Trauma and Mind In War and Life: Understanding and Treating Trauma Online with CFS

TRAUMA and MIND In WAR and LIFE: UNDERSTANDING and TREATING TRAUMA: A Psychoanalytic Psychodynamic Philosophical Perspective Saturday, October 17, 2020 10:00am – 5:00pm EST Sunday, October 18, 2020 10:00am – 3:00pm EST  via Zoom 8 CEU/CMEs
To dare to be aware of the facts of the universe in which we are existing calls for courage. –Bion

Join us for an in-depth exploration of the effects of trauma on the psyche from a variety of perspectives and vantage points.  This two-day remote conference will provide ample space to examine how traumatic experiences shape us and how we can work to promote personal and collective growth.  There will be many opportunities for lengthy discussions with experts from the Military, Philosophy and Psychoanalysis.  There are different views about what constitutes a traumatic experience.  How do we conceptualize trauma from a psychoanalytic perspective?  How can we promote post traumatic growth?  How do we understand and work with intergenerational trauma?  Is death necessary for a trauma diagnosis?  How do we perpetuate trauma by failing to recognize internal conflicts about race?  How can combat trauma experienced by vets inform us to help promote healing?  What consequences do the trauma of sexual, physical and verbal abuse create in the individual?  Is existential loneliness traumatic?  And, importantly, how do we work with, and within, the trauma of disasters like Covid-19 and the escalation of hatred in our current climate?  Expand your knowledge and enlighten your clinical work by joining us in this very unique conversation about suffering and the human condition.

SCHEDULE OF SPEAKERS

Marion Oliner PhD, a CFS Training and Supervising Analyst, has been writing about understanding trauma from a psychoanalytic perspective for over 50 years.  She will talk about her ideas and how her work with patients in psychoanalysis has informed the progression of her thinking about the definition and experience of trauma.

Robert Ursano MD, a WBCP Psychoanalyst and Director of the Center for Study of Traumatic Stress, will review the effects of trauma exposure and behavioral and psychological responses from a psychodynamic perspective.  He will discuss combat trauma on war veterans and whether psychodynamic treatment is effective.

Barnaby Barratt, PhD, a Psychoanalyst in Johannesburg, South Africa, will speak about the necessity to return to Freud’s roots of exploration through free association into the unconscious to retrieve the meanings to the individual of experienced trauma.  He will explore the inevitability of all humans experiencing psychic ruptures and how traumas might be survived, psychically, and how individual life paths are a response to the parental unconscious.

Joe Collins, DO, a CFS Training and Supervising Analyst, will discuss the effects of physical, sexual, and verbal abuse on the individual causing emotional and psychological trauma.

Lewis Gordon, PhD, will speak about how living is a form of ongoing trauma through which, in its healthy form, there is growth in living a life worth living.  Racism is the imposition of disempowerment through which agency is turned away from the world on a path inward to the construction of disempowered people being linked to a society premised on one’s exclusion, illegitimacy and erasure.  The result is the trauma of racial melancholia, a subjectivity born from the loss of belonging. 

Arthur Blank, MD, a WBCP Psychoanalyst, and Andy Van Slyke, DO, a CFS Psychoanalyst, will talk about their extensive trauma work with active military and veterans, in war zones and at home.

Dorothy Holmes, PhD, a WBCP Psychoanalyst, will name and discuss hatred as the underlying motive that makes racism traumatic and how white supremacy as weaponized hatred aims to keep African Americans, and other marginalized groups, from realizing their full potential. Illustrating with conceptual formulations and clinical examples, she will identify primitive defenses that keep whites disconnected from their racial aspects, allowing them to say, “I don’t have a racist bone in my body”.

Robert Stolorow, PhD, a LA Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis Training & Supervising Analyst and Philosopher, and Russell Carr, MD, a ICP&P Training & Supervising Analyst and veteran, will discuss their work together studying and writing about similarities and differences in trauma in combat and in human existence.

Mike Camp, MD, a WBCP Psychoanalyst and veteran, will speak about Vietnam and PTSD, and searching for a nuanced treatment perspective bridging in-theatre mental health problems, and those manifested among veterans, taking into account the interaction of predisposition, personal ordeal and quality of social support.

Joshua Morganstein, MD, Assistant Director of the Center for Study of Traumatic Stress, will talk about the psychological and behavioral impact of disasters on individuals, and factors that enhance risk for adverse outcomes following exposure to mass trauma events.

Nancy R. Goodman, PhD, a CFS Training and Supervising Analyst – Reflections on Witnessing Trauma

PRESENTERS BIOS:

Arthur Blank, Jr., MD, Psychoanalyst, private practice, Bethesda MD,  Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, George Washington University School of Medicine.  Formerly, national director of  counseling centers for war veterans(Vet Centers), Department of Veterans Affairs.  Committees on PTSD, DSM IIIR and DSM IV, American Psychiatric Association.  Editor, with S. Sonnenberg and J. Talbott, The Trauma of War, American Psychiatric Press, 1985.  Author, “Bion’s Reverie and Meditation in Psychoanalytic Therapy of Trauma,” in Healing Trauma: the Power of Listening, E.J. Schreiber, Editor, Internaational Psychoanalytic Books, 2018.  Panel Presentation, USUHS Conference, 2020.

Barnaby Barratt, PhD is a radical psychoanalyst, specialist in human sexuality and somatic psychologist, human rights activist and practitioner of meditation in the Dharmic traditions of tantra.  Having lived in India, England, Thailand and the United States, Dr Barratt currently lives and practices in Johannesburg, South Africa.  He is the Director of Studies at the International Doctoral Academy of the Parkmore Institute. Additionally, he leads a group committed to “Rediscovering Psychoanalysis”.

Norman “Mike” Camp, MD, Psychoanalyst, served in the US Army Medical Corps in a variety of leadership positions (clinical, academic, research, and administrative), and geographic locations, and retired from active service in 1988 at the rank of Colonel. He was deployed in Vietnam from October 1970-October 1971 as psychiatrist and Commanding Officer of the 98th Neuropsychiatric Medical Specialty Detachment, earning a bronze star for meritorious service. He is currently Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center. Most notably he is the author of “US Army Psychiatry in the Vietnam War: New Challenges in Extended Counterinsurgency Warfare.” It was published in 2015 by the Office of the Army Surgeon General and is the definitive history of military psychiatric care in the Vietnam theater.

Russell Carr, MD is a psychiatrist in private practice in Gaithersburg, MD.  He retired from the Navy in 2019 after twenty years of service, including three years as the Chief of Psychiatry at Walter Reed National Medical Center.  He is a graduate from psychoanalytic training at the Institute of Contemporary Psychotherapy and Psychoanalytic in Washington, DC and currently teaches there.

Joseph Collins, Jr., DO is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who has a private practice in Bethesda, MD.  He is a Training and Supervising Analyst with The Contemporary Freudian Society, an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Georgetown University School of Medicine and is the Director of Medical Services at St. Luke Institute in Silver Spring, MD, a residential psychiatric treatment facility for Catholic clergy. He has extensive experience in the treatment of men with sexual issues.

Nancy R. Goodman, PhD, is a training and supervising analyst with the Contemporary Freudian Society, Washington DC and the Wuhan Training Program. Many publications reflect her interest in trauma and symbolizing processes. “Finding Unconscious Fantasy in Narrative, Trauma, and Body Pain: A Clinical Guide  (Ellman); The Courage to Fight Violence against Women (Ellman); Battling the Life and Death Forces of Sadomasochism: Clinical Perspectives  (Basseches & Ellman);  and The Power of Witnessing: Reflections, Reverberations, and Traces of the Holocaust  (Meyers).  Nancy is founder and  Director of the  Virtual Psychoanalytic Museum: www.virtualpsychoanalyticmuseum.org She leads a Trauma Group at the IPA Congress and maintains a psychoanalytic practice in Bethesda, Maryland.

Lewis R. Gordon, PhD, is Professor and Head of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Connecticut at Storrs; Honorary President of the Global Center for Advanced Studies; and Honorary Professor in the Unit for the Humanities at Rhodes University, South Africa.  He co-edits the journal Philosophy and Global Affairs and is the author of many books, including Freedom, Justice, and decolonization (Routledge, 2000) and the forthcoming Fear of Black Consciousness (Farrar, Straus and Giroux in the USA and Penguin Book in the UK) and 论哲学、去殖民化与种族 (“On Philosophy, Decolonization, and Race”), trans. Li Beilei (Wuhan, China: Wuhan University Press).  

Dorothy Evans Holmes, PhD, is a Teaching, Training, and Supervising Analyst in the Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas, Professor and PsyD Program Director Emeritus at the George Washington University, and Teaching, Training and Supervising Analyst Emeritus at the Washington Baltimore Center for Psychoanalysis.  Dr. Holmes is widely-recognized for her work on the impact of race and gender on psychoanalytic treatment process. Her two most recent of many refereed journal articles are: Holmes, D. (2020).  Feminism revisited:  a rejoinder to Arlene Kramer Richards’ examination of the impact of feminism on psychoanalysis.  In press in: The Journal of Psychoanalytic Controversy, and Holmes, D. (2019).  Our country ‘tis of we and them: Psychoanalytic perspectives on our fractures American identity. American Imago, 76:359-379. Dr. Holmes has served on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis and The Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association.

Joshua Morganstein, MD, is Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Assistant Chair in the Department of Psychiatry at the Uniformed Services University School of Medicine and Assistant Director of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress.

Marion M. Oliner PhD, is a CFS Training and Supervising Analyst, active in the Society’s governance, and has taught most courses.  She is a member of the International Psychoanalytic Association, the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis and the Metropolitan Institute for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. She was an active member of the group sponsored by the American Psychoanalytic Association dedicated to the study of the impact of the Holocaust on the children of the descendants. Her major publications include Cultivating Freud’s Garden in France (Aronson 1988). In 2012 Karnac published Psychic Reality in Context: Psychoanalysis, Personal History, and Trauma, translated into German by with the support of the Sigmund Freud Institute in 2015, Campagne Premiere published the French version as Histoire Personellle et Trauma, (2018). Subsequently Routledge published Psychoanalytic Studies on Dysphoria (2019) which continues the previous explorations addressing the problem of the negative self-image and its consequences.

Robert D. Stolorow, PhD is a Founding Faculty Member at the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Los Angeles, and at the Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity, New York. Absorbed for more than five decades in the project of rethinking psychoanalysis as a form of phenomenological inquiry, he is the author of World, Affectivity, Trauma: Heidegger and Post-Cartesian Psychoanalysis (Routledge, 2011) and Trauma and Human Existence: Autobiographical, Psychoanalytic, and Philosophical Reflections (Routledge, 2007) and coauthor of nine other books, including most recently,The Power of Phenomenology (Routledge, 2018). He received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Harvard in 1970 and his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of California at Riverside in 2007.

Robert Ursano, MD is Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at the Uniformed Services University and founding Director of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress. He served as Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry for 25 years. Dr. Ursano completed 20 years of service in USAF medical corps. He is a graduate of the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute and is Editor of Psychiatry, the distinguished journal of interpersonal and biological processes. Dr. Ursano is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. He has received numerous awards including the DoD Humanitarian Service Award, APA’s Award in Disaster Psychiatry and the AMSUS Lifetime Achievement Award. He is senior editor of the Textbook of Disaster Psychiatry and was the first Chairman of the APA‘s Committee on Psychiatric Dimensions of Disaster. His work focuses on the interface of psychiatry and public health in times of disaster and terrorism.

J. Andrew Van Slyke, DO, DFAPA, FIPA is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst currently serving in the United States Navy Medical Corps.  In over 22 years of commissioned naval service, Dr. Van Slyke has served in numerous operational and hospital staff clinical and leadership positions.  He served as a Navy Medicine East Special Psychiatric Rapid Intervention Team (SPRINT) member from 2004 to 2010, serving on missions including Hurricane Ivan Relief to NAS Pensacola, FL in September of 2004 and Hurricane Katrina Relief Operations to New Orleans, LA in September of 2005.  As the Fleet Surgical Team Six Psychiatrist he deployed with the Bataan Amphibious Ready Group (BATARG) providing care for nearly 5,000 BATARG sailors and marines in support of Fleet Operations in the Mediterranean and Middle East Regions.  Dr. Van Slyke currently serves as Force Psychiatrist, Submarine Forces Atlantic, Norfolk, VA and staff psychiatrist and residency faculty member at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, VA. 

Co-Chairs and the Moderators:

Harmon Biddle LICSW-C, CFS Training and Supervising Analyst

Matthew C. Johnson PhD, CFS Advanced Candidate

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

At the end of this program, participants will be able to:

1.       Explain the concept of trauma from a psychoanalytic perspective

2.       Describe how psychoanalytic treatment can promote post-traumatic growth

3.       Discuss the pros and cons of psychodynamic treatment for combat veterans

4.       Identify at least five different consequences of sexual, physical & verbal abuse.

5.      Discuss the relationship between existential loneliness and trauma

6.       Discuss the concept of intergenerational trauma and how psychoanalytic treatment addresses it

7.       Explain how combat trauma informs the process of psychoanalytic treatment

8.       Discuss how racial injustice can be addressed in the psychoanalytic treatment of trauma

9.       Explain how the contemporary issue of Covid-19 can be addressed in the psychoanalytic 

10.   Discuss whether or not death of a significant object is necessary for an individual to experience trauma

PROGRAM FEE:

$ 200 General

$ 180 CFS Members

$ 100 Students, Candidates, and Military Active Duty and Veterans

No refunds

REGISTER ONLINE:  https://contemporaryfreudiansociety.org

Upon registration, you will be provided a password protected link to call into the video meeting. For additional questions or concerns, please contact Connie Stroboulis at Connies3@aol.com.

Important Disclosure Information:

None of the planners and presenters of this program have any relevant financial relationships to disclose. 

Who Should Attend:

This program is designed for professionals and graduate students in the mental health field.

Continuing Education Credits:

Physicians: This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the Essential Areas and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of MedChi, The Maryland State Medical Society, and The Contemporary Freudian Society. MedChi is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians. MedChi designates this live educational activity for a maximum of 8 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.  Partial participation in this program is contra-indicated.  The Contemporary Freudian Society is authorized by MedChi to grant CMEs for this program.  Upon completion of this program and online survey, participants will be granted certificates for 8 AMA PRA Category 1 credits.

Psychologists: The Contemporary Freudian Society is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists.  The Contemporary Freudian Society maintains responsibility for this program and its content.  CE credits are granted to participants with documented attendance of the entire program and completed evaluation form.  It is the responsibility of the participants seeking CE credits to comply with these requirements.  Upon completion of this program and evaluation form, participants will be granted 8 CE credits. 

Social Workers: The Social Work Boards of the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia will grant continuing education credits to social workers attending a program offered by an APA authorized sponsor, provided they comply with the requirements stated above for Psychologists.

Professional Counselors:  The Boards of Professional Counselors in the District of Columbia and Virginia will accept continuing education credits for Counselors attending a program offered by an APA-authorized sponsor, provided they comply with the requirements stated above for psychologists.  The Board of Professional Counselors in Maryland will accept CE credits granted by a program that is recognized by the Maryland Board of Examiners for Psychologists and Social Workers. 

Social Workers: The Psychoanalytic Training Institute of the Contemporary Freudian Society SW CPE is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #0087. CE credits are granted to participants with documented attendance of the entire program and completed online evaluation form. No partial credits will be offered. It is the responsibility of the participants seeking CE credits to comply with these requirements. Upon completion of this program and online evaluation form, participants will be granted 8 CE credits.

Psychoanalysts: The Psychoanalytic Training Institute of the Contemporary Freudian Society is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychoanalysts #P-0021. CE credits are granted to participants with documented attendance of the entire program and completed online evaluation form. No partial credits will be offered. It is the responsibility of the participants seeking CE credits to comply with these requirements. Upon completion of this program and online evaluation form, participants will be granted 8 CE credits