Human Development: Child Development I (Birth to Age 5)

Adult Psychoanalytic Training (APT)
2021-22, 1st Trimester — Fridays, 1:45-3:15pm
Kelly Lippman, LMHC
Judy K. Eekhoff, PhD


Introduction

This course generally follows the Infant Observation course and is its didactic complement. As we are unable to proceed with Infant Observation this year, we have shifted this course ahead of the infant  observation experience.

Sigmund Freud’s curiosity about how childhood was linked to suffering and joy in adulthood led to theories of mind and ideas about developmental progression and therapeutic intervention. Early child psychoanalysis, developed by Melanie Klein and Anna Freud, and based in nuanced observation and clinical work, focused attention on the internal dynamics of infants and young children as well as the importance of their relational and social contexts. These foundational theorists set the stage for decades of observational research and psychoanalytic exploration, all of which has led to our contemporary understanding of attachment, developmental progression, affect regulation, object relations, trauma,  identity formation, projective processes and neurobiology.

During this class, we will focus on how the early development of psychic structure reverberates in the adult clinical situation.

Weekly Writing:

Each week, we would like you to write a response paper (one to two pages) on a single concept of your choosing from the assigned readings.  We ask that you integrate your emotional and intellectual responses in your writing. You are welcome to include clinical material, but if you do so please carefully disguise the patient. We are not interested in a review or summary of the articles, rather we hope that each of you will find something in the readings that stimulates your interest and you would like to share with us and with your cohort. Please send these papers to us and to the cohort by midnight Thursday before each class.  Each week, Judy and Kelly will select one paper to be read by its author.

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. Assess the developmental experiences of their patients from a variety of perspectives and recognize how patterns of early experience dynamically affect the adult clinical situation.
  2. Apply their knowledge of internal working models of attachment, affect regulation and object relations in order to listen more sensitively and respond and interpret more accurately to patients.
  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 foundational and contemporary ideas about Oedipal dynamics, shame, aggression, masochism and intergenerational transmission of trauma.

September 10, 2021

[17 pages]

Klein, M. (1958). On the Development of Mental Functioning. Int. J. Psycho-Anal., 39:84-90.

Bion, W.R. (2013) The Psycho-analytic study of thinking. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 82(2):301-310.

This is a reprint of Bion’s paper from 1962. We recommend this one only because the formatting (in the pdf original formatting mode) is easier to read. The text is exactly the same as the 1962.

September 17, 2021

[39 pages]

Ogden, T.H. (1989). On the Concept of an Autistic-Contiguous Position. Int. J. Psycho-Anal., 70:127-140.

Klein, M. (1946). Notes on Some Schizoid Mechanisms. Int. J. Psycho-Anal., 27:99-110.

Segal, H. (1979) The Depressive Position. In H. Segal Introduction to the Work of Melanie Klein (pp. 78-90) London: Karnack Books.

September 24, 2021

[55 pages]

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

Harpaz-Rotem, I. and Bergman, A., (2006). On an Evolving Theory of Attachment: Rapprochement – Theory of a Developing Mind. The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 61:170-189.

Davies, N. and Eagle, G. (2013). Conceptualizing the Paternal Function: Maleness, Masculinity, or Thirdness? Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 49(4):559-585.

October 1, 2021

[38 pages]

Sroufe, L.A. (2017) Ch1, “Attachment Theory: A Humanistic Approach for Research and Practice Across Cultures” in Attachment Across Clinical and Cultural Perspectives: A Relational Psychoanalytic Approach, New York: NY. Routledge. pp1-24.

Slade, A. (2014). Imagining Fear: Attachment, Threat, and Psychic Experience. Psychoanal. Dial., 24(3):253-266.

October 8, 2021

[65 pages]

*The mid-term class evaluation will be conducted during this session. Please use these questions to facilitate your discussion: Midterm Evaluation 2019-02-13

Davids, M. Fakhry. (2011) Ch3, Theoretical considerations. In Internal Racism: a Psychoanalytic Approach to Race and Difference, pp37-64

Davids, M. Fakhry. (2011) Ch6, The Black Problem. in Internal Racism: a Psychoanalytic Approach to Race and Difference, pp107-143

Further Reading

Davids , M. Fakhry (2021) "Internal Racism: A Psychoanalytic Approach to Race and Difference" (New Books in Psychoanalysis podcast, March 16, 2021)

October 15, 2021

[43 pages]

Stoute, B.J. (2021) Black rage: The Psychic Adaptation to the Trauma of Oppression. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, Handout, 17:395-422.

Van Ausdale, D. and Feagin, J. (1996) Using Racial and Ethnic Concepts: The Critical Case of Very Young Children. American Sociological Review, 61(5):779-793.

October 22, 2021

[41 pages]

Bollas, C. (1999). Ch4, Dead Mother, Dead Child. in The Dead Mother (G. Kohon, Ed.), pp87-108

Salomonsson, B. (2013). An Infant’s experience of post-natal depression. Towards a psychoanalytic model. Journal of Child Psychotherapy, 39(2):137-155.

October 29, 2021

[57 pages]

Loewald, H. (1962). Internalization, Separation, Mourning, and the Superego. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 76(4):1113-1133.

Schore, A. (2003). Early Superego Development: The Emergence of Shame and Narcissistic Affect Regulation in the Practicing Period, in Affect Regulation and the Repair of the Self, pp151-186

November 5, 2021

[34 pages]

Britton, R. (2004). Subjectivity, Objectivity, and Triangular Space. Psychoanal Q., 73(1):47-61.

Alvarez, A. (1998). Failures to Link: Attacks or Defects? Some Questions Concerning the Thinkability of Oedipal and Pre-Oedipal Thoughts. J. Child Psychother., 24(2):213-231.

November 12, 2021

[52 pages]

Davies, J.M. (2015) From Oedipus Complex to Oedipal Complexity: Reconfiguring (Pardon the Expression) the Negative Oedipus Complex and the Disowned Erotics of Disowned Sexualities. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 25(3):265-283.

Balsam, R. (2013). Sibling Interaction. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 67:35-52.

Canham, H. (2003). The relevance of the Oedipus myth to fostered and adopted children. Journal of Child Psychotherapy, 29(1):5-19.

November 19, 2021

[47 pages]

Benjamin, J. (1995). Sameness and Difference: Toward an “Overinclusive” Model of Gender Development. Psychoanal. Inq., 15(1):125-142.

Gozlan, O. (2018). From Continuity to Contiguity: A Response to the Fraught Temporality of Gender. Psychoanalytic Review 105(1):1-29.

December 3, 2021

[50 pages]

Olesker, W. (2012). Aggression and Impulse Control in the Analysis of a Young Boy. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 66:81-108.

Novick, J. & Novick, K.K. (1996). Ch3, Masochism and the Delusion of Omnipotence from a Developmental Perspective. In Fearful Symmetry, pp48-69.

December 10, 2021

[14 pages]

Kogan, I. (2021). The Impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on the analyses of Holocaust survivors’ offspring. International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies. 18:169-176.

Kohon, S. (2020) Challenges to making use of countertransference responses during the Cpviod-19 pandemic – some preliminary thoughts. Journal of Child Psychotherapy, 46(3):283-288.