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MICPP Writing Course-Winter 2017Psychoanalytic Writing - an IntroductionThere is no getting to this point—which is to say finding yourself in this sort of course—without having read a lot.? It is a side-effect of the curious, those fortunate enough to go to college, grad school, and particularly for all of you, whose interest, curiosity, and commitment to clinical work has led them to psychoanalytic study.? Copious reading is the foundation for writing and, good news, you’ve already done it.So where do you fit in and where to start?? For this discussion, and to be a little provocative, let me suggest that psychoanalysis is the body of embellishment, interpretation and understandings of the most compelling meta-narrative attributable to a tenacity and compulsivity of a single man and small group of people born of 19th century Central Europe.With that in mind, remember much of what we study in training are “big guns”—papers whose narrative has resonated, bolstered, or even infected imaginations of this meta-narrative to a level where they are considered foundational.? The omission of these papers is almost impossible because one of the major pillars of admission for you into the psychoanalytic conversation (discourse? or might I venture: ideology?) is familiarity and mastery of the ideas contained in these texts. ?Some of these texts are powerful because of the resonance of the ideas to your thinking and clinical work, others because they are particularly well crafted, some are both.? Freud, whatever you might think of the specific content or tone of the English translations, established a consistently high bar.? (Sure, the theory is interesting, but the literary quality makes it frankly compelling.)? And others, however clever and important, can be clumsy or long-winded (Kohut’s Mr. Z, for example), downright circuitous (a 2003 article from the New Republic is maybe the clearest paper I assign on Winnicott), or almost unreadable (Sullivan, in general).? Most fall somewhere in-between.These are opinions, and say nothing of the importance of what is said by each of these folks.? We don’t need to agree.? My point here is that in the course of training what we read is skewed.? We disproportionately read foundational or transitional work (or the work of our instructors!)? But of course few of these authors were certain (though many likely hopeful!) of the effect or reception of their thoughts.More modestly and typically, psychoanalytic writings are elaborations, illustrations, corrections, clarifications or criticism of the psychoanalytic narrative written modestly and quietly by folks like you.? And so our goal is really about how to get?you?comfortable to enter the written (or formally spoken, say at a conference) psychoanalytic powwow.? Don’t think about the big guns.? Think about what is unique about yourself, what you have found interesting in your clinical work.? Do you stand (in some way) outside?? Do you work with a group of folks others do not?? Have you understood a patient or found a patient describe themselves in a way that was surprising?? Good—write your vantage point down.? No need to imitate—use your voice, it is bound to be more interesting.? We all struggle to write—so I’ll ask you to think a bit about where you struggle and we will remind each other that there is little magic to the hard work of constructing the written personal narratives that underscore all writing.How do we start?To get us going, and to give me an excuse to get a little familiar with you (and you with me) we will start by studying a few modestly known texts and thinking about the writer, her or his style, organization of ideas, clarity and depth of communication, and the fragility of the attempt.? Hopefully this will inspire you:? I am here to tell you that each of you are already prepared and (if you have not already) primed to write your first paper.?Typically I start by reading some critiques/memoirs written by non-analysts.? Seeing that outsider step into the discourse can be reassuring:? certainly if these folks took this risk—with no clinical training, no experience as clinicians—so might you.? And the outsider always seems to see a little more (not as trapped by hegemony).? But I’ve had a second thought that we best begin with insiders (psychoanalysts) and texts where you can see the psychoanalyst writer working out an idea.? For both papers I’ve referenced below in meeting 1, this self awareness is specifically articulated.? We’ll read outsider papers for meeting 2.So, in meeting 1, we’ll read a paper by Ogden and one by Dimen.? In Thomas Ogden’s?Listening Three Frost Poems?the author meditates on poetry, language, listening, and psychoanalytic clinical work.? The content will be interesting, and we can discuss it, but I would like you to pay attention to the text itself—how is it organized?? does he get his ideas across?? how does he work these ideas out in a manner that brings you (the reader) along in the text?? And, last, does this expand your ideas of what constitutes a psychoanalytic paper and in what ways?In Muriel Dimen’s??Perversion is Us?:? Eight Notes?Dimen uses an organizational format to question and critique the social taboo and psychoanalysis’ relationship to perversion.? Note the voice she uses, the ideas she draws upon.? Wonder a bit whether this is the sort of voice you might adopt.? What about the list format?? Would some structure like this help you organize an idea?? Again—does this expand your own world with regard to your future writing?? Does the format help her engage or skirt the awkwardness of the topic?For both Dimen and Ogden, pay attention to how they are departures with respect to the typical case presentation, theoretical affirmations, or theory-building readings you’ve encountered before.? Ask whether they are jargon-laden or difficult to comprehend.? Did you enjoy reading them?? Wonder a bit where the inspiration for such a paper might have come from—and how you see the writer: dogmatic? kindly? curious? open?? And who is their target audience?? Are they critiquing, illustrating, expanding, redefining?? Some of these?? All of these?Hopefully this little introduction will help you enjoy and guide your reading for our first meeting.? I will have the luxury of speaking a bit about the readings for meeting 2 directly to you.? And, entirely randomly, they are both published by two Minnesota presses—so two hometown publications.A Little About this eMail AuthorIn fairness to your introductions to me, some background on myself that I’ve shared with some of you by way of response to your emails, gathered as one narrative.Please call me “J.P.,” no one calls me Jeff or Jeffre.? I am a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst, with a background in Philosophy and Math (I have an MS from NYU’s Courant Institute).? Early on I was a clinical instructor as part of a fellowship at SUNY Health Science Center in Brooklyn and worked in one of the last local milieu-based units in NYC.? But otherwise, for the past twenty years, I have been in private practice seeing individuals and couples for treatment and conducting supervision at an office in Chelsea—a primarily residential area just northwest of Greenwich Village where we live.I have studied and written on sexuality and intimate relationships, sexual behaviors and so-called “sex addiction”, the treatment of same-sex couples in couples therapy, and probably for these reasons I have been the discussant for colleague papers.? I served as the training director for the Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity and teach/ supervise for NIP, PPSC, NYU, present at national and local conferences, was the Chair for the Division 39 New York meeting (2014).? I have supervised for a number of medical and graduate schools and shepherded papers from initial idea to publication with and for students and colleagues. ?I am a transplant to the northeast.? I was born and raised in Nebraska and lived in Minneapolis/St. Paul for 3 years while studying at Macalester College, for over 30 years I have been a New Yorker.? My husband was born and raised (by second generation Sicilian and Polish immigrants) in northern New Jersey and my sister and our niece live in Manhattan near us.? I have become a north-easterner while retaining some semblance of midwest pragmatism.? We have an informally adopted son (long story! now age 17) and an elderly dog (you might spot either walking through the background of a Skype session.)Besides Psychoanalytic Writing I have regularly taught our Clinical Case Conference, Intersubjectivity, Philosophical Ideas in Subjectivity, Winnicott, Self Psychology, and Reading Freud.I write mostly for fun and as exercise, some have been published in books and journals, others have formed the basis for conference presentations or lectures, and there are those I keep for myself. ................
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