The Dissociated Body: From Freud’s Hysteria to Contemporary Technophilia
In this day-long in-person course, Dr. Peter Goldberg will discuss how different historical movements in psychoanalysis have taken up the topic of the body, and will offer a contemporary framework for how to integrate sensory experience and somatics into psychodynamic treatment. Cultural, theoretical, and ideological forces shape how we attune to and work with bodily experience in clinical practice. Dr. Goldberg, whose scholarship focuses on embodiment and dissociation, will explore the increasing prevalence of somatic and attentional disorders in a world of heightened technological advancement, atomization, and social alienation. His work invites clinicians to experience and inhabit our own embodiment, as well as find ways to bring our patients more alive in the treatment room.
Please note: This event will be in-person only, and lunch will be included for attendees
NCSPP is aware that historically psychoanalysis has either excluded or pathologized groups outside of the dominant population in terms of age, race, ethnicity, nationality, language, gender, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, disability, and size. As an organization, we are committed to bringing awareness to matters of anti-oppression, inequity, inequality, diversity, and inclusion as they pertain to our educational offerings, our theoretical orientation, our community, and the broader world we all inhabit.
Presenter's Response:
This course will investigate cultural influences on the body throughout history, as mediated by psychoanalytic theory and practice. The topic matter explicitly lends itself to exploring how different facets of culture manifest in the body and in the clinical interaction. Case examples will reflect diverse populations, and clinicians will be prompted to reflect on the ways in which their own cultural norms and biases may affect treatment with diverse patients.
At the end of this course, participants will be able to:
- Describe at least three psychoanalytic theoretical perspectives on the body.
- Apply three psychoanalytic theoretical perspectives on the body to the analysis of case material.
- Identify and explain two ways in which contemporary social realities and technological culture shape the experience of embodiment.
- List four clinical innovations that recognize the role of dissociative states and psycho-sensory experience.
- Demonstrate two interventions that can be utilized with diverse clinical presentations involving dissociative states and psycho-sensory experience.
- Goldberg, P. (2020) Body-mind dissociation, altered states, and alter worlds. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association 68/5
- Goldberg, P. Framing and shared sensoriality. fort da, Spring 2023
- Lemma. A. (2014). The body of the analyst and the analytic setting: Reflections on the embodied setting and the symbiotic transference. The International Journal of Psychoanalysis Volume 95, Issue 2, pp 225–244.
- Lombardi, R. (2008) The body in the analytic session: Focusing on the body-mind link. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis.
- Webster, J. (2018) Conversion Disorder: Listening to the Body in Psychoanalysis. New York: Columbia University Press
Peter Goldberg, Ph.D., is on the faculties of the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis (SFCP) and the Wright Institute in Berkeley. He is a co-author (with Adam Blum and Michael Levin) of Here I'm Alive: The Spirit of Music in Psychoanalysis (Columbia University Press, 2023), and has written and presented widely on a range of clinical and theoretical topics, including dissociation, sensory experience in the clinical situation, transitional mechanisms in analysis and everyday life, the function of the analytic frame, the evolution of psychoanalytic clinical theory, and the impact of social trauma on individual psychology.
LCSW/MFTs: Course meets the requirements for 5 hours of continuing education credit for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs and/or LEPS, as required by the CA Board of Behavioral Sciences. NCSPP is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (Provider Number 57020), to sponsor continuing education for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCS, and/or LEPs. NCSPP maintains responsibility for this program /course and its content.
Psychologists: Division 39 is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Division 39 maintains responsibility for these programs and their content.
Certificates of Attendance for CE credits will be sent to those participants who attend the entire workshop and return a completed course evaluation.