Special Programs for the Public
New Center For Psychoanalysis, Extension Division
2014 Sawtelle Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025
310.478.6541 •
info@n-c-p.org • www.n-c-p.org
Film Series
Coordinated by Dr. Brod
Film Series Website
No fee unless for Continuing Education, $20 fee for CME/CEUs.
Spring 2012–
New Center for Psychoanalysis
2014 Sawtelle Blvd, LA 90025
310-478-6541
NCP Friday Nite Film Program Spring 2012
Coordinated by Thomas M. Brod, MD
Friday night programs, scheduled from 7:30 -10:15
February 17, Midnight In Paris
(2011 , 94 minutes)Woody Allen. From a review on Amazon.com: At age 75–with more than 40 films under his belt–Allen has created a film that literally glows. Its dazzling cinematography, inventive plot, and Parisian score, combined with the top-notch acting and set-design, makes for an almost-perfect film, one that’s not only clever and thought-provoking, but also entertaining and accessible–even to mainstream audiences. (Mariela Perez-Simons)
Discussants:Elena Balashova-Shamis, PsyD, Joan Lachkar, PhD
Learning Objectives
1. Place the spectrum of narcissism in the mind of the creative artist as portrayed in the characters of this film.
2. Differentiate unconscious phantasy from conscious fantasy and discuss their defensive and creative use in human relationships and in art.
March 16, A Dangerous Method
(2011, 94 Minutes), David Cronenberg. The official blurb is funny: “Driven Dr. Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) takes the unbalanced yet beautiful Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley) as his patient in A Dangerous Method. Jung’s weapon is the method of his master, the renowned Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen). Both men fall under Sabina’s spell.” Actually, the film is serious and essentially accurate, worth seeing and discussing, on the issue of sexual boundary crossing, and on the issues of the early understanding of mental illness and recovery, the tensions in the Freud/Jung alliance and eventual split, and the experimental nature of early psychoanalytic treatment.The following morning (Saturday March 17) we will have a conference on the topics it raises at NCP.
Discussants:David James Fisher, PhD, Thomas M. Brod, MD
Learning Objectives
1) to understand the role of Spielrein in the alliance and split of Freud and Jung.
2) to comprehend the ways in which the beginnings of psychoanalytic therapy turned on mutuality, mutual analysis, and the deep affective engagement of the analyst with his analysands.
3) to discuss the “dangers” in psychoanalytic treatment illuminated in A Dangerous Method.
March 30, Eastern Promises
(2007, 100 minutes) David Cronenberg. A stunning look at violence, responsibility, and skin. Near Christmastime in London, a baby is born to a teenage junkie–an event that leads a midwife (Naomi Watts) into the world of the Russian mob. Central to this world is an ambitious enforcer (Viggo Mortensen) who’s lately buddied up with the reckless son (Vincent Cassel) of a mob boss (Armin Mueller-Stahl, doing his benign-sinister thing). Eastern Promises has a furtive humor, nicely conveyed in Viggo Mortensen’s highly original performance. Covered in tattoos, his body a scroll depicting his personal history of violence, Mortensen conveys a subtle blend of resolve and lost-ness. He’s a true, haunting mystery man. –Robert Horton (Amazon.com)
Discussants: Jill Lummus, PsyD, Bettina Soestwoehner, PhD
Learning Objectives
1. Delineate the paths that violence traces (or inscribes) within a family system, as well as on the body of subjects outside the family; to reflect on the conflicts underlying such violence.
2. Using the structural twists of the plot, explain how the emergence of generational conflicts and incestual themes may be revealed in psychodynamic therapy.
April 20, The Skin I Live In
(2011, 117 Minutes) Pedro Almodòvar. “A brilliant plastic surgeon, haunted by past tragedies, creates a type of synthetic skin that withstands any kind of damage. His guinea pig: a mysterious and volatile woman who holds the key to his obsession.” Perversity, revenge, and romance as only Almodòvar can serve it.
Discussants:
Thomas M. Brod, MD, Apurva Shah, MD, Jeffrey Trop, MD
Learning Objectives
1. Discuss the interplay of intersubjectivity and self-organization as illustrated in “the Skin I Live In”;
2. Delineate the range of psychodynamics in revenge.
May 18, Descendants
(2011, 115 min) From Alexander Payne, the creator of the Oscar-winning SIDEWAYS, set in Hawaii, THE DESCENDANTS is a sometimes humorous, sometimes tragic journey for Matt King (George Clooney) an indifferent husband and father of two girls, who is forced to re-examine his past and embrace his future when his wife suffers a boating accident off of Waikiki. The event leads to a rapprochement with his young daughters while Matt wrestles with a decision to sell the family’s land handed down from Hawaiian royalty and missionaries.
Discussant:
Richard Tuch, MD
Learning Objectives
1. Delineate the systematic effects on each other of the members of an extended family system.
2. Specifically identify the film’s “turning points” as if they were interventions in a psychodynamic family psychotherapy and specify the resulting effect.
June 8, Women without Men
(2009, 95 minutes).. A masterpiece of storytelling and cinematography, Shirin Neshat’s adaptation of Shahrnush Parsipur’s magic realist novel chronicles the intertwining lives of four Iranian women during the summer of 1953 when an American led, British backed coup d’état brought down the democratically elected Prime Minister, and reinstalled the Shah to power.
Discussants:
Shahrzad Siassi, Ph.D, Guilan Siassi, PhD
Learning Objectives:
1. Examine the use of dream narrative and dream work in the film, and consider the extent to which filmmaker’s use of such symbolic exploration reflect the affective truth of women in an oppressive patriarchy.
2. To explore the issues of female psychology in a suppressive cultural environment.
Special Programs For Professionals
… in addition to those listed above.
Bond of Union m c escher
The Healing Therapist: Recovering from Stuck Places
Presented by Thomas M. Brod, M.D.
Saturday June 4, 2011
9:30 AM – 12:30 PM 3 CE/CME Credits
New Center for Psychoanalysis
$40 pre-registration, $45 at the door
[For licensed mental health professionals only]
Sometimes, unconscious sadistic and self-defeating forces can create a sinkhole in treatment with a nexus of common suffering in therapist and patient, often manifest as therapist inactivity and non-engagement.
Therapists can get “stuck” for a number of reasons, but when sessions lose vitality more often than not, some form of renewal is called for.
The Intensive Dynamic psychotherapy of Habib Davanloo can provide such a renewal with its classical psychoanalytic base melded to affective intensity and attachment psychology.
This three-hour course looks at the psychodynamics of stuck places from a perspective of devitalization in transference and counter-transference. An extended videotape vignette will be used; participants are encouraged to discuss their own cases.
Course Objectives:
• Apply teachings of Frederickson, Racker, Bion, and Davanloo to the untangling of “stuck places” in clinical practice
• Analyze the contemporary applicability of delineating superego pathology in re-engagement of “stuck” therapy
• Utilize specific techniques of emotional engagement to self-destructive patient/client resistances.
Course: Introduction to Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP)
Location: Skirball Museum (Sepulveda Pass)
Date/Time: 5 Saturdays January 8 – May 14, 2011
For more details click for brochure or contact one of the instructors:
Thomas M Brod, MD • 310-207-3337
Susan Warren Warshow, LCSW • 818-703-1145
2010 American Psychiatric Association Neurofeedback Program
Bibliography
American Psychiatric Association, 163rd Annual Meeting
Presentation: EEG Feedback in Psychiatry: Clinical Applications
Location: New Orleans
Date/Time: May 22, 2010
Directors: Thomas M. Brod, M.D., Michael Cohen
Course Description:
EEG biofeedback (Neurofeedback) uses computer-based technology to affect brain plasticity and accelerate positive clinical outcomes. How do you “train the brain” with EEG biofeedback to improve affect, attention and behavior? How do you train neuroregulation and neuromodulation by altering electroencephalographic patterns– and what are the clinical implications? How can neurofeedback (EEG biofeedback) be integrated into the practice of a reasonably tech-savvy psychiatrist?
Neurofeedback demonstrates the impact of information on the brain, creating functional (and, most likely, structural) changes that impact clinical syndromes.
Beyond well-known effects on arousal and attention mechanisms and its role in the treatment of ADHD, growing research publications and clinical experience have led to the application of neurofeedback in a wide range of disorders. With applications as disparate as mood and anxiety disorders, Tourette’s syndrome, epilepsy, post-traumatic brain injuries, attachment disorders, PTSD, substance abuse, and adolescent acting out, neurofeedback mirrors the scope of many general psychiatric practices. Neurofeedback is complementary to both psychopharmacology and dynamic psychotherapy.
This course will focus on a few of those applications and offer resources for further study. Current research will be critically reviewed, and some of the fascinating theoretical issues of brain self-regulation and plasticity will be noted, but essentially this six-hour course will be directed with an eye on practical issues.
Attendees also get to watch (or participate) in live demonstrations of several different available neurofeedback systems. Faculty are practitioners from several centers invited because of their exceptional teaching ability.
Each year the course is extensively revised and updated.