Psychoanalytic work and thinking in Northern California is as open and varied as the community that supports it, a happy state of affairs that makes itself plainly felt in our February issue. Adam Kremen reports that the results of NCSPP's recent survey describe a community with much in common, yet much that is also distinct. Renée Spencer outlines the many programs and services offered by the Friends of the San Francisco Analytic Institute & Society, an organization open to anyone with an interest in psychoanalysis -- not just clinicians. And our community calendar of events presents a characteristically rich array of creative and vital topics, offered by a growing variety of contributing organizations.

Also in this issue: we pay our respects to the late Dr. Gary Lucchese; the San Francisco Psychotherapy Research Group spotlights an introductory course on Control Mastery theory; and Cleopatra Victoria offers a lively reflection from January's meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Association in New York.

We hope you enjoy this month's issue, and we hope you'll join NCSPP to assist us in furthering the community that belongs to us all.

I want to express my gratitude to those of you who replied to the survey last month. According to it, the average responder is a member of NCSPP, is a psychologist, is not an analyst nor in analytic training, is undecided about analytic training, is familiar with psychoanalytic theory, and is of advanced or intermediate experience. This person is in private practice, sees mainly adults in individual psychoanalytic psychotherapy, sees mainly neurotic-level patients, and is influenced theoretically by relational and British Middle School orientations.

There was of course tremendous variability in the responses, reflecting the diversity of this community. (It is probably not bad advice that one should be suspicious of surveys, polls and averages.) The differences are harder to characterize, but among them are: a third of you do not belong to NCSPP, a fifth of you are students, there were many MFTs, a quarter of you were analysts or candidates, a quarter of you also worked in community mental health centers or clinics, many of you also teach, consult or supervise, and almost half of you also see adolescents.

The NCSPP Board will be using this information to think more carefully about who makes up our diverse community and how and what we can provide to best serve that community in keeping with our mission - part of which is "the encouragement of interest in psychoanalytic psychology in the professional and general communities" and "the development at the local level of support for individual members in the maintenance of a coherent identity as mental health professionals interested in psychoanalytic theory and practice," as our by-laws dryly put it. To do this we need to hear more from you as individuals, not as statistics.

I would like to encourage you to get in touch with me at any time, by sending me a message through the IMPULSE website. Over this year, we will also continue to work on ways to increase and facilitate our contact with you.

Adam Kremen, Ph.D.
President, NCSPP

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"... he was just a warm man, dedicated to his work, but had a real sense of humor about himself and other people . . . a really lovely curiosity Ñ a kind of eagerness that had a youthful quality about it ..."

"A creative, enthusiastic spirit, it is so awfully sad to have lost him."

"He was a much beloved supervisor and teacher."

It is with great sadness that IMPULSE marks the untimely passing of Dr. Gary Lucchese, psychoanalyst and clinical psychologist, who died unexpectedly on January 11, 2007.

Dr. Lucchese received his B.A. in psychology from San Francisco State in 1969, his M.A. in psychology from the University of Portland in 1971, and his Ph.D. in clinical psychology in 1973 from the California School of Professional Psychology, San Francisco.

Dr. Lucchese's career speaks of the breadth of his professional experience and the many lives he touched. There are far too many of his accomplishments and titles to mention here. Just a few of his many professional positions included Staff Psychologist as well as Co-Chief of Alcohol/Drug Program at Kaiser Permanente's Department of Psychiatry, and consultant to ARIA School for Exceptional Children in San Francisco. In 1989, Dr. Lucchese went into fulltime private practice. He was clinical faculty at the Pacific Graduate School of Psychology in Palo Alto and clinical supervisor for The National Asian American Psychology Training Center Community Mental Health in San Francisco.

In 1994, Dr. Lucchese began his formal training in psychoanalysis at SFPI&S, and he graduated from that institution in 2001. His life and interests encompassed other disciplines, as immediately upon graduation from SFPI he shared his love of fine art by generously donating his time as a docent at the De Young Museum in San Francisco. He also served as clinical supervisor at the Boyer House Foundation in San Rafael, clinical supervisor at the Wright Institute, faculty member at the Institute for Psychoanalytic Studies in San Francisco, and clinical supervisor at CPMC in San Francisco. Since graduating from SFPI&S, Dr. Lucchese joined the institute's faculty in 2006 and taught in SFPI&S Extension Program. He was very involved as chairman of the institute's Post-Graduate Education Committee from 2005 onward and became instrumental in the development of programs for that group. He was said to have revitalized that committee's work significantly, was always well organized and looking to see how he could be of use to post graduates.

At the time of his death he was working on a paper about Lucien Freud's paintings and was very involved in developing a writing program at SFPI&S, where had invited poets and writers to speak. He was also very interested in developing group process awareness at SFPI&S and was in the midst of bringing that idea to fruition. SFPI&S will remember him as quite enthusiastic, imaginative and creatively and vividly involved in their society.

In other professional capacities, Dr. Lucchese was coordinator of the psychoanalytic group therapy program at California Pacific Medical Center. In that capacity he taught a course in group psychotherapy, supervised psychology interns and psychiatric residents and coordinated all aspects of the group therapy program. He was in the process of expanding that program and had successfully added an additional group in this academic year. He brought "an incredible amount of skill, intelligence, humor, dedication and generosity to the program" at CPMC and was known as a much beloved supervisor and teacher there.

His all-too-early death is an enormous loss to the psychoanalytic and psychological community of the Bay Area and he will be remembered as innovative, creative, spirited and kind, with broad interests and talents. It is a tragedy to lose someone so bright, engaged and forward thinking. The board and members of NCSPP would like to extend their heartfelt and sincere sympathies to Dr. Lucchese's family, friends and colleagues at this sad time.

Drew Tillotson, Psy.D., President-Elect, NCSPP

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"Who are the Friends and why have I been hearing more about them?" "What's their relationship to San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute and Society?" "How do their programs differ from those in the SFPI&S Extension Division?"

SFPI&S is a training institute for psychoanalysts and as an important part of its mission also offers courses and programs for mental health clinicians and the public. Coursework for clinicians is through the Extension Division. SFPI&S is reorganizing into a psychoanalytic "center" and is redefining the Friends as a key outreach arm of this new organization.

The Friends is a separate 501c3 affiliate organization of SFPI&S. Our mission is to provide a link between psychoanalysts and community members interested in psychoanalysis and its varied clinical and cultural applications. We are a multi-disciplinary, non-profit membership organization open to individuals from all disciplines.

What distinguishes the Friends from the Extension Division is that we are a membership organization and community at SFPI&S that people can join. Friends now receive the SFPI&S newsletter, are listed in the roster, and serve on SFPI&S and Friends committees. The president of the Friends is a voting member of the SFPI&S board of trustees. We have several new programs — smaller, more personal programs designed to foster relationship building. For example:

____-_	The Study Group Clearinghouse is a central place on the web to learn about study or consultation group openings throughout the Bay Area.
____-_	Our Conversations on Culture Salon is a series of dialogues for artists, scientists, scholars, psychoanalysts, and other mental health professionals interested in psychoanalytic ideas and modern culture.
____-_	The Friends Clinical Forum is a free monthly case conference with rotating analysts serving as discussants.

I invite you to check out the Friends website, come to an event, and consider joining our growing and vibrant community.

Renée Spencer, Ph.D.
President, Friends of SFPI&S

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January in New York City. The cold glitter of snow. The hot fever of analytic minds. Should psychoanalysis be quantified with research and/or neuropsych? What about importing psychoanalysis to the larger world? How to spend the hours: in a session on narcissism, masochism, erotic transference, termination, ethics, or boundary violations? Is the new film The Treatment a fabulously funny mockery or oddly realistic on an abstract level? Where is tonight's party? And what should I bring you, the reader, from this meeting?

A fellow attendee recommended writing about something emotional. I realized how much tenderness, awe, anxiety, hope, and bittersweetness I felt listening to each analyst's clinical presentation and began to think of the analyst as artisan. So many endless hours of mentalizing, containing, processing, feeling, receiving supervision, discussing with colleagues, and writing process notes and papers! The analyst had born so much and for so long.

Like an artisan, the analyst is a craftsperson who engages in personal handiwork. As an artisan, the analyst slowly, carefully and single-mindedly is devoted to understanding and witnessing one unique patient at a time. There is no rush and there is no template, no cookie cutter or mold ... only a vision that arises from the dust, after much time, imagining the patient. And this is the beauty of "the work" in a world where much is mass-produced and there isn't any time. But somewhere in these rooms there is time. The analyst/artisan toils away, lost in a labor of love.

Cleopatra Victoria, MFT
Editor, IMPULSE

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An introductory course on Control Mastery theory will be offered by the San Francisco Psychotherapy Research Group on Saturday, March 3, with 6 hours of Continuing Education credit. The class will be held at the San Francisco Jewish Community Center from 9am to 4:30pm. Cost is $50. Instructors are Steven Foreman, M.D.; Jan Schreiber, Ph.D.; George Silberschatz, Ph.D.

A week-long intensive conference on Control Mastery theory will be held March 5 - 10 at SFPRG offices in the Presidio. There are new and returning tracks, and suggested courses, including: Etiology of Pathology, How Patients Test, Case Formulation from a Control Mastery Perspective, Trauma, Countertransference, Psychology of Medications, Sexuality, Chemical Dependency, Cases That Are Difficult to Formulate, Psychotherapy With Borderline Patients and more. Participants may sign up for the entire week or on a class-by-class basis. For more information please see our website at www.sfprg.org.

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.

Special Topics in Psychoanalytic Couple Psychotherapy
Thu, Feb 1 (begins) / 7:30 - 9 PM / PINC Library, 2252 Fillmore Street / San Francisco
NCSPP / (415) 457-9949 / Shelley Nathans, Ph.D. / $85 - $150

Poetry Reading and Conversation with Jane Hirshfield
Fri, Feb 2 / 7:30 - 9:30 PM / Fort Mason Center / San Francisco
C. G. Jung Institute / (415) 771-8080 / Jane Hirschfield, poet / $50

SFPI&S Extension Division: The Capacity to Tolerate Thoughts
Sat, Feb 3 / 9 AM - 1 PM / Elks Lodge, 4249 El Camino Real / Palo Alto
SFPI&S / (415) 563-5815 / Nancy Peters, M.S.W. / $100

SFPI&S San Francisco Student Outreach: Principles of Psychoanalytic Technique
Wed, Feb 7 (begins) / 7:30 - 9:30 PM / 2420 Sutter Street / San Francisco
SFPI&S / (415) 563-5815 / Kenneth Roberson, Ph.D. / free for students

SFPI&S Peninsula Student Outreach: Listening from a Psychoanalytic Perspective
Wed, Feb 7 (begins) / 7:15 - 8:45 PM / Psychiatry Building, 401 Quarry Rd, Rm. 1206 / Stanford
SFPI&S / (415) 563-5815 / Neil Brast, M.D. / free for students

Poetry, Story, Mythology and the Revitalization of the Talking Cure
Sat, Feb 10 / 10 AM - 1 PM / Town Center Community Rm. 770 Tamalpais Dr. / Corte Madera
Community Institute for Psychotherapy / (415) 459-5999 x101 / Gary Hoeber, MFT / $50 - $60

Dialogues in Contemporary Psychoanalysis: Analytic Listening and Poetry
Sat, Feb 10 / 9:30 AM - 12:30 PM / 2420 Sutter Street / San Francisco
SFPI&S / (415) 563-5815 / Forrest Hamer, Ph.D.; Alice Jones, M.D.; Susana Kolodny, D.M.H.; Jeanne Harasemovitch, L.C.S.W. / $35 - $45

Envy, Narcissism, and the Destructive Instinct
Sun, Feb 11 / 10 AM - 12 PM / North Tower, Davies CPMC campus, 45 Castro St. / SF
Institute for Psychoanalytic Studies / (415) 679-0997 / Robert Caper, M.D. / $10 - $25

Envy, Narcissism, and the Destructive Instinct: Case Presentation & Discussion
Sun, Feb 11 / 1 - 3:30 PM / North Tower, Davies CPMC campus, 45 Castro St. / SF
Institute for Psychoanalytic Studies / (415) 679-0997 / Robert Caper, M.D. / $45

Scientific Meeting with Mardi Horowitz
Mon, Feb 12 / 7:30 - 9:30 PM / 2420 Sutter Street / San Francisco
SFPI&S / (415) 563-5815 / Mardi Horowitz, M.D. / free

Friends Clinical Forum (Case Presentation & Discussion)
Tue, Feb 20 / 7 - 9:30 PM / SFPI&S Library, 2420 Sutter Street / San Francisco
Friends of SFPI&S / (415) 563-5815 / Todd Mitchell, MD (presenter); Mary Margaret McClure, DMH (discussant) / free

SFPI&S Extension Division: Infant Observation: Implications for Clinical Practice
Sat, Feb 24 (begins) / 9:30 AM - 12:30 PM / Elks Lodge, 4249 El Camino Real / Palo Alto
SFPI&S / (415) 563-5815 / Janis Baeuerlen, M.D.; Marsha Silverstein, Ph.D. / $150

Child Colloquium with Stanley Leiken
Sat, Feb 24 / 10 AM - 12 PM / 2420 Sutter Street / San Francisco
SFPI&S / (415) 563-5815 / Stanley Leiken, M.D. / free

SFPI&S East Bay Student Outreach: The Dynamic Paradox of Potential Space
Sat, Feb 24 (begins) / 9:30 AM - 12:30 PM / Herrick Hospital / Berkeley
SFPI&S / (415) 563-5815 / John DiMartini, Ph.D., Catherine McKenzie, Ph.D. / free

An Evening of Theater and Discussion: "The Pillowman"
Sat, Feb 24 / 8 - 11 PM / Berkeley Repertory Theater / Berkeley
PINC / (415) 922-4050 / Sam Gerson, Ph.D. / $60

Psychoanalytic Ground Rounds @ Stanford: Women's Reproductive Fears
Wed, Feb 28 / 6:15 - 7:30 PM / Psychiatry Building, 401 Quarry Rd., Rm. 2209 / Stanford
SFPI&S / (415) 563-5815 / Barbara Almond, M.D. / free

The Bionic Mind: Biotechnology and the Human Psyche
Mon, Mar 5 / 7:30 - 9 PM / SFPI&S Library / 2420 Sutter Street / San Francisco
Friends of SFPI&S / (415) 563-5815 / Dr. Gopal Balakrishnan, historian; Dr. Erik Gann, psychoanalyst; Dr. Joseph Schear, philospher / $20

To submit an event, please see our submission guidelines.

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GOT CONSULTATION? Find a Bay Area consultation or study group through the clearinghouse maintained by the Friends and SFPI&S Extension Division.

CHILD THERAPY EQUIPMENT NEEDED: Access Institute for Psychological Services is in need of sand trays, figurines, and shelving donations for their child therapy rooms. Partial collections OK. Please contact Liza at (415) 861-5449 x331.

ELMWOOD THERAPY OFFICE SUBLET. Charming brown shingle w/ PhDs, MDs, analysts. By Alta Bates, near Whole Foods, Elmwood Shopping. Very private. Parking lot. Shared waiting room. Adult and child clients. Available M-F after 2pm. $130 per day / $550 week. Contact Dr. Meg Jay @ (510) 332-5480.

ONGOING PSYCHOANALYTICALLY INFORMED CASE CONSULTATION AND READING GROUP. Meets on Wednesdays 1 - 2:30 PM in SF. Alan Kubler, Ph.D.,
(510) 526.4450, $40/meeting.

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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Adam Kremen, 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 1,475 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 contact 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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