Biographers' Countertransference with their Subjects, and our Countertransference with our Patients
Event Price: This is a free event. CE fee is $10 for members and $20 for non-members.
Continued Education (CEU/CME): 1.5 Ethics Credits
Attendance: Hybrid Event - In Person & Virtual event via Zoom Meeting
Program Description:
A focus of James W. Anderson’s book on psychobiography is his exploration of how the authors’ relationship with the people written about impacts the biographical account. For example, Sigmund Freud co-authored a psychobiography of Woodrow Wilson, whom Freud admitted he hated. Freud thought he could be fair to Wilson, but he wasn’t. Erik Erikson, in his writing about Gandhi, started out idealizing him but suffered from writer’s block when he encountered some of the Mahatma’s hypocritical, mean behaviors. Margot Duxler knew and liked Anaïs Nin, but, after the diarist’s death, she learned that Nin had often lied to her and others. Duxler wrote a psychobiography of Nin in large part to come to grips with her feelings about this deception. Anderson will discuss how his studies of various psychobiographies enlivened and deepened his insight and appreciation of countertransference – and helped refine his work with patients in psychotherapy. In this presentation, he will explore how we use our countertransference to better understand our patients. He will underscore the ways that countertransference can be both our greatest ally and our greatest challenge in conducting psychoanalytic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis.
Learning Objectives:
1) Participants will appreciate how a study of psychobiography contributes to an understanding of the countertransference that a therapist has for a patient.
2) Participants will deal more effectively with patients for whom they have complicated feelings.
3) Participants will describe how feelings for a patient are both inevitable and necessary for a substantial engagement with the patient.
James W. Anderson, PhD, who grew up in Shaker Heights, is a former President of the Chicago Psychoanalytic Society and a faculty member of the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute. A Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Northwestern University, Dr. Anderson specializes in psychobiography, the study, using a psychological perspective, of historical, political, literary, and artistic figures. His book, Psychobiography: In Search of the Inner Life, was published in 2024 by Oxford University Press. Another major area of his research is the study of D. W. Winnicott’s life and work.
CE information will be sent to all attendees the week after the event.
Refunds are available only with pre-event cancellation.
This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of the American Psychoanalytic Association and the Cleveland Psychoanalytic Center. The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians. The American Psychoanalytic Association designates this Live Activity for a maximum of 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
The Cleveland Psychoanalytic Center is approved by the Ohio Psychological Association-MCE Program to offer continuing education for psychologists. The Cleveland Psychoanalytic Center, as Approved Provider 18PO-341019020, maintains responsibility for the program. This event provides 1.5 CE to psychologists. The State of Ohio Counselor, Social Worker, and Marriage & Family Therapist Board accepts this approval for licensees. This event provides 1.5 CE to counselors and social workers only.
IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE INFORMATION FOR ALL LEARNERS: The APsA CE Committee has reviewed the materials for accredited continuing education and has determined that this activity is not related to the product line of ineligible companies and, therefore, the activity meets the exception outlined in Standard 1.5: ACCME's identification, mitigation and disclosure of relevant financial relationship. This activity does not have any known commercial support.
