of Illinois. The Institute designates each
continuing education activity as earning a maximum of 5 hours Continuing Education for Social Workers.
Professional Counselors: The Institute for Psychoanalysis of Chicago is approved as a continuing education
sponsor for Professional Counselors and Clinical Professional Counselors by the Department of Professional
Regulation of the State of Illinois. The Institute designates each continuing education activity as earning a
maximum of 5 hours Continuing Education credit.
REGISTRATION FORM: THE ESSENTIAL OTHER: GENERATIVITY, RESILIENCE AND
NARRATIVE
Name: ______________________________________________________
Address: ____________________________________________________
Telephone Number: ________________
Email Address: _____________________
Discipline: _____________________________________________________________
Section II, Division 39 member?: Yes______
No ______
Please indicate if CEU’s are requested CEU’s/CME’s will be provided by the Institute for
Psychoanalysis: _________ CEU’s for Educators will be provided by DePaul University
(please check if requested)________
Psychologists/Psychiatrists/Social Workers/ Counselors: please provide:
License#: __________________________
State of licensure: ____________________
Fees: (please circle)
Full Registration: $50.
50% off registration if applying for Section II
(send application with registration: available on www.APADivisions.org/Division39/ )
Full-time Graduate Students/Residents: $25.
Francis W. Parker personnel, etc.:
N/C
N.B.: Please indicate if you will be staying for lunch at the conference (we need this info by
9/18: Yes ____ No ______
Please send registration form to:
Christine C. Kieffer, Ph.D., ABPP, Section II, Division 39, APA, 122 South Michigan Avenue,
Suite 1413, Chicago, IL 60603 (You may contact Dr. Kieffer via email: CCKPHD@aol.com if
you have further questions) Make check payable to Section II, Division 39, APA