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Course Overview
We all struggle to manage two of life's basic facts — we are beings in a body, and we are the subjects of the other's gaze. The body is both internal and external reality, imbued with unconscious fantasy, and expressive of our deepest desires, fears, needs, and wishes. Embodiment bears, holds, and reveals the complex dynamics of subjectivity — desire, beauty, ugliness, intrusion, exclusion, unity, permeability, birth, and mortality, to name a few.

The NCSPP 2012 Annual Event is honored to host psychoanalyst Dr. Alessandra Lemma from the UK's Tavistock Centre. She publishes and speaks widely on topics such as perversion, anorexia, humor in psychoanalysis, and psychodynamic psychotherapy. Dr. Lemma's 2010 book, Under the Skin: A Psychoanalytic Study of Body Modification, explores, from a psychoanalytic perspective, the motivations behind why people pierce, tattoo, cosmetically enhance, or otherwise modify their body.

For this Annual Event, Dr. Lemma will lead us through an exploration of body modification in its diverse forms across history and cultures, attending to the differences between "figurations" versus "disfigurations", from self-affirming self-expression to self-destructive ritual. Dr. Lemma draws on her work in the consulting room, as well as films, fiction, art, and clinical research, to argue that the motivation for extensively modifying the surface of the body, and being excessively preoccupied with its appearance, comes from the person's internal world — under their skin. Topics of the day will include body image disturbance, appearance anxiety, body dysmorphic disorder, as well as the psychological function of cosmetic surgery, tattooing, piercing, and scarification. Dr. Lemma will discuss the challenges posed by our embodied nature through an exploration of the unconscious phantasies that underlie the need for body modification. All clinicians working with those who are preoccupied with their appearance and modify their bodies — including those psychotherapists, counselors, psychiatrists, and psychologists who do the same — will benefit from an exploration of this topic. This program will feature film and image, including clips from the Pedro Almodovar film, the Skin I Live In.

Course Objectives

• Participants will define the symptomology of body dysmorphia, eating disorders, and compulsive body manipulations, and discuss the distinctions to be made between evidence of disorder versus self expression.
• Participants will analyze the relationship between psyche and culture as it relates to self-expression, and critique ones assumptions about the meanings of the use of bodily manipulation as a mode of expression.
• Participants will analyze clinical data ie body manipulation using the psychodynamic theories of Bion, Lacan, Meltzer and Winnicott to explain these behaviors and their underlying meaning.
• Participants will apply theoretical understanding of body manipulations in order to design clinical interventions for treatment.

About Dr. Lemma
Alessandra Lemma, Ph.D., is a Visiting Professor in the Psychoanalysis Unit at University College London, and Visiting Professor of Psychological Therapies at Essex University. She is the Director of the Psychological Therapies Development Unit at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust where she has worked since 2002 and until recently she was the Trust-wide Head of Psychology. Since 2008 she has been the Collaboration Lead for joint projects between the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust and the Anna Freud Centre. She is the Clinical Director of the Psychological Interventions Research centre at UCL.

Originally trained with the British Association of Psychotherapists (BAP) as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist, where she is now a Senior Member, she then went on to train as a psychoanalyst and is now a Fellow of the British Psychoanalytic Society.

She is the General Editor of the New Library of Psychoanalysis Book Series. Since 1999 she has also been the Editor-in Chief of the Journal Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy: Applications, Theory and Research. She was recently appointed as the incoming Regional Editor (London) for the International Journal of Psychoanalysis.

She has a strong interest in psychological therapies. Along with Peter Fonagy and Mary Target, she has been leading on the development of a new protocol for a brief psychodynamic intervention for mood disorders ? Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy (DIT) - which has now been adopted as the psychodynamic model being delivered within primary care services nationally in the UK.

Her clinical and theoretical interests centre around body image disturbances (particularly body dysmorphia and body modification practices), transsexualism, trauma, and adolescent development.

About Dr. Brady
Mary Brady, Ph.D., is a child, adolescent, and adult psychoanalyst in private practice in San Francisco. She is on the faculty of the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis (SFCP) where she teaches in both the child and adult curricula. Dr. Brady's most recent paper was published in The Journal of Child Psychotherapy (2011, 37 (1)) entitled Invisibility and insubstantiality in an anorexic adolescent: phenomenology and dynamics. In 2010 she won the APS's Ralph Roughton Award for her paper: Sometimes we are prejudiced against ourselves': Internalized homophobia and coming out in an adolescent boy, which has been published in Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 2011, 47 (4). She co-leads, with Robert Tyminski, D.M.H. a consultation group on "The Treatment of Adolescents and Young Adults" and teaches on a variety of topics including dreams, eating disorders and bodily symptoms in adolescence.

About Dr. Tyminski
Robert Tyminski, DMH, is an adult and child analyst member of the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco. He worked as the director of the Oakes Children's Center for 14 years, where he supervised a day treatment program and school for children and adolescents with emotional and autism spectrum disorders. Dr. Tyminski is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California at San Francisco. His most recent publications are in the International Journal of Jungian Studies (2011), "Medea, Jason, and their illusions of the Golden Fleece: a Jungian contribution to transference dreaming," and Jung Journal: Culture & Psyche (2009), "Fleeced: A Perspective from Antiquity on Contemporary Addictions."

Registration Deadline & Information
Tuition listed above is for early registration ($40 discount, $15 discount for NCSPP Student Members). Early registration ends 2/24/12, after this date the full tuition will be applied to all registrations.

Cancellation & Refund Policies
Enrollees who cancel at least SEVEN DAY prior to the event date will receive a refund minus a $35 administrative charge. No refunds will be allowed after this time.

THERE WILL BE A $25 BANK CHARGE AND AN ADDITIONAL $15 ADMINISTRATIVE CHARGE ON ALL RETURNED CHECKS.

CE Credit
This event meets the requirements for 6 CE credits for LCSWs, MFTs, and Psychologists. Participants must attend 100% of the program. Upon completion of a conference evaluation form, a CE Certificate will be issued. This serves as documentation of attendance for all participants.

LCSWs/MFTs: This event meets the requirements for CE credits for LCSWs and MFTs through the BBS (Provider #PCE 508).

Psychologists: Division 39 is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Division 39 maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

Target Audience & Instructional Level
This course is open to all NCSPPS members and interested mental health professionals who may not be members. It is not limited to individuals practicing in a predominately psychoanalytic mode. This program is intended for those with an intermediate level of knowledge and experience.

Disabilities
Division 39 and NCSPP are committed to accessibility and non-discrimination in its continuing education activities. If participants have special needs, we will attempt to accommodate them. Please contact Michele McGuinness for any special needs.

NCSPP and Division 39 are committed to conducting all activities in strict conformity with the American Psychological Association's Ethical Principles for Psychologists. If you believe that a violation of ethics has occurred during this presentation, or if you have concerns about such issues as handicapped accessibility, distress with regard to program content or other complaints, please contact Michele McGuinness.

The Northern California Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology is the local chapter of Division 39, American Psychological Association. NCSPP is committed to the study of psychoanalytic psychology and the encouragement of its interests in the professional and general communities. It is a multi-disciplinary, nonprofit educational membership organization open to all mental health professionals.

There is no commercial support for this program nor are there any relationships between the CE Sponsor, presenting organization, presenter, program content, research, grants, or other funding that could reasonably be construed as conflicts of interest.

Program Committee
Jennifer Fitch, Psy.D., Chair
Sarah Bothe, Psy.D.
Kristen Carey, Psy.D.
Melissa Kohner, M.A.
Anna Lazo-Zuckerman
Annice Ormiston, M.A.

For program related questions contact Jennifer Fitch, Psy.D. at 415|543-5277.

For questions related to enrollment, locations, CE credit, special needs, course availability and other administrative issues contact Michele McGuinness by email or 415|457-9949.