I am fond of saying that psychoanalysis needs to be more in the world, and the world more in psychoanalysis. At the recent NCSPP Introductory Event on The Geography of Trauma, Dr. Jean-Max Gaudilliere shared a story that exemplifies the spirit of this remark. Dr. Gaudilliere and his wife, Dr. Francoise Devoine, had hailed a taxi in Paris. The Asian driver quickly apologized for taking the long route but said he could not manage to remember any of the side streets. Putting a few intuitions together, Dr. Gaudilliere asked about the Cambodian massacres and got a tearful confirmation of the driver's harrowing experience there. The driver's eyes had already seen too much, Jean-Max said, and he could no longer afford the luxury of memory. No one in Paris had asked the Cambodian man about these cut-out memories. It was a passing moment, the briefest psychoanalysis, yet one in which a couple of analysts in a taxi transformed the inscrutable into a restorative act of real human significance.
The recent hurricanes have drawn our attention to the shattering impact of trauma — and to the vital role a community plays in repairing the social links destroyed by disaster. The massive outpouring of help and concern restores our faith in what is possible. As we on the NCSPP board researched what our response should be, we found that hurricane relief efforts in the Bay Area are well provisioned by the mental health community. Not so well supported are the countless everyday tsunamis of ordinary living occasioned by poverty, displacement, and brutal quotidian violence. We should not falsely reassure ourselves through displacement. There is a New Orleans in Northern California.
In this spirit, we at IMPULSE have assembled a sample of the ways in which analytic practitioners can invest themselves in the Northern California community, following the spirit that poured relief into the devastated Gulf Coast. For example, Berkeley High School is seeking therapists to offer services, pro bono, to underserved students and their parents. If interested, please contact Cynthia Colvin at (510) 654-3330. Also, the San Francisco Housing and Urban Health Clinic is seeking psychotherapists to work pro bono with their chronically traumatized population. To explore opportunities for volunteering, please contact Pam Swedlow, M.D. Finally, The Children's Psychotherapy Project, comprised of experienced child and adolescent therapists, provides pro bono psychotherapy to foster children.
We at IMPULSE welcome your suggestions for further opportunities to get involved in Northern California. Please email us, and we will compile your ideas for publication in a future issue. Finally, we hope you'll support our efforts to strengthen collaboration in the Northern California psychoanalytic community by becoming a member of NCSPPtoday.
Francisco J. Gonzalez, M.D.
President, NCSPP
Daniel Stern once remarked that "a field was born" when Selma Fraiberg coined the phrase "ghosts in the nursery" for the ways in which conflictual aspects of a parent's own past can haunt the present-day infant-parent relationship.
PSYCHOTHERAPY GROUPS: Long-term, psychodynamic. 1) Therapy Groups for Therapists. 2) General Adult Psychotherapy Groups. Led by Art Raisman, Ph.D., Ass't Clinical Prof., Psychiatry, UCSF; Past President, Northern California Group Psychotherapy Society. (415) 453-4271
SPECIAL EVENT: "Messages from the Minoans: Gender and Power in an Ancient Culture." With Dianne Elise, Ph.D. Discussion: John Beebe M.D. and Joseph Bobrow, Ph.D. CE's February 19, 2006 1:00-4:00 pm. Deep Streams Institute.
PROGRAM MANAGER: Half-time. Produce/manage continuing education programs, including residential conferences. Experience in event production, writing, marketing, administration, budgets, computers. Conscientious, reliable, collaborative. Salary negotiable. Email letter and CV to info@deepstreams.org.
CONFERENCE: "Kissing the Joy As it Flies: Desire, Attachment and the Capacity to Love." June 16-18, 2006. CE's. Joseph Bobrow, Jack Engler, Mary Orr, others. Interdisciplinary residential conference. Study, meditation, arts performances. Deep Streams Institute.
PSYCHOANALYTIC GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY: Ongoing, outpatient process groups for severely disturbed adults, higher functioning adults, and adolescents. Led by Paul U. Alexander, Ph.D., Boyer House Group Therapist; Faculty, CPMC and McAuley. (415) 665-7059.
psyQ DISCUSSION GROUP: New email listserv for queer, psychoanalytically oriented clinicians and trainees in the Bay Area. Share intelligence re: classes, events, more. Moderated by Gary Grossman, Ph.D. and Brad Falconer, M.A. Join.
Student Outreach Workshop: Current Ethical Dilemmas in Psychoanalysis
Sat, Oct 8 / 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM / Herrick Hospital Conf. Room CC / Berkeley
SFPI&S / Susan Warshaw, Ph.D. / free
Spirit of the Unconscious
Sun, Oct 9 / 1 - 4 PM / Mercy Center / Burlingame
Deep Streams Institute / Joseph Bobrow, Ph.D. / $15 - $25
Monthly Scientific Meeting: Analytic Wisdom
Mon, Oct 10 / 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM / 2420 Sutter Street / San Francisco
SFPI&S / Jonathan Dunn, Ph.D. and David Lake, M.D. / free
Introductory Panel on Clinical Impasses
Sat, Oct 10 / 9:30 AM - 12:30 PM / 2420 Sutter Street / San Francisco
SFPI&S / $75
Thinking About Thinking
Fri, Oct 14 (begins) / 12:00 PM-1:30 PM / Berkeley
NCSPP / L. Eileen Keller, Ph.D / $60-185
Developmental Observations & Psychotherapy (Daniel Stern, Peter Fonagy)
Sat, Oct 15 / 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM / El Camino Hospital, 2500 Grant Road / Mountain View
SFPI&S / Richard Almond, M.D. and Beth Taylor, M.D. / $100
Student Outreach Seminar: Erotic Transference and Countertransference
Sat, Oct 15 (begins) / 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM / Herrick Hospital Conf. Room CC / Berkeley
SFPI&S / Alice Feller, M.D. / free
Special Program with Robert Oelsner
Sat, Oct 15 / 10:00 AM - 3:00 PM / 2420 Sutter Street / San Francisco
SFPI&S / Roberto Oelsner, M.D. / $80
Taking Care of Business: Creating a Professional Will
Sat, Oct 15 (begins) / 9:30 AM - 12:00 PM / Oakland
Lucie Tetrault, M.F.T. / (510) 595-5595 / $145
Law and Ethics: A Psychodynamic Perspective
Sat, Oct 15 / 9 AM - 4 PM / San Francisco
NCSPP / Bram Fridhandler, Ph.D. / $40-150
Spectrum 3: Cocktail Party & Art Auction for Access Institute
Sun, Oct 16 / 6 - 9 PM / Mezzanine, 444 Jessie Street / San Francisco
Annual Benefit / Silent & Live Art Auctions / Cocktails & Hors D'oeuvres / $100
Consultation Group: The Interplay of Mindfulness, Psychotherapy & Buddhism
Wed, Oct 19 (begins) / 10 AM - 12 PM / 121 Clement Street / San Francisco
Deep Streams Institute / Joseph Bobrow, Ph.D. / $60 per meeting
San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute & Society Informational Open House
Tue, Oct 25 / 7:30 - 9:30 PM / SFPI&S, 2420 Sutter Street / San Francisco
Monstrous Infants and Vampiric Mothers in Bram Stoker's Dracula
Wed, Oct 26 / 6:00 - 7:15 PM / 401 Quarry Road, Room 2209 / Palo Alto
SFPI&S / Barbara Almond, M.D. / free
Sausalito Salon: Reverie and the Social Unconscious
Fri, Oct 28 / 6:30 - 8:45 PM / Fairfax (Marin)
NCSPP / Karen Peoples, Ph.D. / $15-20
Attachment, Intersubjectivity and Object Relations
Sat, Nov 5 / 9:30 AM - 4:00 PM / Sacramento
NCSPP / Stephen Seligman, Ph.D. / $50-60
Essentials of Zen: An Introduction for Psychotherapists
Sun, Nov 6 (begins) / 1 - 4 PM / 121 Clement Street / San Francisco
Deep Streams Institute / Joseph Bobrow, Ph.D. / $45