Peter Goldberg, Ph.D. – March 30th, 2019

Psychosomatic Dissociation:

Its Role in Psychical Life and in the Clinical Encounter

Peter Goldberg Ph.D.

Saturday, March 30^th, 2019   9:00 AM to 1:00 PM

Vanguard University of Southern California,

Heath Building Room 109

55 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa, CA

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Dissociation has belatedly become a topic of study and enquiry in psychoanalytic clinical theory, usually as part of the phenomenology of trauma. A comprehensive psychoanalytic model of dissociation should account not just for its pathological effects, but also for its everyday function in psychical life.  In this presentation, the specific mechanism of body-mind dissociation will be defined, and contrasted with our understanding of the mechanisms of repression and splitting. Normal transient dissociative states will be differentiated from fixed pathological dissociative retreats. This will provide an opportunity to consider and survey the spectrum of dissociative states, ranging from well-organized “successful” false self personalities to more disorganized post-traumatic personalities.  Clinical approaches to dissociation and dissociated personalities will be discussed.

 COURSE OBJECTIVES:

1.  Participants will become familiar with the theory of psychosomatic dissociation
2. Participants will survey the range of dissociative phenomena from normal to pathological
3.  Participants will be able to identify the differences between dissociation, repression, and splitting
4. Participants will consider the ways that dissociation challenges the usual clinical methods, and will survey some of the ways to work with these patients.

Presenter:  Peter Goldberg, Ph.D.

Dr. Goldberg is a graduate of the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute. His training as a psychotherapist included several years in community mental health, working with a chronic schizophrenic population and in adolescent day treatment settings, as well as a fellowship in child and adult psychotherapy at Children’s Hospital of San Francisco. He is currently in the private practice of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy and is involved extensively in supervision, group consultation, and lecturing in the area of Kleinian psychoanalytic theory and object relations theory. Presently he is writing on the phenomenon of dissociation and on political and cultural influences on psychopathology.

Dr. Goldberg is a Personal and Supervising Analyst at the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California, Chair of Faculty at the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis, and on  faculty of the Wright Institute in Berkeley.  He has presented widely and written on a range of clinical and theoretical topics, including evolution of clinical theory in psychoanalysis; sensory experience in analysis;  the concept of the analytic frame; the theory and treatment of dissociative states; non-representational states; the psychical function of music;  and the impact of social trauma on individual psychology.

Recent Publications

–  “Process, Resistance, Interpretation” in the Textbook of Psychoanalysis (2011)

–  “Active Perception and the Search for Sensory Symbiosis” in the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association (2012).

–  “The Not so Small Differences of Narcissism” in Fort-Da (2013)

–  “Field Conditions: Discussion of Donnel Stern’s ‘Field Theory in Psychoanalysis’”.  Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 2013: 23, (6):660-666

–  “Reconfiguring the frame as a dynamic structure”. In The Psychoanalytic Frame, ed. Adrienne Harris and Isaac Tymlin, 2017, Rutledge, New York

–  “Questions and thoughts on Winnicott/Bion”.     British Journal of Psychotherapy, vol. 34 no. 2 (May 2018)

CLASS DATE:

Saturday, March 30^th, 2019

9:00 AM to 1:00 PM

LOCATION:

Vanguard University of Southern California,

Heath Building Room 109

55 Fair Drive

Costa Mesa, CA

NUMBER OF CE/CEUs: 4 Continuing Education Credits

COST: Early Bird price prior to March 1^st

General $115/ $105 Early Bird

Member $105/$95 Early Bird

Student $75/$65 Early Bird