Summer is already winding down as fast as it came. My fantasies of warm, relaxing, endless vacations are starting to wane. I find my thoughts already (tragically) moving into the fall, and it is not even the end of the summer! But, as September approaches, I anticipate a great year ahead for NCSPP. I want to bring to your attention our ISG line-up for 2008-2009. By now, you have received our bright green ISG brochure, highlighting course offerings for the San Francisco/East Bay and the Peninsula/South Bay Intensive Study Groups. Please take a moment to go to our website, www.ncspp.org, and review the course descriptions. The San Francisco/East Bay ISGs will explore the rich terrain of transference/countertransference and its vicissitudes. Our South Bay ISG will continue its series, “From Inspiration to Interpretation,” delving into psychoanalytic literature amidst the in-depth and specific atmosphere of a study group. If you were putting off joining an ISG, we have stellar faculty this year and are privileged to have such high caliber instruction and facilitation.

What we offer at NCSPP is somewhat unique as we are the largest local chapter of Division 39 in the country with over 650 members. Many local chapters struggle to stay alive. Here we are in this beautiful landscape (both geographically and metaphorically) not only quite alive but thriving. With your support, we continue to offer contemporary educational opportunities with some of the best psychoanalytic minds on the continent. I feel privileged to be a part of this experience and encourage you to participate on whatever level is workable for you. If you have thoughts or suggestions, please contact me, I am always open to them.

Continue to enjoy the remainder of summer. Have a long cool iced tea and pleasant dreams.

Warm regards,
Drew Tillotson, Psy.D.
NCSPP President

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I Y LA

I’m in Los Angeles where my cousin’s getting married. It’s a traditional wedding by California standards – white lace, baby bump, 30-foot white stretch Hummer limousine. Expressed in the symbolic order, "La-La Land," "Tinseltown" and "El Lay" exemplify the hostility and envy many Northern Californians have for LA. Is it the Southland’s landscape of fantasy, acting out, denial of loss, narcissism, grandiosity, entitlement, incapacity to mourn, and supremely unaware self-awareness? Is LA a psychic retreat? Or is it a container for our disavowed impulses – the holding environment for our own projections?

LA Weekly features ads for labial reconstruction next to plugs for cosmetic foot surgery – the lengthening and shortening of the toes. An article laments how women can’t get sex in this town since men, confused by female predatory behavior, are the new romantics who demand to be pursued. In my cab, the driver chain-smoked as we fondly explored our mutual Armenian heritage. (I discovered later he overcharged me by $10.) At the industrial dance club, the usual driving beats were, well, laid back. A man wore a T-shirt that said “BYTE ME.” Yet, no one’s face was aglow with iPhone as they checked their texts from the dance floor as people do in SF.

On Melrose, the street couture equivalent of the Haight, goth lux was in high style – punky design T-shirts embellished with glitter. Joey Ramone, meet Joan Collins. A warehouse advertised $1 clothing and overflowed with boxes and racks of what looked to be costume outtakes from the wardrobe departments of Love Boat, Macbeth, and Little House on the Prairie. Peeps pored through the piles in reverie about where they might possibly wear such fantasies. In a boutique named Insanity, which sold canvas totes with the slogan, “I’m Not A Plastic Bag,” they wrapped my new dresses in large, glossy, colored-ink, cardboard bags. At the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf on Sunset, people cheerfully exchanged tales of callbacks, headshots and agents-from-hell.

The wedding reception was held in Malibu at Duke’s with an infinity view of the Pacific. The groom, Armenian, had met the bride, Turkish, in an online chat room called The Arabic Lounge. We dined on dolma and baklava, then danced a conga line to Middle Eastern music. Back in the hotel lobby, a tall, blonde, white boy complained into his cell phone, “Dude, I’m telling you, they’ve taken all the jobs everywhere.”

In our van to the airport, an older, very blonde woman and her elderly male friend stared out the window at a young blonde woman walking by. The older blonde watched her male friend watching the younger blonde, then smiled. Then, she smoothed her hair and let out a small sigh. I looked down the crowded street. As far as I could see, no one was wearing black.

Cleopatra Victoria, MFT
IMPULSE Editor

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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.

A Soldier's Heart: The Psychology of Courage
Thu, Aug 21 / 7:30 PM - 9 PM / SFCP, 2340 Jackson St., 4th Floor Auditorium / San Francisco
SFCP / 415-563-5815. / Nathan Szajnberg, M.D. / free

Psychic Change: Evolution and application of Bion's work
Wed, Sep 10 (begins) / 11:15 AM - 12:30 PM / St. Johns Presbyterian Church / Berkeley
NCSPP / (415) 457-9949 / Charles Dithrich, Ph.D. / $90-$265

Continuing Clinical Study Groups,Oakland S.F. Bion-inspired, multi-models
Wed, Sep 10 (begins) / 10 AM - 11:30 AM / 587 Walavista Avenue / Oakland / (415) 673-7744 / Dr. Dawn Farber, Psy.D. MFT / $50 per session

To submit an event, please see our submission guidelines.

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PSYCHOANALYTIC STUDY GROUP: Focusing on Addressing Primitive Anxieties- Forming Fall '08. By discussing seminal readings & case presentations, we will expand interpretation skills with our most challenging cases. On-going group meets weekly, Thursdays from 10:15 - 11:45 AM. Contact Dori Dubin, Psy.D., LCSW, BCD-P (510) 547-2522.

PSYCHOANALYTIC CASE CONSULTATION AND READING GROUP: Ongoing group with openings in September. Focus is on the diagnostic and creative use of the therapist’s internal states. The context is multi-theoretical, drawing on Klein, Bion, Middle School and Intersubjective. Friday afternoons. Oakland. CE credit may be available. (510) 428-2913. Anniesweetnam@sbcglobal.net.

PSYCHOANALYTIC WRITING GROUP: Starting in September. A supportive group for those already writing or for those wanting to start. Focus will be on helping each member to develop their unique style and form of analytic writing. Wednesday or Saturday mornings. Oakland. 8 session commitment. Every other week. Annie Sweetnam, Ph.D. has a practice of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic therapy in Berkeley. She has published on several psychoanalytic subjects, including most recently on the capacity to experience beauty. In several of her articles she has used experimental writing styles to convey different types of clinical experience. (510) 428-2913. Anniesweetnam@sbcglobal.net.

PSYCHOANALYTIC CASE CONSULTATION AND READING GROUP: South Bay. Led by Alan Kessler, Ph.D., Faculty SFCP, Fee: $60. Fridays 10:30 - 12:00. (408) 868-9405.

ANALYTIC GROUP THERAPY: Analytic group therapy is an opportunity for a group relational experience that may be adjunctive to individual analysis or act as an independent treatment modality. This is a mixed group of men and women who are young professionals involved and focused on transitions, relational anxieties, sexuality, trauma, isolation, and depression. At present the group is seeking a male member. Time: Tuesday, 7pm- 8:30pm, Location: 2252 Fillmore St. San Francisco, Fee is on a sliding scale: $60 - $100, Group Leader: Sue Saperstein, MFT, Psy.D. (415) 641-4146, drsuesaperstein@sbcglobal.net.


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.


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. Join us.

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Drew Tillotson, Psy.D., NCSPP President
Cleopatra Victoria, M.A., MFT, Editor-in-Chief
Bruce Weitzman, MFT, Managing Editor
Meg Earls, M.A., Features Editor
Terra Morais, M.A., Appointment Book Editor
Drew Hutchinson, M.A., Editor-at-Large
Michele McGuinness, Production Manager
Cate Corcoran, Psy.D., Brad Falconer, M. A., Editors Emeritus

Each month, IMPULSE reaches over 1,830 psychoanalytically interested 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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