The resplendent Northern California spring makes it tough to stay indoors, whether it's with patients, at our computers, meeting with collegues or listening to visiting speakers. To help counterbalance nature's temptations, this month's IMPULSE offers a colorful range of analytic pleasures.

NCSPP President Adam Kremen playfully recommends two NCSPP events of interest. In PIECE OF MIND we learn more about Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis North. Our MAKING LINKS feature points you toward stimulating analytic audio on the Web. And the always impressive APPOINTMENT BOOK offers analytic diversions including art, cinema and theater.

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.

We have a remarkable psychoanalytic community in Northern California, comprising several analytic institutes as well as other centers of training such as The Psychotherapy Institute, professional societies such as NCSPP, treatment centers such as Access Institute and the Boyer House Foundation, and more. This e-newsletter itself was created as a clearinghouse for the entire community. The depth and variety of educational and training classes, lectures, workshops and the like presented each month bear testament to the vitality of this community. A glance below at APPOINTMENT BOOK will show something of the richness that is available.

While this e-newsletter does not preference any one organization, I would like to call your attention to two upcoming events offered by NCSPP, which I think are particularly exciting. (Of course, I'm biased.) Our South Bay/Peninsula Committee presents their annual symposium on April 28, featuring Jed Sekoff and Peter Goldberg. Entitled Savage Melancholia: Shame, Grief and Vengeance in Political Life and the Clinical Encounter, this symposium will examine links between internal and social forms of despair and shame which call forth violent reactions of vengefulness and retribution.

On May 5 we will also celebrate our 20th Annual Lecture, with Judith Mitrani speaking on Some Implications of the Work of Frances Tustin for the Psychoanalytic Treatment of Adult Patients. Mitrani will discuss clinical work with patients who use primitive, autistic mechanisms to protect themselves from unmentalized and primordial terrors.

These are only two of the many exciting and substantial offerings available in the coming months — but I think they are two really good ones!

Adam Kremen, Ph.D.
President, NCSPP

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The Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis (ICP) is a freestanding psychoanalytic institute in Los Angeles dedicated to participatory democracy, open dialogue and pluralistic thought. Founded in 1991 by a group of senior psychoanalysts seeking an altogether new approach to training, ICP is now a leading center of contemporary thinking about analytic theory, technique, and training. ICP North is its Bay Area affiliate.

Founded in 1996, ICP North is a vibrant community of psychoanalysts and psychotherapists dedicated to critical thinking in a non-hierarchical environment. Its mission is to immerse its members in current psychoanalytic debate and expand the way we think about the therapeutic encounter.

ICP North offers a psychoanalytic psychotherapy training program open to all licensed mental health professionals. Once-a-month seminars and weekly consultation groups with ICP-affiliated analysts provide training in Self Psychology; Object Relations; Control Mastery; Social Constructivism; Relational; Intersubjectivity; Attachment; and non-linear, dynamic systems theories.

In addition to its yearly spring conference featuring leading contemporary theorists, ICP North actively promotes a four year weekend training program in psychoanalysis in Los Angeles.

ICP North will hold an Open House for the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Training Program and the Weekend Psychoanalytic Training Program on Sunday, May 6, from 2:30-4pm at the home of Jane Jordan, Psy.D., 3022 Steiner St., San Francisco. RSVP: (415) 931-5730.

Our annual spring conference, A Morning With Howard Bacal - Specificity Theory: Illuminating Optimal Responsiveness in Therapeutic Process, will be held on Sunday, April 22, from 9am -1pm at the Laurel Heights Conference Center. This theory holds that each dyad constitutes a unique relational system and that its participants will discover, through the specificity of their process, what is therapeutically needed. The theory will be illuminated by a live clinical consultation.

For information about the conference, joining ICP North or applying to the training program, contact Jane Jordan, Psy.D (415) 931-5730.

Ilene Philipson, Ph.D.
Candidate
ICP Weekend Psychoanalytic Training Program

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In this occasional series, IMPULSE links you to online resources to satisfy your appetite for psychoanalytic enrichment.

To find what the Web has to offer your analytically inclined ears, you could always Google your favorite psychoanalytic author or concept, along with "MP3" or "podcast." Or you can just explore some of our curated finds, below.

Media-fatigued Americans can eavesdrop on excellent British radio programming at the BBC. In Our Time, an erudite and dynamic program, occasionally and very successfully addresses psychoanalytic topics. Prime pickings: Juliett Mitchell, Rachel Bowlby and Brett Kahr take a historical and contemporary look at hysteria. V. S. Ramachandran, Mark Solms and Martin Conway juxtapose neuroscientific and psychoanalytic perspectives on dreams. And an exploration into the life and influence of Carl Jung incorporates thoughts of a Jung biographer, a Jungian analyst and a Freudian analyst.

Advancing psychoanalysis' long dialogue about religion are two very contemporary audio offerings. In Psychoanalysis and Religion in the 21st Century: Addressing Complexity — A Psychosocial Approach To Thinking About Religion, one in a series of forums presented by The Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, Mass., and the Erikson Institute for Education and Research, the former dean of Westminster Abbey argues for religion's sophistication, saying it requires a sophisticated approach if it is to be understood. Psychologists respond.

The Association for Psychoanalytic Medicine gives us a Quicktime audio file of Adam Phillips presenting a provocative paper that looks at religious fundamentalism from a psychoanalytic perspective. Discussant Salman Akhtar, poet and psychoanalyist, takes issue with much of what Adams asserts, making for a lively and culturally varied discussion.

What have you found on the Web to tantalize psychoanalytic surfers? Send in your suggestions for us to include in future MAKING LINKS features.

Cate Corcoran, M.A.
IMPULSE Features Editor

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NCSPP offers two exciting spring programs:

Savage Melancholia: Shame, Grief & Vengeance in Political Life and the Clinical Encounter
South Bay Symposium with Jed Sekoff, Ph.D. and Peter Goldberg, Ph.D.
Saturday, April 28; Menlo College, 1000 El Camino Real, Atherton

Today's cataclysmic violence threatens us with unremitting anxiety and paralysis. Dr. Sekoff will describe the two unconscious strands in the wounded mind: persecutory narcissistic wounds, and traumatic, unbearable mourning. Dr.'s Sekoff and Goldberg will investigate the mind of the suicidal bomber, exploring its clinical relevance.

Implications of Frances Tustin's Work for the Psychoanalytic Treatment of Adults
Twentieth Annual Lecture with Judith Mitrani, Ph.D.
Saturday, May 5; Laurel Heights Conference Center, San Francisco

Dr. Mitrani will consider Frances Tustin's work with children and adults who use autistic maneuvers to encapsulate unmentalized states. Through case material by Dr. Scott Lines, Dr. Mitrani will illustrate how to identify and address autistic states represented in transference and countertransference.

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.

SFPI&S SF Student Outreach: Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy with Gay Men
Wed, Apr 4 (begins) / 7:30 - 9 PM / 2420 Sutter St. / San Francisco
SFPI&S / (415) 563-5815 / Gary Grossman, Ph.D. / free

SFPI&S Peninsula Student Outreach: The Treatment Frame
Wed, Apr 4 (begins) / 7:15 - 8:45 PM / Psychiatry Bldg., 401 Quarry Rd., Rm 1206 / Stanford
SFPI&S / (415) 563-5815 / Lynn Alexander, Psy.D. / free

SFPI&S Scientific Meeting with John Searle
Mon, Apr 9 / 7:30 - 9:30 PM / SFPI&S Library, 2420 Sutter St. / San Francisco
SFPI&S / (415) 563-5815 / Prof. John Searle / free

SFPI&S Ext. Div. Dialogues in Contemporary Psychoanalysis
Sat, Apr 14 / 9:30 AM - 12:30 PM / SFPI&S Library, 2420 Sutter St. / San Francisco
SFPI&S / (415) 563-5815 / Peter Goldberg, Ph.D.; Henry Markman, M.D.; Mary Margaret McClure, D.M.H. / $35 - $45.

SFPI&S Friends Clinical Forum (case presentation & discussion)
Tue, Apr 17 / 7:30 - 9 PM / SFPI&S Library, 2420 Sutter St. / San Francisco
Friends of SFPI&S / (415) 563-5815 / Esther Erhensaft, Ph.D. (presenter); Wendy Stern, DMH (discussant) / free (CE $15)

SFPI&S Art Show Reception: Vitrine
Thu, Apr 12 (begins) / 6 - 8 PM / SFPI&S Library, 2420 Sutter St. / San Francisco
SFPI&S / (415) 563-5815 / Ian Green, artist / free

SFPI&S Poetry and Psychoanalysis
Sun, Apr 22 / 4 - 5:30 PM / SFPI&S Library, 2420 Sutter St. / San Francisco
SFPI&S / (415) 563-5815 / Alan Williamson / free

Howard Bacal: Specificity Theory - Illuminating Optimal Responsiveness
Sun, Apr 22 / 9 - 1 PM / UCSF Laurel Heights Conference Center / San Francisco
ICP North / (415) 931-5730 / Howard Bacal

SFPI&S Public Lecture Series: Adolescents
Wed, Apr 25 / 7:30 - 9 PM / SFPI&S Library, 2420 Sutter St. / San Francisco
SFPI&S / (415) 563-5815 / Katherine Fraser, Ph.D. / free

SFPI&S Stanford Grand Rounds
Wed, Apr 25 / 6:15 - 7:30 PM / Psychiatry Bldg., 401 Quarry Rd., Rm. 2209 / Stanford
SFPI&S / (415) 563-5815 / Marshall Greene, M.D. / free

Child and Adolescent Treatment and the Medication Dilemma
Sat, Apr 28 / 9 AM - 12 PM / St. John's Presbyterian Church / Berkeley
NCSPP / (415) 457-9979 / Marcia Dillon, M.D. / $40 - $65

Savage Melancholia: Shame, Grief, and Vengeance in Political Life and the Clinical Encounter
Sat, Apr 28 / 9 AM - 1:30 PM / 1000 El Camino Real / Atherton
NCSPP / (650) 323-4533 / Jed Sekoff, Ph.D.; Peter Goldberg, Ph.D. / $35 - $90

Friends of SFPI&S Annual Film Discussion: Swimming Pool
Sat, Apr 28 / 10:45 AM - 2:15 PM / Variety Room, 582 Market Street (at 2nd) / San Francisco
Friends of SFPI&S / (415) 563-5815 / Reyna Cowan, LCSW (discussant) / $15 - $20

Physics, Music and Psychoanalysis
Sun, Apr 29 / 3 - 5 PM / 450 Sutter St, Floor 9, Rm 941 / San Francisco
Institute for Psychoanalytic Studies / (415) 679-0997 / Katherine MacVicar, M.D.; Henry Goldwire, Ph.D. / $10

SFPI&S theater on the couch: Blackbird by David Harrower
Fri, May 4 / 8 PM / ACT Theatre, 415 Geary Street / San Francisco
SFPI&S / (415) 563-5815 / Peter Goldberg, Ph.D.; Linda Lageman, Ph.D. / $21 - $65

Implications of the Work of Tustin for Adult Treatment
Sat, May 5 / 9 AM - 4:15 PM / UCSF Laurel Heights Conference, 3333 California / San Francisco
NCSPP / (510) 717-5330 / Judith Mitrani, Ph.D; Scott Lines, Ph.D. / $60 - $180

To submit an event, please see our submission guidelines.

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CONSULTATION GROUP: Beginning in May, focusing on character organization using Nancy McWilliams' book Psychoanalytic Diagnosis. Corte Madera, 1st and 3rd Fridays, 4 - 5:30 PM, $55/session. Diane A. Suffridge, Ph.D. (415) 485-5779.

ONGOING CONSULTATION GROUP. Psychoanalytic perspectives on the many uses of countertransference while listening to case presentations. Wednesdays 10:30-12. Contact Maureen Franey, Ph.D. (510) 527-6141.

BEAUTIFUL PSYCHOTHERAPY OFFICE FOR SUBLET. Mondays in therapy suite on Union Street @ Gough. Large, decorated in natural tones w/ artful touches of color. $230/mo. Available 4/1/07. (510) 848-3372.

HOWARD BACAL: Specificity Theory: Illuminating Optimal Responsiveness in Therapeutic Process, Sunday, April 22, 9-1, Laurel Heights Conference Center, SF. Presented by Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis. Contact: Jane Jordan (415) 931-5730 bwootten@ucsc.edu

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

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 1,550 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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