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

Summer Reading

The cafe was in North Beach, and it was called Melt. Being a therapist (okay, being me), I thought, maybe it should be called Meltdown. It was open mic night, and poets, musicians, and the like had gathered to air their craft to the seemingly unsuspecting audience of espresso-swillers and fondue-aficionados.

I've decided to write a book of short stories about characters I've met throughout The City, an amalgamation of real people and fantasy figures. No patients :) This was my opportunity to read my first drafts aloud and ask for feedback. I felt guilty pocketing the details of people's lives to fuel my fiction. But, as we too well know, real life is often stranger than fiction. I wondered why I needed to write about these tourists who'd wondered through my years. Was it anger expressed in a fantasied betrayal of their private lives? A working through of an unresolved, ambivalent relationship that actually echoed some earlier attachment? Or simply a chance to lapse into a fantasy with an external object that was actually an internal self-object? These were not questions I could ask of my audience. Instead, I asked whether a character portrait alone was sufficient for creating a short story. Did something need to happen to the character? A good question for the subject of analysis, yes?

After I read a few chapters and gulped down my steamed milk, a man came up. He suggested that my characters be faced with a choice and in that choice could reveal themselves in some way, demonstrating a change or not. It made me think of my yoga teacher who breathily admonishes us at the end of class that thoughts become words, words become action, action becomes character, and character becomes destiny. Or, something like that. I get confused, because "destiny" is such a sexy word that is practically a foreign language in our field, and it makes me a little manic. Before the man went back to his seat and his wine, he noted that my characters all seemed to possess unhappiness. That made me think of Freud, and one of the purposes of analysis is to discern between neurotic suffering and ordinary human misery. But, "unhappiness"-- that is something a fiction writer can work with :).

Cleopatra Victoria, MFT
IMPULSE Editor


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NCSPP 2009-2010: THE PENINSULA/SOUTH BAY INTENSIVE STUDY GROUP

The Traumatized Self: Theoretical and Clinical Explorations

In this yearlong course, we will explore psychoanalytic thinking on trauma beginning with Freud’s seduction theory, and including contemporary theoretical perspectives on trauma. Together, faculty and participants will look at the relationship between trauma and such topics as: psychosomatic symptoms; dissociation; repression; splitting; developmental models; and the transference counter-transference paradigm. Participants will expand their understanding of trauma through hearing actual stories as well as learn how an analytic approach can address patients’ symptoms and facilitate healing. A particular focus will be on how treatment can re-traumatize a patient. Finally, we will turn to contemporary psychoanalytic writers who have identified the insidious ways that social and cultural forces infiltrate psychic life with traumatic effects..

To register, please visit our website.


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FALL, 2009 PSYCHOANALYTIC CONSULTATION/STUDY GROUPS: Using participants’ case material and readings, we will bring our attention to the heart of analytic technique as we focus on the ways in which we, as therapists, move toward and away from contact with both our patients and our own internal states. Berkeley. For full brochure call Cindy Sachs, cinsachs@aol.com, 510-339-3260.

ONGOING CASE CONSULTATION AND READING GROUP: Readings on dissociation and clinical comparisons with splittng and repression. Friday afternoons, Oakland Sep 25 - Jan 22. $50/session ($800 total). CE approved. Annie Sweetnam, Ph.D. 510-428-2913, Anniesweetnam@sbcglobal.net.

WRITING SUPPORT GROUP for those writing or interested in writing. Focus on individual voice and style. 4th Sat. month, 9:00 am - 12:00 pm, start Sep 26, Berkeley. $75/session. 8 session commitment. Annie Sweetnam, Ph.D. 510-428-2913, Anniesweetnam@sbcglobal.net.

PSYCHOANALYTIC CASE CONFERENCES: multi-perspectival, Wednesdays 10:00 am - 11:30 am, Oakland; Thursdays 3:15 pm - 4:45 pm. San Francisco have September openings. Oakland didactic seminar, Fridays 2:30 pm - 4:00 pm. September – December, Key clinical papers in the Bionian and British Independent Traditions: Meltzer, Ferro, Winnicott, Parsons, Bollas, Ogden. Dr. Dawn Farber, 510-763-4531. $55 per session.

MELTZER'S "AESTHETIC CONFLICT" revisions the developmental process, offering an indispensable deepening of our work. Saturday October 10, 9:30 am - 12:30 pm. Oakland. $80. CE's. Dr. Dawn Farber Psy.D. MFT, 510-763-4531, rori4@comcast.net. Dr. Farber practices psychoanalysis in Oakland and San Francisco; is Personal and Supervising Analyst; and a Faculty member at PINC; and teaches widely in the community.

CHILD AND ADULT CASE CONSULTATION AND READING GROUP. Pacific Heights, San Francisco. Liza Ravitz, Ph.D., Jungian Psychoanalyst. Begins September, every other week, Thursdays, 12:15 pm - 1:45 pm, $50.00. SANDPLAY cases will be included. 415-931-6135.


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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Melissa Holub, Ph.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
Michele McGuinness, Production Manager
Matthew Morrissey, Technical Editor
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.

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