Suddenly, it seems, December and the holidays are here again, bringing the complicated joys of family gatherings, clinical breaks, reflections on the past year, and hopes for the new year. This month, we at IMPULSE offer you our warmest holiday wishes, alongside a smorgasbord of analytic morsels.

NCSPP President Beth Steinberg bids farewell with an earnest and inspiring message to the community. PIECE OF MIND portrays a vibrant example of psychoanalytic work combined with body-oriented treatments and other modalities. In PSYCHOANALYSIS ON THE STREET the Institute on Aging offers an insightful look into the poignant complexities of treating abused elders. And APPOINTMENT BOOK shows that compelling analytic events deserve a place on your busy holiday season agenda.

As the new year begins, we hope to continue developing IMPULSE as a place wherein Northern California clinicians can come together to explore the analytic tradition through a distinctly modern medium. As always, we welcome your suggestions for our continued evolution.

We hope you enjoy this month's issue, and we hope you'll join NCSPP to assist us in fostering a vibrant psychoanalytic community in Northern California.

As I prepare to step down as president of NCSPP and make my final report in IMPULSE, I find myself reflecting on larger issues: the grave state of the world, political uncertainties and inequities, the push for managed care. From that vantage point, it is so clear that psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic institutions must find a way to come together to promote ourselves and to bring what we have to have to the world. It is clear that forming factions that are hostile to one another and separating ourselves from one another only wastes our resources and threatens our place in the world. I think that we must do what we can to promote communication and dialogue among different institutions and individuals and to promote resources that support these goals. IMPULSE is such a resource.

As the only place where everyone in the psychoanalytic community in Northern California can share their ideas, describe their programs, and list their events, IMPULSE provides an umbrella function that is sorely needed. While I am grateful to NCSPP and to IMPULSE for beginning to take on this role, I think we all need to search our souls in the service of continuing to find ways to both come together and to reach out to and support one another in this exciting endeavor of psychoanalysis.

Beth Steinberg, Ph.D.
President, NCSPP

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Full Spectrum is a San Francisco non-profit psychological health center offering integrative services including traditional and body-oriented psychotherapy, nutrition, art therapy, biodynamic cranial-sacral, and Rosen Bodywork through daily, weekly, group or individual sessions. Therapy modalities include: object relations, Jungian, group work, somatic/body based, existential-humanistic, psychodynamic, art therapy and Eastern awareness practices. Staff is trained to handle the full range of psychological issues, including anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, trauma, and substance abuse. We also offer training and education for professionals and the public, including CE credits for health care professionals, internships, and public seminars.

The core belief of Full Spectrum is that, with the proper support and a willingness to engage in the difficult work of self-exploration, anyone, even those in severe psychological distress, can learn to manage without medications or professional assistance. Full Spectrum expands the definition of "psychological" to include the whole person. Psychological problems are an inseparable mix of physical and emotional influences.

Alexander D. Bingham, Ph.D.
Founder/Director, Full Spectrum

Dr. Alexander D. Bingham is the founder/director of Full Spectrum. He's a licensed clinical psychologist, Rosen practitioner, and cranial-sacral therapist trained in traditional and body-oriented psychotherapy and has taught critical evaluation of psychological research at the graduate level. His work, A Phenomenological Investigation of the Experience of Being under the Influence of Prozac, is available through UMI. This work focuses on drug use in psychology and examines flaws in the F.D.A approval process for Prozac and other psycho-tropic drugs, and the debatable biological theories of mental illness which support their use.

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Many practitioners are applying psychodynamic principles to the work they do, even when treatment doesn't conform to the traditional frame. This month Melissa Anderson, M.A., Elder Abuse Specialist, and Tom Cicciarelli, Psy.D., Director of Clinical Training at the Institute on Aging, take on the difficult topic of psychodynamic therapy with long-term elder abuse patients.

Elder abuse patients present with complex issues related to mental health, grief, impaired cognition, and social stressors such as isolation and poverty. A patient with mild dementia and longstanding bipolar disorder negotiates the stresses of physical and financial abuse by a drug-addicted child returning home from jail. Another patient considers the multigenerational legacy of mental illness and criminality in her family while working to create physical safety and an emotional container for painful feelings of regret.

We deal daily with the insidious nature of abuse. Research shows that the primary predictor of abuse is a prior history of abuse (Sengstock-Hwaleck, 1987). One interpretation of longstanding abusive relationships is that they are somehow familiar and comfortable. This doesn't make sense — abuse is painful. At the same time, attention and predictability in relationship enable an individual to maintain a sense of interpersonal contact and recognition (Gottman & Notarius, 2000). Abuse can be experienced as a form of connection. The immediate and intimate nature of abuse presents an alternative to the confusion and isolation of mental illness and social marginalization.

Our therapists learn to sit with, comprehend, and contain the relational ambiguities and conflicts patients bring to treatment. We work as long as needed in the aftermath of trauma. The rate by which a patient begins to recognize her story — and form internal representations of hurt — is crucial. Removing outmoded defenses too soon can be as detrimental as staying in denial. We work from an experience-near psychodynamic theoretical base, emphasizing the relationship as key to working through trauma, and as a place to experience emotional support, and, in best cases, a deeper sense of self.

Sengstock-Hwaleck, M. 1987. "A Review and Analysis of Measures for the Identification of Elder Abuse." Journal of Gerontological Social Work 10 (3/4):21-36.

Gottman, J. M., & Notarius, C. I. (2000). Decade review: Observing marital interaction. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 62, 927–947.

Know of an unconventional application of psychoanalytic work? You're invited to write a PSYCHOANALYSIS ON THE STREET or just contribute an idea. Email us.

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The term "blog" refers to a web-based journal wherein individuals offer up their personal experiences to anyone with a web browser.

Are you a candidate in psychoanalytic training? We invite you to contribute an informal, 200 word "blog" on a monthly basis. Please email us for details.

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Want EVENT SPOTLIGHT to shine on your upcoming analytic happening? You'll find our submission guidelines illuminating.

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Appointment Book offers a sampling of the psychoanalytically oriented events taking place in Northern California over the coming month. Where available, simply click an event title to view details on the sponsoring organization's web site.

Eating Disorder Conference: When Nothing Stays Inside
Sat, Dec 2 / 9:30 AM - 12:30 PM / SFPI&S Library, 2420 Sutter St. / San Francisco
SFPI&S / (415) 563-5815 / Kathy Dewitt, Ph.D.; Jana Kahn, Ph.D.; Shela Fisk, Ph.D.;
Michael Loughran, Ph.D.; Robin Duetsch, Ph.D. / $80 - $90

Healing the Trauma of War: Iraq Veterans and Their Families
Sun, Dec 3 / 9:30 AM - 5 PM / CPMC, Buchanan @ Clay / (415) 387-0800 / San Francisco
Deep Streams Inst. / Jaine Darwin, Psy.D.; Ken Reich, Ph.D; Robert Grant, Ph.D. / $60 - $125

End of Life Care
Sun, Dec 3 / 9 AM - 1 PM / SFPI&S Library, 2420 Sutter St. / (415) 563-5815 / San Francisco
SFPI&S / Stephen Fisk, M.D., Audrey Kavka, M.D., Charles Garfield, Ph.D. / $60

PINC Open House
Wed, Dec 6 / 7:30 - 9 PM / 2252 Fillmore St. / San Francisco
PINC / (415) 434-2002 / Linda Tucker, Ph.D. / free (RVSP required)

Dialogues in Contemporary Psychoanalysis: Perverse Countertransference
Sat, Dec 9 / 9:30 AM - 12:30 PM / SFPI&S Library, 2420 Sutter St. / San Francisco
SFPI&S / (415) 563-5815 / Stephen Purcell, M.D. / $35 - $45

Opera on the Brain
Sun, Dec 10 / 5 - 6 PM / Cafe Grillades (501 Hayes St. at Octavia) / San Francisco
SFPI&S / (415) 563-5815 / Milton Schaefer, Ph.D., Linda Lagemann, Ph.D. / free

Scientific Meeting
Mon, Dec 11 / 7:30 - 9:30 PM / SFPI&S Library, 2420 Sutter St. / San Francisco
SFPI&S / (415) 563-5815 / Jane Kite, Ph.D. / free

SFPI&S Friends Clinical Forum (Case Presentation)
Tue, Dec 19 / 7:30 - 9 PM / SFPI&S Library/2420 Sutter St. / San Francisco
Friends of SFPI&S / (415) 563-5815 / Audrey Martin, MFT; Mary Brady, Ph.D. / free (CE $15)

To submit an event, please see our submission guidelines.

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SOUTH BAY ANALYTIC CASE CONSULTATION/READING GROUP: We take an approach synthetic of different analytic orientations as well as neuroscience. Friday mornings. Led by Alan Kessler, Ph.D., Faculty SFPI. (408) 868-9405

EATING DISORDER CONSULTATION & READING GROUP: One Monday evening per month beginning October 2006, 7:30 to 9:00 PM. Location to be determined in the Penninsula/South Bay area. Individual sponsors: Ann Martini, LCSW, (408) 358-1862, and Jana Kahn, Ph.D., (650) 947-0262.

PSYCHOTHERAPY GROUP: For adults concerned about their alcohol use. Focus is on implementing individualized goals for change. Wed 6:00-7:30 PM in SF. Co-leaders: Jordana A. Templin, LCS 20773, (415) 255-9413, David A. Wasserman, PSY 11897, (415) 263-0980.

Old couches, new books, hot jobs, cool internships? Post classified ads on NCSPP's online bulletin board at no charge. We will also feature your listing in IMPULSE for a modest fee. Please see our submission guidelines for details.

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The Northern California Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology (NCSPP) is committed to the study of psychoanalytic psychology and the encouragement of its interest in the professional and general communities. We are a multi-disciplinary, non-profit membership organization open to mental health professionals and all others interested in the study of psychoanalytic psychology.

Our more than 650 members form a community that spans the greater Bay Area and Northern California. NCSPP is a local affiliate of Division 39 (psychoanalysis) of the American Psychological Association. Our vast array of lectures, intensive study groups, scientific meetings, courses, our journal fort da, and numerous special events and projects are all brought to you by scores of volunteers who work to support NCSPP's mission. Our educational programs include continuing education credit for psychologists, marriage and family therapists, and licensed clinical social workers. We welcome you into the psychoanalytic community in Northern California. Please join us.

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Beth Steinberg, Ph.D., NCSPP President
Cleopatra Victoria, M.A., MFT, Editor
Cate Corcoran, M.A., Features Editor
Brad Falconer, M.A., Managing Editor

Each month, IMPULSE reaches over 1,440 psychoanalytically oriented professionals and students in Northern California.

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IMPULSE is a monthly newsletter published by the Northern California Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology for the purpose of connecting Northern California psychoanalytic practitioners, students, and scholars. IMPULSE aims to foster the development of psychoanalytic practice and thought in our region through collaboration and understanding.

For information on submitting event listings and other content to IMPULSE, please see our guidelines and policies page on the NCSPP web site.

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IMPULSE is published electronically once a month by the Northern California Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology. Comments are welcome and should be sent via our online form.

You are receiving this monthly newsletter from the Northern California Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology (NCSPP) because of your interest in psychoanalysis. Any mental health professional or student interested in psychoanalytic thought may subscribe free to IMPULSE, regardless of organizational affiliation. To ensure that IMPULSE isn't misidentified as junk mail, we recommend adding impulse@ncspp.org to your email program's address book. If you haven't done so already, click to confirm your interest in subscribing. To unsubscribe, click the SafeUnsubscribe link at the bottom of this message.

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