2021 Stacia I. Super Memorial Ethics Conference
"Ethical Practice Through Radical Openness to the Patient’s
Experience of the Therapist"
(3 CME/CE Credits)
Co-Sponsored by the Program Management Committee and the
Diversities Committee of the WBCP
PRESENTED BY
Anton Hart, PhD
Sunday, December 5th, 2021,
1:00 PM to 4:00 PM
Zoom
Closed Captions Available
Program Description:
To allow for the psychoanalytic psychotherapist or psychoanalyst to listen closely and potentially be moved by the patient, the therapist must be open, particularly to what is most foreign in the patient’s discourse, especially in relation to the patient’s negative experience. In recent writing and presentations, Anton Hart has presented the concept of “radical openness,” a dispositional stance that involves the therapist’s “taking to heart” the things that the patient experiences and formulates in relation to the therapist, both familiar and strange, as if there is likely to be truth within them, even if that truth is complicated by the particular sensitivities that the patient has brought to the psychotherapeutic situation (often referred to as “transference”). The radically open therapist aspires to take things that do not personally seem to apply and to live with them as informative present relational experiences, potential truths that are beyond the therapist’s tolerable or conscious awareness.
Often, as psychoanalytically-oriented psychotherapists, we rely on the concepts of projection and transference to emotionally protect ourselves and sustain us, as we attempt to survive and make therapeutic use of the experience of feeling misrecognized. An ethical stance based on receptivity and inquiry may allow us to become more adept, agile, and capable of bearing what we do not know– about our patients and about ourselves–as such unknowness emerges in the unfolding of therapeutic dialogue.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Anton Hart, PhD, FABP, FIPA, is a Training and Supervising Analyst and Faculty of the William Alanson White Institute. He has presented and consulted nationally and internationally on issues of psychoanalytic and psychotherapeutic ethics. He teaches and supervises at several psychoanalytic
institutes including the William Alanson White Institute, the New York Psychoanalytic Institute, the NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychoanalysis, the Institute for Relational Psychoanalysis of Philadelphia, the NIP National Training Program, the Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy (New York). He is a member of the Editorial Boards of Psychoanalytic Psychology and Contemporary Psychoanalysis. He has published papers and book chapters on a variety of subjects including psychoanalytic safety and mutuality, issues of racial, sexual, and other diversities, and psychoanalytic pedagogy. He currently serves as Co-Chair of the Holmes Commission on Racial Equality in the American Psychoanalytic Association. He is in full-time private practice of psychoanalysis, individual, family and couple therapy, psychotherapy supervision and consultation, and organizational consultation, in New York.
ABOUT THE DISCUSSANT
Ernest Wallwork, MDiv, PhD, is an analyst and faculty member of the Washington Baltimore Center for Psychoanalysis (WBCP). He is also Professor Emeritus at Syracuse University where he taught philosophical ethics, bioethics and the psychology and sociology of religion and morals while maintaining a private practice in Syracuse, NY and Washington, DC. In addition to many articles, he is the author of “Psychoanalysis and Ethics” (Yale University Press), “Durkheim: Morality and Milieu” (Harvard University Press) and co-author of “Critical Issues in Modern Religion” (Prentice-Hall) and “Thinking about Publishing: On Seeking Patient Consent to Publish Case Material.” At the WBCP, Dr. Wallwork has served several terms as chair of the Ethics Committee, the Research Committee, and the Colleague Assistance Committee. At the American Psychoanalytic Association, he is currently on the Ethics Committee and the chair and founder of the “Ethics Behind the Couch” discussion group. Dr. Wallwork has received awards from the Yale University, the University of Chicago, American University, the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Woodrow Wilson Foundation.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants in this workshop will be able to:
1) Describe the concept of “radical openness” and its purpose in the clinical process.
2) Recognize the ways in which the concept of transference may represent a form of resistance to listening as fully and openly as possible to what the patient conveys.
3) Apply radical openness to the challenges of addressing issues of strangeness and unfamiliarity in the psychotherapeutic process.
4) Identify the limitations of externally-, rather than relationally-, based ethical psychotherapeutic practice.
5) Recognize and discuss pitfalls and breakdowns that can occur when the patient’s and the therapist’s experience do not seem to correspond with each other, and find ways to use these in the service of the restoration of open dialogue
6) Distinguish between radical openness and self-disclosure.
Pre-registration is required via the WBCP website at:
https://www.wbcp.org/cgi/page.cgi/_evtcal.html?evt=656
If you do not have an account on the WBCP website, you will need to create a “guest account” to register and view/print your CME/CE credit certificate after the seminar. To create a guest account, go to WBCP.org, hover over “Membership,” and choose “Guest Registration” from the drop-down list.
For registration assistance, contact the WBCP staff at 301-470-3635/ 410-792-8060 / 202-237-1854 or admin@wbcp.org.
Registration:
$70 WBCP Full Members (3 CME/CE credits)
$100 Other WBCP Membership Categories (3 CME/CE credits)
$100 Non-WBCP Members (3 CME/CE credits)
No-Fee: WBCP Students (3CME/CE credits)
$35 Non-WBCP Students (3 CME/CE credits)
$60 Fellows CE/CME (3 CME/CE credits)
No-Fee Fellows No CE/CME
Registration deadline: December 1, 2021
ALL FEES ARE NON-REFUNDABLE
REFERENCES
Hart, A.H. (2006). Danger and Safety: The Analyst as Analytic Subject. International Forum of Psychoanalysis, 15:220-225.
Matheny, B., Teng, B., & Hart, A. (2021). Radical Openness: An interview with Anton Hart (Part I). Room, 2:21, 14-17.
Matheny, B., Hart, A., & Teng, B. (2021). Radical Openness: An interview with Anton Hart (Part II). Room, 6:21, 38-43.
CME/CE Information:
Continuing Medical Education – This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of the American Psychoanalytic Association and The Washington Baltimore Center for Psychoanalysis, Inc. The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
The American Psychoanalytic Association designates this Live Activity for a maximum of 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s) TM. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE INFORMATION FOR ALL LEARNERS: None of the planners and presenters for this educational activity have relevant financial relationship(s)* to disclose with ineligible companies whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.
* Financial relationships are relevant if the educational content an individual can control is related to the business lines or products of the ineligible company. Updated July 2021
Continuing Education – Social Workers – The programs of The Washington Baltimore Center for Psychoanalysis, Inc. meet the criteria for continuing education as defined by the District of Columbia and Virginia Boards of Social Work, and the American Board of Examiners in Clinical Social Work. The Washington Baltimore Center for Psychoanalysis, Inc. designates this program as a continuing education activity for social work for 1 credit hour per hour for this activity.
The Washington Baltimore Center for Psychoanalysis, Inc. is authorized by the Board of Social Work Examiners in Maryland to sponsor social work continuing education programs and maintains full responsibility for this program. This training qualifies for Category 1 continuing education units.
Continuing Education – Psychologists – The Washington Baltimore Center for Psychoanalysis, Inc. is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The Washington Baltimore Center for Psychoanalysis, Inc. maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
Licensed Professional Counselors – The Washington Baltimore Center for Psychoanalysis, Inc. continuing education credits meet the criteria and may be submitted for re-licensure of LPCs in Maryland, DC, and Virginia.