“If something happens, it happens ’between’ A and B, not only in A or only in B. In the consulting room, this implies a precise conception of what may be the key factor: to make a mind, another mind is needed. If one mind is struggling to grow, the other is failing in the task of nourishing it.” (Civitarese, 2014, p.6) Throughout his theoretical and clinical writings, Giuseppe Civitarese develops a psychoanalytic aesthetic paradigm based on concepts introduced by Bion. At the centre of the change brought about by Bionian thinking is the function of transformation and symbolic creation. Within this approach, Bion’s waking dream thought is central to Civitarese’s focus on ‘dreaming the session’.
The overall objective of this course is to have introduced the participant to the work of Civitarese and to his unique manner of exploring the complexity of unconscious meaning by the end of the series. Each seminar will begin with a discussion of the assigned readings. During the second hour of each seminar the class will experience the presented clinical material and search for new ways to “dream the session” while developing a deeper appreciation of the transformative power of the psychoanalytic encounter.
Schedule:
The seminars will be held on Thursdays from 7:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
There will be a theoretical segment for 1 hour followed by a 1 hour clinical segment
in which participants will present clinical material.
Dates:
October 26 & November 30, 2017
January 25, February 22, March 29, April 26, May 31, and June 28, 2018
Organizing Committee:
Catherine Young, PhD, FIPA
James Fabian, MD, FRCPC, FIPA
Elie Debbane, MD, FRCPC, FIPA
Location:
Room 135 Eric Martin Pavilion.
Cost:
$320 General Registration
$200 Students, Residents and Candidates
Readings:
All readings will be made available at registration
Faculty:
Catherine Young, PhD, FIPA
CME 1 hour = 1 credit:
“This event is an accredited group learning activity (section 1) as defined by the Maintenance of Certification Program of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and approved by the Canadian Psychiatric Association (CPA). The specific opinions and content of this event are not necessarily those of the CPA, and are the responsibility of the organizer(s) alone.”
« La présente activité est une activité d’apprentissage collectif agréée (section 1), au sens que lui donne le programme du Maintien du certificat du Collège royal des médecins et chirurgiens du Canada; elle a été approuvée par l’Association des psychiatres du Canada. Les opinions et le contenu spécifiques de cette activité ne sont pas nécessairement ceux de l’APC, et sont la responsabilité exclusive de l’organisateur ou des organisateurs. »
Course Outline
Session 1: October 26, 2017
Facilitator: Catherine Young, PhD
Learning Objectives:
At the end of this seminar, participants will:
1. Recognize the emphasis that analytic field theory places on metaphoric discourse which is open, unsaturated, conveys emotions and creates meaning.
2. Begin to appreciate how metaphors appear to analysts as narrative transformations.
Readings:
1. Civitarese, G. and Ferro, A. (2015). The meaning and use of metaphor in analytic field theory. In: The Analytic Field and Its Transformations. London: Karnac Books Ltd, pp.1-28.
Session 2: November 30, 2017
Learning Objectives:
At the end of this seminar, participants will:
1. Become more aware of the distinctive qualities of the internal setting in which an analysis takes place and the importance of the analyst’s creation of a ‘dream space’.
2. Learn to recognize that when an action enters the scene unconsciously during an analytic session it is often an attempt to reinstate or heal the setting.
Readings:
1. Civitarese, G. (2013). The analyst’s internal setting and its discontents. In The Violence of Emotions. New York: Routledge, pp. 158-172.
2. Civitarese, G. (2016). Embodied Field and Somatic Reverie. In: Truth and the Unconscious in Psychoanalysis. New York: Routledge, pp. 40-52.
Session 3: January 25, 2018
Facilitator: Catherine Young, PhD
Learning Objectives:
At the end of this seminar, participants will:
1. Appreciate that it makes no sense to exclusively attribute the images generated during a session to either the analyst or the patient but rather experience them as an opportunity to sense the emotions present in the field.
2. Have thought about how the impact of the emotions that register on the psyche of drives are really thoughts waiting for a thinker but may not necessarily be transformed into emotions felt with the clarity of consciousness.
Readings:
1. Civitarese, G. (2016). Beneath, behind or inside? The un/conscious in clinical work. In: Truth and the Unconscious in Psychoanalysis. New York: Routledge, pp.111-120.
2. Civitarese, G. (2016). The un/conscious as a psychoanalytic function. In: Truth and the Unconscious in Psychoanalysis. New York: Routledge, pp. 84-110.
Session 4: February 22, 2018
Learning Objectives:
At the end of this seminar, participants will:
1. Have considered the foundation of the analytic relationship to exist not as two separate subjectivities but as the simultaneous dialectic of oneness and twoness.
2. Be familiar with Civitarese’s version of Ferro’s concept of the analytic field and some of its unique properties.
Readings:
1. Civitarese, G. (2016). Intermediarity as an epistemological paradigm in Psychoanalysis. In: Truth and the Unconscious in Psychoanalysis. New York: Routledge, pp.174-191.
Session 5: March 29, 2018
Facilitator: Catherine Young, PhD
Learning Objectives:
At the end of this seminar, participants will:
1. Be introduced to how Ferro uses the theories of Bion and the Barrangers to work clinically with someone exhibiting “severe pathology”.
2. Become more familiar with the concept of ‘characters’ appearing in the analytic space as an expression of the combined group formed by the patient, the analyst and the third (the interaction between) and as an articulation of the emotional dynamic in the here and now of the session.
Readings:
1. Civitarese, G. and Ferro, A. (2015). Clara’s panic attacks. In: The Analytic Field and Its Transformations. London: Karnac Books Ltd., pp. 171-190.
Session 6: April 26, 2018
Learning Objectives:
At the end of this seminar, participants will:
1. Be introduced to the idea of the dynamic interplay of circular time (mental time) and linear time as essential in the construction of the mind in analytic field theory.
2. Deepen clinical awareness of the use of reverie as a catalytic element in the technique of analytic field theory.
Readings:
1. Civitarese, G. and Ferro, A. (2015). Spacings. In: The Analytic Field Theory and Its Transformations. London: Karnac Books Ltd., pp.69-85.
Session 7: May 31, 2018
Facilitator: Catherine Young, PhD
Learning Objectives:
At the end of this seminar, participants will:
1. Have considered the requirement that the analyst offer authentic hospitality which requires taking responsibility for one’s own numerous selves, the constitutional otherness of the ego and of everything that is human.
2. Be able to view the problem of hypochondria within the context of the subject as a social entity and the ego as a product of discourse of power.
Readings:
1. Civitarese, G. (2013). The burning body. In: The Violence of Emotions. New York: Routledge, pp. 50-73.
Session 8: June 28, 2018
Learning Objectives:
At the end of this seminar, participants will:
1. Have compared the concepts of transformations in dreaming, reverie and transformations in hallucinosis.
2. Begin to recognize the importance of transformations in hallucinosis in its capacity to lead us to hallucinate reality and to live what can be defined as waking sleep.
Readings:
1. Civitarese, G. (2016). Transformations in hallucinosis and the receptivity of the analyst. In: Truth and The Unconscious in Psychoanalysis. New York: Routledge, pp. 53-83.