Susan C. Warshaw, Ed.D., ABPP
11 Riverside Drive, Suite 5
New York City, New York 10023
212 496-1161
The Analytic Process & the Process of Development: Emerging
Developmental Perspectives & the Actuality of Analytic Work
This course will consider our evolving integration of contemporary developmental theory
and research into our day to day analytic work. Though extensive readings are provided,
our focus will, at all times, be about thinking through the implications of new research
and developmental understanding for our clinical understanding and our analytic stance.
Clinical material will be intertwined with discussion of readings.
While early psychoanalytic models of the mind and theories of personality
development were derived primarily retrospectively, as a result of reconstructive work
with adults, the observations of clinicians actually working with children and adolescents,
as well as the findings of developmental researchers, have increasingly impacted
psychoanalytic theories of mind, treatment goals and technique, contributing in many
ways to the relational turn in psychoanalysis. This course will include, but expand
beyond early development and explore significant developmental transformations that
occur during later developmental stages, considering implications for our perspectives on
technique with adolescent, young adult and adult patients. The impact of significant life
events, including losses and traumas, will also be explored in terms of their relevance for
treatment. We will consider the key constructs of Dynamic Systems Theory, Recent
research findings related to Epigenetics, The role of the Implicit versus Explicit
Relational knowing(Boston Change Process Study Group), and we will spend
considerable time on Attachment Research, (in particular some Longitudinal research
findings). We will discuss these findings juxtaposed with other Relational Theories, in
particular Interpersonal Theory. Certain topics (such as contemporary perspectives on
Gender and Sexuality) while touched upon, will not be covered extensively, as they are
worked with in depth in other courses.
Weeks 1 and 2. Some controversies and critiques.
We will begin with an exploration of some of the criticisms and controversies
regarding psychoanalytic theories of development as well as their use in adult clinical
treatment. We will discuss the gulf that existed historically between psychoanalysis and
developmental psychology, the differing perspectives of developmental psychologists
and psychoanalysts regarding our assumptions of continuity of development over time, as
well as the role and some critiques of the primacy given to early development in most of
our contemporary theories. We will begin a discussion of the implications (or not) for
our own personal psychoanalytic stance.
Objectives: Week 1. Through discussion in class the candidate will
demonstrate knowledge of the differing perspectives on the use of developmental
theory in adult clinical treatment.
2. The candidate will discuss his/her own perspective on the
significance of early development in formulating a clinical conceptualization of an
analytic case.
Readings: Cohler, B. and Freeman, M. (1993). Psychoanalysis and the
developmental narrative. In Pollock, G. and Greenspan, S. (eds). The Course of Life,
Volume V. Early Adulthood. Pp. 99-178. Connecticut: International Universities
Press.
Mitchell, S. (1988) Relational Concepts in Psychoanalysis. Part 3. Pp123-172.
Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Objectives for Week 2.
1. Through discussion, the candidate will demonstrate an
understanding of the role of evolutionary developmental theory in
current critiques of classical psychoanalytic theories of development.
Readings:
Hofer, M. (2014) The emerging synthesis of development and evolution: A
new biology for psychoanalysis. Neuorpsychoanalysis, Vol.16 (1).
Eagle, M. (2014) Psychoanalysis needs a better developmental theory – Can
new perspectives in biology help? Neuropsychoanalysis, Vol.16(1).
Routledge.
Week 3. The Relational Turn in Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Development:
From Ego Psychology to Contemporary Relational Approaches. A Shift to Dynamic
Systems Theory.
A discussion of shifts in our thinking about the development of personality
organization and the implications for our perspectives on mutative factors in
treatment. Selected readings with contributions from historically important
psychoanalytic developmental researchers and theoreticians. Additional reading
listed at the end of the course outline.
Objectives Week 3
1: The candidate will engage in discussion of Non Linear Systems
Theory, and will thereby demonstrate an understanding of the shift to a non
linear systems perspective in conceptualizating the developmental process.
2: The candidate will discuss the use made of Lou Sanders theory by
four different clinicians, in conceptualizing clinical material.
Thelen, Esther.(2005)
NONLINEAR SYSTEMS THEORY AND PSYCHOANALYSIS: SYMPOSIUM IN
HONOR OF EMMANUEL GHENT
Dynamic Systems Theory and the Complexity of Change. Psychoanalytic Dialogues,
15(2):255–
Sander, L.(2002). Thinking Differently: Principles of Process in Living
Systems and the Specificity of Being Known. Psychoanalytic Dialogues.
12 (1) 11-42.
Clinical Implications:
Benjamin, J. The Rhythm of Recognition: Comments on the Work of Louis Sander.
Psychoanalytic Dialogues.
Seligman, S. (2002). Louis Sander and Contemporary Psychoanalysis.
Psychoanalytic Dialogues. 12(1) 1-10.
Mitchell, S. (2002). The Texture of Fields: Commentary on the Contributions of
Louis Sander. Psychoanalytic Dialogues. 12(1) 65-71.
Modell, A. (2002) An appreciation of the contribution of Louis Sander.
Psychoanalytic Dialogues.
Week 4. Somethings older, somethings new. A further look at changing theories of
personality development and implications for treatment.
Systems Theory and Interpersonal Theory.
Objectives: Week 4.
Objective 1 Candidates will be able to compare Levenson’s Interpersonal
perspective to the Non Linear Dynamic System’s perspective of Lou Sander.
Candidates will discuss the work of Edgar Levenson, and will
apply Levenson’s interpersonal perspective to a clinical case.
Levenson, E. (1984) Harry Stack Sullivan: The Web and the Spider.
Contemporary Psychoanalysis. 20:174-178.
Levenson, E. ( 2009) The Enigma of the Transference. Contemporary
Psychoanalysis. 45, 2, pp 163-178.
Week 5. Forms of Relational Meaning
Objectives Week 5:
1. Candidates will discuss the differences between implicit and
reflective verbal domains of knowing.
2. Candidates will discuss Stern’s commentary, and apply these
ideas to a clinical case.
Boston Change Process Study Group and Nahum J. P.(2008) Forms of Relational
Meaning: Issues in the Relations Between the Implicit and Reflective-Verbal
Domains. Psychoanalytic Dialogues. 18:2, 125-148
Stern, D.(2008). One Never Knows, Do One?: Commentary on Paper by the Boston
Change Process Study Group. Psychoanalytic Dialogues. 18:2, 168-192.
Week 6. Attachment Theory: Relationship with Psychoanalysis, Selected Readings.
Objectives Week 6:
1. Candidates will discuss the ways in which a knowledge of
attachment research may enhance psychoanalytic understanding
2. Candidates will discuss the ways in which attachment theory may
benefit from analytic perspectives.
3. Candidates will discuss the risk and protective factors posed by
secure, insecure and disorganized forms of early attachment.
Fonagy P.(2001). Attachment Theory and Psychoanalysis. New York: Other Press.
Chapters 11-12/
Sroufe, A. (2002) Attachment in Developmental Perspective.
In:
Proceedings of a
Conference: New York, December 2002, Journal of Infant, Child and Adolescent
Psychotherapy.19-27.
Attachment:Current Research, Theory and Clinical Practice.
Week 7. Attachment Theory and Psychoanalysis Continued:Significant
Work in the area of Representation., Reflection, Mentalization etc.
Objectives Week 7:
1. Candidates will discuss the shift to the level of representation in the study
attachment theory, and will discuss the rapprochement between
attachment theory and psychoanalysis.
2. Candidates will describe the interface between attachment theory and
intersubjectivity.
3. Candidates will discuss the significance of the development of
mentalization and reflective function in emotionally healthy persons.
4. Candidates will discuss the development of mentalization and its failures
from infancy through adolescence.
Main, M. (1994). A Move to the level of Representation in the Study of attachment
Organization: Implications for Psychoanalysis. Annual Research Lecture to the
British Psychoanalytic Society.
Fonagy, P. (2002) The internal working model or the interpersonal interpretive
function. In Attachment: Current Research, Theory and Clinical Practice.
Proceedings of A Conference held in New York, December 1-2, 2000. Journal of
Infant, Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy. Pp. 27-38.
Lyons-Ruth, K. (2006). The Interface Between Attachment and Intersubjectivity:
Perspective from the longitudinal study of disorganized attachment. Psychoanal.
Inq., 26:595-616.
Week 8. Attachment Disorganization and its relationship to psychopathology.
Early parental insults, childhood manifestations, and the intergenerational
transmission of trauma. What are its manifestations?
Objectives Week 8:
1. Candidates will discuss the importance of Attachment disorganization to
our contemporary understanding of Developmental Trauma.
2. Candidates will discuss factors in parent child relationships which can
predispose to the development of attachment disorganization.
Hesse, E. and Main, M.(1999) Second-Generation Effects of Unresolved Trauma in
Non-Maltreating Parents: Dissociated, Frightened and Threatening Parental
Behavior. In: Diamond, D. and Blatt, S. (eds.) Attachment Research and
Psychoanalysis. 19 (4). Pp 481-540.
Lyons-Ruth, K.(2002) The Two-Person Construction of Defenses: Disorganized
Attachment Strategies Un-integrated Mental States, and Hostile, Helpless Relational
Processes. Journal of Infant, Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy. 2 (4) 107-121.
Week 9. Discussion of a clinical Case of Serious Developmental Trauma..The
Case of Pamela, Robert Grossmark, Ph.D. (2009) Psychoanalytic Dialogues. 19: 2230
Objectives Week 9:
1. Candidates will discuss the application of concepts related to attachment
disorganization to a clinical case.
2. Candidates will discuss different perspectives on clinical intervention in a
case of developmental trauma.
Bach, S.(2009) Remarks on the case of Pamela
Bromberg, P. (2009) Discussion of Robert Grossmark’s Case of Pamela.
Warshaw, S. (2011) A clinical case, Attachment Disorganization. Unpublished
Manuscript.
Week 10. Consideration of the Intergenerational Transmission of Barely Visible
Disorganizing Attachments
Objectives: Week 10
1.Candidates will discuss the intergenerational transmission of
trauma in cases where parental participation is quite subtle.
2. Candidates will discuss the factors in parent child relationships
which may predispose to later onset severe psychopathology.
3. Candidates will discuss the changes in overt behavioral
manifestations of disorganized attachment, over the course o the first 20
years of life.
Dutra et al . (2009), Quality of Early Care and Childhood Trauma: A Prospective
Study of Develpmental Pathways to Dissociation. J Nerv Ment Dis. 2009 June ; 197(6): 383–
390.
Warhaw, S. (2014) One of the worried well:post traumatic ripples, attachment
disorganizers and Obsessional Symptoms. Paper Presented at the Colloquium
series, William Alanson white Institute.
Week 11. Up the Developmental Ladder: Oedipus in Relational Perspective—With
Clinical Discussions of Adult Residues.
Objectives Week 11:
1. Candidates will discuss changes in the concept of the Oedipus Conflict
Steele, M. (2010). The quality of attachment and oedipal development.
Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 30:485-495
Loewald, H. W.(1979) The Waning of the Oedipus Conflict. In Papers on
Psychoanalysis(1980). Also: (1985) Oedipus Complex and the Development of the
Self. JAPA,27 .
E., K.Dahl (2004). “Last Night I Dreamed I Went to Manderly Again”: Vicissitudes of Maternal Identific
Psychoanal. Inq., 24:657-679.
Week 12. Further Transformations at Adolescence. From Edith Jabobsen to
Attachment Theory New and Older Perspectives.
Objectives Week 12:
1. Candidates will discuss changing conceptions of adolescent identity
formation, from Edith Jacaobsen through Fonagy and Target
2. Candidates will discuss emerging information about changes in brain
development at adolescence and apply such knowledge to emergence of
adolescent psychopathology
Jacobsen, E.(1964) The influence of normal and unsuccessful adolescent conflict
solution on post-adolescent identity formation and the further development of
personality. In The Self and the Object World. IUP.
Fonagy, P., Gergely, G., Jurist, E. and Target, M.(2002). Developmental issues in
normal adolescence and adolescent breakdown. In Affect Regulation, Mentalization
and the Development of the Self. Chapter 8. Other Press.
Powers,A. and Casey BJ (to be published March 2015). The Adolescent Brain and
the Emergence and Peak of Psychopathology, forthcoming in Special Issue of
the Journal of Infant, Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy. Guest Edited by
Karin Ensink.
Week 13. Emerging Adulthood: Complexity of Growing into Adulthood in
Contemporary Society.
Objectives Week 13:
1.Candidates will explore the impact of societal changes upon
consolidation of young adult identity formation
Strenger, C. (2002) From Yeshiva to Critical Pluralism: Reflections on the Impossible
Project of Individuality. Psychoanalytic Inquiry. 22, 4.
Strenger, C. (2005). The Designed Self: Psychoanalysis and Contemporary
Identities. Analytic Press. Selected Chapters.
Perl, E. (2011). Therapeutic Attachment with College-Aged Women. Contemp.
Psychoanal., 47:343-363.
Week 14. Some Life Circumstances: treatment reverberations….Parent Loss,
Adoption, Infetility
Objectives Week 14:
1. Candidates will explore a range of life circumstances with significant
implications for identity development.
Sussillo, M. (2005) Beyond the Grave—Adolscent Parental Loss: Letting Go and
Holding On. Psychoanalytic Dialogues. 15 ( 4): 449-527.
Warshaw, S. (2000). Presentation: New York University Postdoctoral Program.
Father Loss in Adolescence: One Daughter’s Perspective( Handout)
Presented in an earlier version in the book Gerson, B.(ed) Therapist as Person, NJ
Analytic Press.
Warshaw, S. (2006). Losing Each Other in the Wake of Loss: Failed Dialogues in
Adoptive Families. In Hushion, K, Sherman, S. and Siskind, D. Understanding
Adoption:Clincial Work with Adults, Children and Parents. Jason Aronson
Siebold, C. The Plight of the Adoptee in Adult Life: A Case of Kinship Adoption. .
In Hushion, K., Sherman, S. and Siskind, D. Understanding Adoption:Clincial
Work with Adults, Children
Additional Readings:
Davies, J. and Frawley, M. (1992) Dissociative Processes and TransferenceCountertransference Paradigms in the Psychoanalytically Oriented Treatment of
Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse. In Relational Psychoanalysis the
Emergence of a Tradition.
Davies, J.M. (2003) Falling in Love with Love: Oedipal and Postoedipal
Manifestations of Idealization, Mourning, and Erotic Masochism. Psychoanalytic
Dialogues, 13(1):1–27, The Analytic Press.
Eagle, M. (1995) The Developmental Perspectives of Attachment and Psychoanalytic
Theory. In: Goldberg, S. Muir, R. and Kerr, J.(eds.) Attachment Theory: Social,
Developmental and Clinical Theory. Pp 123-150. New Jersey: Analytic Press.
Fonagy, P. (1995) Understanding the Violent Patient: The use of the Body and the
Role of the Father. International Journal of Psychoanalysis.
Fonagy P.(2001). Attachment Theory and Psychoanalysis. New York: Other Press.
Fonagy, P. (2003). The Development of Psychopathology From Infancy to
Adulthood: The Mysterious Unfolding of Disturbance in Time. Infant Mental
Health Journal. 24(3). 212-239.
Virgina Goldner(2004) Review Essay. Attachment and Eros: Opposed or
Synergistic? Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 14(3):381–396.
A review of Mitchell, S.( 2002)Can Love Last? The Fate of Romance Over Time.
New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 2002
Lyons-Ruth,K. and Jacobvitz D.(1999). Attachment Disorganization: Unresolved
Loss, Relational Violence and Lapses in Behavioral and Attentional Strategies. In
Handbook of Attachment: Theory, Research and Clinical Applications. New York:
Guilford. pp. 520-554.
Main, M.(1991) Metacognitive knowledge, metacognitive monitoring and singular,
(coherent) vs. multiple (incoherent) models of attachment. In Attachment Across the
Life Cycle. Parkes, C. M. Stevenson-Hinde, J. and Morris, P.,pp 127-159. London:
Routledge.
Main, M. (1993) Discourse Prediction and Recent Studies in Attachment:
Implications for Psychoanalysis. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic
Association.
41: 209-244, supplement.
Slade, A. (1999). Representation, Symbolization and Affect Regulation in the
Concommitant Treatment of a Mother and Child: Attachment Theory and Child
Psychotherapy. In Diamond, D. . and Blatt, S. (eds.) Attachment Research and
Psychoanalysis: Clinical Implications. 19(5)pp 797-830.
Strenger, C. (2005). The Designed Self: Psychoanalysis and Contemporary
Identities. Analytic Press.
Impact on Concepts of the Process of Change.
Stern, D., Sander, L. ,Nahum, J, Harrison, A. Lyons-Ruth, K; Morgan, A.,
Bruschweilerstern, N. and Tronick, E. (1998). Non-Interpretive Mechanisms in
Psychoanalytic Therapy: The ‘Something More Than Interpretation.” International
Journal of Psychoanalysis. 79: 903-921.
Lyons-Ruth, K.(1999). The Two Person Unconscious: Intersubjective Dialogue,
Enactive Relational Representation, and the Emergence of New Forms of Relational
Organzation. In. Diamond, D. and Blatt, S. (eds) Attachment Research and
Psychoanalysis, 1. Theoretical Considerations. Psychoanalytic Inquiry. 19(4)pp
576-614.
Stern, D.(2008). One Never Knows, Do One?: Commentary on Paper by the Boston
Change Process Study Group. Psychoanalytic Dialogues. 18:2, 168-192.