Human Development I: Birth to Latency

Third Year Adult Psychoanalytic Training (APT)
2024-25, Fall Term — Fridays, 3:30-5:00pm
Rosemary Kelly, MD MPH

View Whole Syllabus

Introduction

Welcome to Human Development 1!  This course will focus on theories of infant and early childhood development, with a aim to broaden our perspectives and approaches in our psychoanalytic work with adults.  We will survey psychoanalytic theories of development post Freud’s dynamic and structural theories of the mind, and his theory of psychosexual development.  We will also delve into the somewhat adjacent and multidisciplinary fields of infant research and observational studies including attachment theory,  mentalization, reflective function, and affect regulation.  We will explore the application of these theories in psychoanalytic dyadic work with parents and  young children in real world and high risk settings, which attempt to facilitate secure attachment and more attuned and reciprocal communication. Through this course, we will work to connect these insights from theoretical and clinical work with infants and young children to our analytic work with adults.  Some readings will explore analytic work with adults when healthy development has been impacted by trauma or other developmental disruptions.

Learning Objectives

This class will offer clinical associates a foundation in psychoanalytic theories of mind and a deeper understanding of how early development relates to adult treatment. At the end of this course, associates will be able to:

1. This class will offer clinical associates a foundation in psychoanalytic theories of mind and a deeper understanding of how early development relates to adult treatment. At the end of this course, associates will be able to:
2. This class will offer clinical associates a foundation in psychoanalytic theories of mind and a deeper understanding of how early development relates to adult treatment. At the end of this course, associates will be able to:
3. Recognize the effects of early relational trauma, better empathize with unbearable affect and receive and metabolize projective communication more effectively in order to facilitate improvement in patients’ reflective capacity, self-cohesion and affect regulation.
4. Understand contemporary ideas about Oedipal dynamics, disorganized self-states, temporal disruptions in sense of self, disruptions and psychic sequalae related to trauma and environmental neglect, and the intergenerational transmission of trauma.

September 6, 2024 — Introduction

[13 pages]

Slade’s article, discussing the influential work of Fred Pine, will orient us to the perspective of developmental psychoanalysis.  Pine encourages our flexibility as clinicians, and our integrating multiple theoretical approaches in our analytic work with patients. Both Pine and Slade encourage us to learn about early development, and to utilize this understanding to make inferences about early experiences in our adult patients.  As you read this overview article, perhaps keep in mind some questions that arise in your own clinical cases, or hunches you may have about your patient’s early experiences in infancy and toddlerhood.  We will also look at Seligman’s overview of psychoanalytic orientations to ground our focus in this course (see attached chart).  Many of you will be familiar with Erik Erikson’s psychosocial stages of development, but I include a reference here.  Also, if you haven’t read Anna Freuds article on Developmental Lines, it’s important historically as well as useful conceptually.

• • Fred Pine :  Developmental and Radically Open-Minded Psychoanalysis

Slade, A. (2024) Fred Pine: The Argument for a Developmental and Radically Open-Minded Psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child 77:160-172

• Erikson, Erik:  Psychosocial stages of Development (1950). Childhood & Society

Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development

• Seligman, Stephen: Relationships in Development: Infancy, Intersubjectivity, and Attachment, (2018) Routlege

Seligman, S. (2018) “The Psychoanalytic Orientations: A Timeline” in Relationships in Development: Infancy, Intersubjectivity, and Attachment

Optional Reading

Freud, A. (1981) The Concept of Developmental Lines—Their Diagnostic Significance. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child 36:129-136.