Plenary Session:
Relationality and Contemporary Psychoanalysis: Clinical Breakthroughs, Including a Live Supervision Session (3296)

Saturday, Aug. 8, 2:00–3:50 p.m., Room 717A

A revolutionary transformation has taken place in contemporary psychoanalytic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. This transformation is attributed to the sea change brought on by relational studies. Developmental research and epistemological changes, such as constructivism and feminism, have also advanced this shift in clinical practice. Relational studies began to emerge in the 1980s with creative theoretical integrations and exciting clinical innovations that bridged the gap between psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. Key interests of this approach are the integration of dissociated affect states or split-off parts of the personality; the balance between self-regulation and interactive regulation; the achievement of intersubjectivity; and the capacity for mutuality and relatedness, agency and authenticity. Great emphasis is placed on the inevitable infl uence of the therapist, his or her self-disclosures, and the dialectical tension between discipline and spontaneity in the clinical process. Today, plenary sessions the relational perspective is claiming its rightful place in the pantheon of psychotherapies that deal with human suffering. This session will begin with an overview of the theoretical contributions, research studies, and clinical implications of the relational turn in psychoanalytic psychology. This will be followed with a demonstration of a supervisory consultation. Dr. Greenspun will present detailed clinical material to Dr. Orfanos of an ongoing case. Dr. Wachtel will comment and discuss the demonstration in light of relational and integrative psychotherapy perspectives.

Chair: Sharon Brennan, PhD, Maimonides Medical Center, New York, NY

Participants: Spyros D. Orfanos, PhD, New York University; Wendy Greenspun, PhD, Columbia University in the City of New York; and Paul Wachtel, PhD, City University of New York the City College

Sponsor Links