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.

The Future of Psychoanalytic Practice

It could be virtual, though I hope not. It could be a next step in the integration of science and art, as in the neuroscience of unconscious fantasy. Whatever the content, students and early career clinicians are the future of psychoanalytic practice.

Predicting the future of psychoanalytic practice is often a Rashoman-like affair. Take, for example, two descriptions of the field written approximately 6-8 months apart. In the Summer 2008 issue of Psychologist-Psychoanalyst, Nancy McWilliams devoted her President’s Remarks to the continued declining interest in psychoanalysis among schools. The lack of teaching positions, course-work and general malaise felt by students hoping to offer depth treatment were some of the ideas on which she elaborated. Shift to the Spring 2009 edition of the same publication. Mary Beth Cresci wrote with great optimism about the future of psychoanalysis. Especially buoyed by recent research findings that psychoanalysis is indeed effective, she makes a stand for a renaissance in our field.

Locally, we see the same varying perspectives towards the future of psychoanalysis. In most masters and doctoral programs, students receive minimal coursework in psychoanalytic theory and technique – often just one or two explicit courses in a four-year curriculum. However, a quick review of the faculty in these same programs sometimes reveals a number of psychoanalytically oriented instructors, who put a psychoanalytic spin on courses such as “Diagnosis” and “Clinical Technique.”

Students who want more than a heady whiff of psychoanalytic training must seek out internships specializing in hands on psychoanalytically oriented practice. If those students want ongoing education, community and mentoring they can turn to NCSPP.

The NCSPP Student Paper award is a unique opportunity for students to share their thinking as they develop a psychoanalytic approach to the field. There is a real community of elders, mentors and friends who are interested in students’ thoughts. The Student Paper provides a singular chance for someone to present to and publish in a community of analytic clinicians looking to the future.

Submissions are due November 13th. Click here for more information.

Warm regards,

Melissa Holub, Ph.D.
NCSPP President


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Vampin'

What's up with the current national obsession with vampires? There was Twilight, the runaway movie ( a sequel is in the making), and now we have the Golden Globe-winning, Emmy-nominated, True Blood, HBO's most popular series since Sex and The City and The Sopranos. The season finale garnered 2.3 million viewers. And, the independent CW channel offers The Vampire Diaries, a gothy Gossip Girl.

Vampiric folklore was birthed in the medieval period and is globally prevalent in the current era. Pre-industrial societies didn't understand decomposition, and vampires could explain the process of death. Myth says that vampires return to visit their loved ones and create havoc in the 'hoods they used to habituate. These creatures subsist by feeding on the blood of living creatures. They have sharp teeth, drink blood, are immortal, and hard to kill. The 1897 novel, Dracula, is the basis of modern vampirism.

Vampirism and sexuality are closely intertwined. Freud's "morbid dread" symbolizes repressed sexual wishes. In analytic terms, vampirism contains desired and feared fantasies, including the Oedipus complex. There is also the desire for merger and the terror of annihilation in that union. Ernest Jones, Welsh analyst and Freud's biographer, as well as President of both the British Psychoanalytical Society and the International Psychoanalytic Association in the 1920s and '30s, writes in his 1931 "On the Nightmare," that vampirism is symbolic of several unconscious drives and defenses. Oral sadism is integral. Phyllis Roth, a Dracula scholar, posits that the fantasy of incest and matricide evokes the vagina dentata in which mouth and vagina are the same in the unconscious mind, provoking the threat of castration.

Desire and fear are mixed as are sex and death. In his book Real Cities, Steven Piles also suggests that vampires represent male anxieties about castration. Female vampires hint at the hazards of modern urban sexuality--dangerous, seductive vamps on the prowl. Piles links rumors of vampirism to unexpressed fears of strangers in the modern city.

Given the current, collective economic and social angst, maybe vampirism is an apt metaphor for that which cannot be thought and can only be imagined and worked through in popular media. Perhaps we are all terrified of having our lifeblood sucked dry. Many of us were sucked out of our life savings. Some were sucked into mortgages and then chewed up. Our horror at the lack of national healthcare, perhaps, is expressed as this obsession with blood. We were suckered into a war, and here we are. Despite January's grandiose, omnipotent merger with the idealized Obama (note the O, Bionians), Rasmussen Reports shows Presidential approval ratings in mid-September as just 50%. Pessimistically speaking, Obama's ratings suck. But, in the end, maybe we're the suckers..

Cleopatra Victoria, MFT
IMPULSE Editor


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PINC REFERRAL SERVICE

The mission of The Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California (PINC) is to provide education, service, and research in contemporary psychoanalysis. PINC's school program offers comparative/integrative psychoanalytic perspectives from classical, object relations, and relational schools. Every PINC candidate sees at least three patients in supervised analysis as an integral aspect of PINC’s educational model, which also includes coursework and personal analysis.

Psychoanalysis is an intensive, collaborative therapy conducted between patient and therapist in which patients are usually seen three to four times a week for fifty-minute sessions. PINC candidates offer psychoanalysis throughout the Bay Area at a reduced fee to those unable to afford private practice rates. Individuals who wish to consider the benefits of psychoanalysis with one of our candidates are invited to call PINC at (415) 922-4050 or visit www.pincsf.org to begin a consultation process.

Terrance McLarnan, MFT
PINC-NCSPP Liaison


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PINC PRESENTS:
Crossing The Synapse: Psychoanalysis And Neuroscience Join Forces

ARNOLD MODELL & WALTER FREEMAN IN CONVERSATION

On November 7, we have the unique opportunity to participate in a conversation between two of the most seminal thinkers on the relationship between neuroscience and psychoanalysis, addressing the question of “how we are who we are”.

Arnold Modell, a distinguished psychoanalyst, has contributed to an integration of modern and classical views of mental organization with the findings of neuroscience, to establish psychoanalysis as a “neurobiology of meaning.”

The work of Walter Freeman, noted biophysicist, has catapulted neuroscience from a reductionist model to a non-linear dynamic system, in which the currency of the brain is primarily the generation of meaning and only secondarily information processing.

November 7, 2009
9am-1pm, $40-$100 (optional 2-4pm program, $25-$50)

UCSF Milberry Union, Golden Gate Room
500 Parnassus Avenue SF

Registration/Information: Elizabeth Jerde, (415) 922 4050, pincsf@sbcglobal.net


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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.

Relatedness and Narcissism
Sat, Oct 3 / 10 AM - 4 PM / 2040 Gough Street / San Francisco
C. G. Jung Institute / (415) 771-8080 / Barbara Stevens Sullivan / $125

Great Literature for Clinicians: Short Masterpieces
Mon, Oct 5 (begins) / 10:30 AM - 12 PM / PINC Library, 2252 Fillmore Street, 2nd Floor / SF
NCSPP / (415) 457-9949 / Michael Zimmerman, Ph.D. / $640-$1140

Relatedness in Therapeutic Work: A Yearlong Seminar
Mon, Oct 5 (begins) / 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM / 2040 Gough Street / San Francisco
C. G. Jung Institute / (415) 771-8080 / Jung Institute Faculty / $1500

SFCP Public Lecture Series: The Struggle for Universal Healthcare
Wed, Oct 7 / 7:30 PM - 9 PM / 2340 Jackson St., 4th Floor (entry Webster St.) / San Francisco
SFCP / (415) 563-5815 / Rachael Peltz, Ph.D. and members of Green Dogs / free

SFCP Community Members: Marketing Your Practice Online
Thu, Oct 8 / 7:30 PM - 9 PM / 2340 Jackson St., 4th Floor (entry Webster St.) / San Francisco
SFCP / (415) 563-5815 / H. Sattler, MBA, MFT, E. Gann, M.D., M. Lamia, Ph.D. / free-$35

P/SB NCSPP Pre-licensed Event: Meet the Professors
Fri, Oct 9 / 7 PM - 9 PM / Redwood City
NCSPP / (650) 364-8095 / Teri Quatman, Ph.D. and Bob Walters, Ph.D. / free

Play: Love for Beginners: A Play, On and With, Words
Sat, Oct 10 / 3 PM - 6 PM / Private Home / San Francisco
NCSPP / (415) 457-9949 / Gene Alexander, MFT / $90-$150

The Living Symbol: In & Out of the Consulting Room
Sat, Oct 10 (begins) / 9:30 AM - 3:30 PM / 1500 Van Ness St @ Calif. / San Francisco
Jung Institute / (415) 771-8080 / M. Chiaia; N. Lowinsky; R. Stein; S. Wagner; B. Wittine / $225

SFCP Dialogues : RETHINKING MASCULINITY
Sat, Oct 10 / 9:30 AM - 12:30 PM / 2340 Jackson St., 4th Floor / San Francisco
SFCP / (415) 563-5815 / Ken Corbett, Ph.D. / $35-$45

LUTECIUM Workshop: The American theater of the sinthome
Sun, Oct 11 / 10 AM - 2 PM / Flood Building, 870 Market St. / San Francisco
Lutecium Psychoanalytic Group / Rebecca Bauknight, Ph.D. / $40-$80

Fall Movie Matinee: Grey Gardens (1975)
Sun, Oct 11 / 2 PM - 5 PM / The Variety Preview Room, 582 Market Street / San Francisco
NCSPP / (415) 680-4449 / Drew Tillotson, Psy.D. / $10-$12

SFCP Scientific Meeting with Ken Corbett
Mon, Oct 12 / 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM / 2340 Jackson St., 4th Floor (entry Webster St.) / San Francisco
SFCP / (415) 563-5815 / Ken Corbett, Ph.D. / Free

SFCP Community Members Noth Bay Clinical Forum
Tue, Oct 13 / 7:30 PM - 9 PM / 4340 Redwood Highway, San Rafael, CA / San Rafael
SFCP / (415) 563-5815 / Meghan Tiedemann-Fuller, Ph.D. / free

SFCP Open House for Psychoanalytic Training
Wed, Oct 14 / 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM / 2340 Jackson St., 4th Floor (entry Webster St.) / San Francisco
SFCP / (415) 563-5815 / free

SFCP Community Members East Bay Clinical Forum
Wed, Oct 14 / 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM / Herrick Hospital 2001 Dwight Way, Rm CC / Berkeley
SFCP / (415) 563-5815 / Sarah Liebman, MFT. and John DiMartini Ph.D. / free

SFCP Open House for Psychoanalytic Training
Thu, Oct 15 / 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM / 2340 Jackson St., 4th Floor / San Francisco
SFCP / (415) 563-5815 / free

PINC Presents: Psychoanalysis and the Jewish Frame of Mind
Fri, Oct 16 / 7 PM - 9 PM / PINC, 2252 Fillmore Street / San Francisco
PINC / (415) 922-4050 / Betty Fuks, Ph.D., Martine Aniel, Ph.D., PINC Faculty/ $10-$20 / 2 CE

Fall Scientific Meeting: Nothing Comes From Nothing
Sat, Oct 17 / 10 AM - 1 PM / CPMC Enright Room, 2333 Buchanan St / San Francisco
NCSPP / 415-457-9949 / Francisco Gonzalez, M.D. and Shelley Alhanati, Ph.D. / free-$30

Princess, Priestess, Poet: Temple Hymns of Enheduanna
Sat, Oct 17 / 9:30 AM - 1:30 PM / 2040 Gough Street / San Francisco
C. G. Jung Institute / (415) 771-8080 / Betty Meador, Ph.D. / $100

SFCP Child Colloquia-ADHD: Where\'s the Focus?
Sat, Oct 17 / 10 AM - 12 PM / 2340 Jackson St., 4th Floor (entry Webster St.) / San Francisco
SFCP / (415) 563-5815 / Janis Baeuerlen, M.D. and Robert Oelsner, M.D. / Free

SFCP Conversations on Adolescents: Clinical Formulation
Sat, Oct 17 / 9 AM - 12 PM / Flamingo Conf. Resort and Spa, 2777 4th St. / Santa Rosa
SFCP / (415) 563-5815 / Elizabeth Simpson, LCSW / Free

NCSPP Pre-licensed Clinicians Program
Mon, Oct 19 / 12:20 PM - 1:10 PM / 1 Beach Street, Room 217 / San Francisco
NCSPP / (415) 374-3325 / Michael Guy Thompson, Ph.D. / free

SFCP Community Members SF Clinical Forum
Tue, Oct 20 / 7:15 PM - 9:30 PM / 2340 Jackson St., 4th Floor (entry Webster St.) / San Francisco
SFCP / (415) 563-5815 / Adam Beyda, Psy.D. and Michael Wagner, Ph.D. / free

SFCP Community Members South Bay Clinical Forum
Tue, Sep 20 / 7:15 PM - 9 PM / Psychiatry Building, 401 Quarry Rd. Rm 2209 / Stanford
SFCP / (415) 563-5815 / TBA / free

Workshop with Steven Levenkron
Fri, Oct 23 / 9 AM - 2:30 PM / TBA / San Francisco
RAMS / (415) 668-5955 ext. 375 / Steven Levenkron / $40

P/SB NCSPP Salon: Reality 2.0 Cyber Lives/Clinical Challenge
Fri, Oct 23 / 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM / Redwood City
NCSPP / (650) 364-8095 / Stephen Hartman, Ph.D. / $25-$20

2nd Annual Couple Therapy Event
Sat, Oct 24 / 9 AM - 4 PM / Jewish Community Center, 3200 California St / San Francisco
NCSPP / 415-457-9949 / Senior Couple Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist Mary Morgan / $25-$160

PINC Presents: Anniversaries in Psychoanalysis
Sat, Oct 24 / 9 AM - 1 PM / 2159 Allston Way / Berkeley
PINC / (415) 922-4050 / J. W. Bernstein, Ph.D., P. Lowenberg, Ph.D., M. Murphy, Ph.D. / $40-$80

SFCP Ext. Div. Pen. Seminar: BLUNDERS AND BLOOPERS
Sat, Oct 24 / 9 AM - 12 PM / Christ Episcopal Church, 1040 Border Road / Los Altos
SFCP / (415) 563-5815 / Sharon Levin, LCSW and Susan Yamaguchi, LCSW / $75

PINC Open House: Information about Psychoanalytic Training
Mon, Oct 26 / 7:30 PM - 9 PM / PINC 2252 Fillmore Street / San Francisco
PINC / (415) 922-4050 / PINC Faculty and Candidates / free

SFCP Grand Rounds: Gay Male Adolescence
Wed, Oct 28 / 6:15 PM - 7:30 PM / Psychiatry Buiding, 401 Quarry Rd. Rm 2209 / Stanford
SFCP / (415) 563-5815 / Gary Grossman, Ph.D. / free

Changing Minds in Therapy: Neurobiology of Emotions
Fri, Oct 30 / 7:30 PM - 9 PM / 2040 Gough Street / San Francisco
C. G. Jung Institute / (415) 771-8080 / Margaret Wilkinson / $25

SFCP Totc: November by David Mamet
Fri, Oct 30 / 8 PM - HHMM AM/PM / ACT, Geary St. / San Francisco
SFCP / 415-563-5815 / Mary Margaret McClure, D.M.H. & Linda Lagemann, Ph.D.

Empathy, Neurobiology and Supervisory Process
Sat, Oct 31 / 9:30 AM - 1:30 PM / 2040 Gough Street / San Francisco
C. G. Jung Institute / (415) 771-8080 / Margaret Wilkinson and Tina Stromsted / $100

A Day with Dr. Salman Akhtar
Fri, Nov 6 / 9 AM - 4:30 PM / 600 Embarcadero Street / San Francisco
RAMS / 415-668-5955 ext. 375 / Dr. Salman Akhtar / $150

To submit an event, please see our submission guidelines.

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6-WEEK PSYCHODYNAMIC TRAINING SERIES. Berkeley Wednesday mornings 9-10:30; or Marin Thursday afternoons 12-1:30. Cost $360 includes 9 CEUs. Begins early October. For more information visit www.megpatterson.com/trainings

ON-GOING WEEKLY PSYCHOANALYTIC STUDY GROUP: Working with Primitive Anxieties and Psychosomatic disorders, a well functioning work group, has openings for fall 2009. Meets Thursdays 10:15-11:45AM. Fee: $45/meeting. Contact Dori Dubin, PsyD at (510) 547-2522 or ddubinpsyd@comcast.net.

CLINICAL WORK GROUP for psychoanalytic psychotherapists. This study group is offered to help participants think and work psychoanalytically to promote depth in their treatments regardless of frequency of meetings or level of disturbance or type of population of their patients. In the context of a collaborative and supportive environment, we will listen to case presentations with an eye to listening analytically, working with transference and countertransference and thinking practically about how to intervene to deepen the treatments. Mondays 12:50 - 2:15 pm, 3321 Sacramento Street, San Francisco. $45 per meeting; CE credit available. Beth Steinberg, (415) 441-5302

SLIDING SCALE, LOWER FEE PSYCHOANALYTIC PSYCHOTHERAPY available for 3X/week sessions. Union Street, SF. Cleopatra Victoria,MFT 415-309-0222, www.executivepsychotherapy.org.

NEW CONSULTATION GROUP in Menlo Park for Licensed Therapists. Psychodynamic, attachment, relational and biological perspectives including addiction. Focus on countertransference and interpersonal process. Empathic, non-judgmental. Mondays 2:15-3:45, 9/14 through 6/14. $400/month. Call (650) 321-9228 or e-mail: drbarbarafinn@sbcglobal.net.

DREAM WORK PSYCHOTHERAPY GROUP forming this fall in Palo Alto for high-functioning adults interested in exploring unconscious conflicts and themes in a lively small group setting. $50 per session. Tuesdays, 5:15 to 6:45 PM. Call Dr. Gloria Golden, (650) 325-4275.

FULL-TIME OFFICE AVAILABLE NOV. 1ST. Pacific Heights (Clay St. at Fillmore.) Fireplace, built-in bookcase, wainscotting, high ceiling. $765/month plus utilities, etc. (415) 922-8121.

CIP's PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Fall Program Announcement. For full information, CEUs availability or to register, please visit www.cipmarin.org, or call (415) 459-5999 x101. All day seminar: “To Cross or Not to Cross: Boundaries and Dual Relationships in Psychotherapy, a Multi Media Presentation,” with Ofer Zur, PhD, on Saturday, October 17, from 9 AM – 4 PM, Guzman Hall, Dominican University, San Rafael. Seminar Series: The Royal Road of Dreams,” with Barbara McSwain, LCSW & Meredith Sabini, PhD, 10/10; John Beebe, MD, 11/14; Neil Russack, MD, 12/12/09 Saturdays, 10 AM – 2 PM at CIP, Suite 201, Group Room, 1330 Lincoln Ave., San Rafael. Study Group: “The Neuro-Science of Attachment,” with Linda Graham, MFT, Wednesdays, 10 AM – 12 noon, October 7, 14, 21, 28, November 4, 11, 2009 at CIP, Suite 203, 1330 Lincoln Ave., San Rafael. Free Study Group: The Marin Psychoanalytic Forum: The Modern Approach for the Contemporary Practitioner with Robert Waska, MFT, PhD, FIPA, Ongoing, Second Saturday of the Month from 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM, at CIP, 1330 Lincoln Avenue, Suite 201, Group Room, San Rafael. October 10: Working with Neurotic Patients/Case Conference. November 14: Working with Borderline Patients/Case Conference. Clinical Conversations: This program offers clinicians a monthly forum for exploring the more intriguing and perplexing aspects of our work. Third Friday of the Month from 10:00 AM – Noon at CIP, 1330 Lincoln Avenue, Suite 201, San Rafael. October 16, 2009, Whole Person Approaches to Working with Trauma: Posttraumatic Growth, a Multi Media Presentation. Community Conference: “Raising Healthy Teens: Overcoming the Mental Health Challenges of the Transition to Adulthood,\" an all-day conference on mental health issues relevant to teens for families, other consumers, educators, and mental health professionals will be held on Saturday, November 7, 2009 at the Marin Center (10 Avenue of the Flags, San Rafael) from 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM.


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.

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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