SCHOOL OF PSYCHODYNAMIC PSYCHOTHERAPY at
INTERUNIVERSITY CENTRE DUBROVNIK**, AUGUST 18-22, 2014
“THE MOST COMMON ERRORS BY PSYCHOTHERAPISTS: HOW TO MINIMIZE THEM BY IDENTIFYING THE
TRANSFERENCE AND BY ANALYTIC LISTENING”
Our annual school resumes this summer with another week-long course (Monday-Friday.)
As before, the School will focus on elucidating grand theoretical concepts that define psychodynamic
psychotherapy by identifying and describing them in the clinical data of a session.
This year, we’ll see how improving our attention to
A. Analytic Listening: how it differs from everyday exchanges; and
B. Identifying the transference;
C. Working with dreams, and with fantasies
can help us avoid some of the most common errors we commit as psychotherapists. Our principal
lecturer, Dr. Peter Dunn (Director of Clinical Services, New York Psychoanalytical Institute; Faculty, Mt.
Sinai School of Medicine, NY), has come up with a list of twenty:
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Not appreciating how sensitive people are;
Not getting a good history;
Underestimating the impact of separations;
Overestimating the importance of specific traumas;
Thinking the patient is ‘over-reacting’;
Seeing the patient as a victim;
Fighting with the patient;
Not knowing when and how to apologize;
Identifying with the people in the patient’s life rather than with the patient;
Being too supportive, or not supportive enough;
Giving too authoritative advice, or no advice at all;
Not asking about Sex;
Not asking about Money;
Falling in love with the patient;
Not allowing the patient to fall in love with you;
Not appreciating how important you, as the therapist, are to the patient;
Thinking the patient is disappointed in you because they are not getting better;
Feeling the therapy is going nowhere;
Not asking for help from other therapists;
Thinking someone else can treat the patient better.
We will meet daily from 9:00 – 13:00. Rest of the day is free, (but we may decide together as a group to
have one or two optional afternoon meetings as well.) We will start each morning with a short lecture
on a technical or theoretical topic, and then discuss at length one or more clinical case presentations,*
showing ways of conceptualizing clinical data in terms of theoretical constructs, and addressing the
above issues.
Dinko Podrug, M.D., D.Sc., School Director (dpodrug@hotmail.com)
New York City – Zagreb
READINGS:
Cabaniss, Deborah L et al: Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: A clinical manual, 2011.
(through Dr. Dunn’s efforts and Dr. Cabaniss’s generosity, each School participant will receive a free pdf
copy of this book upon confirming their participation in this year’s school with Dr. Vedran Bilic)
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* we strongly encourage each participant to think of presenting a clinical case, or a clinical vignette. As
part of optimal preparation for our seminar, we suggest to each participant to review one or more of
their treatment cases and identify some of the above ‘errors’ they might have committed or escaped.
Each participant is also encouraged to share what their favorite technical or theoretical paper or book
chapter is. We will disseminate a list of all of them, and will try to comment on as many of them as
feasible in our presentations and discussions. Please e-mail Drs. Podrug or Bilic (vbili@yahoo.com) with
any ideas/questions about the clinical case you might like to present, or about the program.
**School fee is 140 Euro (100 Euro for trainees/early career professionals), payable either beforehand to
IUC via money transfer, or in cash upon arrival. SCHOOL IS CONDUCTED IN ENGLISH.