201: Character and Neurosis
Instructor
September 13 – November 15, 2023
Wednesdays, 8:35 – 10:00 pm
Co-requisites
Candidates must have at least one case in supervised psychoanalysis to be eligible to take second year courses.
Course Description
This course will introduce the Psychopathology Track with an overview of psychoanalytic diagnosis. We will review the newly issued Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual, contrasting the psychoanalytic nosology of the PDM with the psychiatric nosology of the DSM-5. The specific focus on the neurosis will include a review of the phenomenology and psychodynamics of the major neurotic character styles and the classical neurotic symptoms. The seminal literature on the hysterical, obsessional, and masochistic character neurosis will be reviewed in light of current psychoanalytic conceptions of these disorders.
Course Objectives
Upon completion of this course, participants should be able to:
- delineate the contrast between the psychoanalytic nosology of the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual with the psychiatric nosology of the DSM-5 and the implications that this contrast has for the clinical technique utilized by clinicians guided by one versus the other.
- detail the phenomenology and psychodynamics of the major neurotic character styles and the classical neurotic symptoms and explicate how this understanding influences the technical approach to the patient adopted by the clinician.
Evaluation Method
Each student’s participation in class discussion and his or her demonstration of understanding of the course objectives and reading material is assessed in a written evaluation by the instructor(s).
These articles are protected under relevant copyright regulations. They are available in the New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute Electronic Reserve for your convenience, and for your personal use.
READINGS ARE CONFIRMED.
I. Axis II of the DSM Viewed from an Analytic Perspective
CLASS 1: September 13, 2023
REQUIRED READINGS
Doctors, S. R. (2017). Brandchaft’s Pathological Accommodation—What It Is and What It Isn’t. Psychoanalysis, Self, and Context, 12:45-59.
Kernberg, O. (1976). A psychoanalytic classification of character pathology in Object Relations Theory and Clinical Psychoanalysis, Aronson: New York, pp. 139-60.
II. ‘Levels’ of Personality Organization
CLASS 2: September 20, 2023
REQUIRED READINGS
McWilliams, N. (1994). Levels of personality organization. Psychoanalytic Diagnosis, Guilford Press, Ch. 3 & 4.
III. Obsessional Cognition and Neurobiology
CLASS 3: September 27, 2023
REQUIRED READINGS
Gordon, R. M. & Bornstein, R. F. (2018). Construct Validity of the Psychodiagnostic Chart: A Transdiagnostic Measure of Personality Organization, Personality Syndromes, Mental Functioning, and Symptomatology. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 35:280-288.
Shapiro, D. (1965) Obsessive style in Neurotic Styles, Basic Books: New York, pp. 23-53.
IV. The Classical Analytic Understanding
CLASS 4: October 4, 2023
REQUIRED READINGS
Freud, S. (1908) Character and anal eroticism, S.E. Volume 9, pp. 167-176.
Freud, A. (1966) Obsessional Neurosis: A Summary of Psycho-Analytic Views as Presented at The Congress, IUP, pp. 116-122.
V. The Contemporary Analytic Integration
CLASS 5: October 11, 2023
REQUIRED READINGS
Kernberg, O.F. (2019). Therapeutic Implications of Transference Structures in Various Personality Pathologies. J. Amer. Psychoanal. Assn., 67(6):951-986.
VI. Hysterical Cognition
CLASS 6: October 18, 2023
REQUIRED READINGS
Shapiro, D. (1965) Hysterical style. Neurotic Styles. Basic Books: New York, pp. 108-133.
VII. Freud on Hysteria and the Subsequent Reevaluation
CLASS 7: October 25, 2023
REQUIRED READINGS
Freud, S. (1908) Hysterical fantasies and their relation to bisexuality, S.E. Volume 9, pp. 159-166.
Freud, S. (1926) Inhibitions, symptoms, and anxiety, S.E. Volume 20, pp. 112-126. (REVIEW)
VIII. The Contemporary Analytic Integration
CLASS 8: November 1, 2023
REQUIRED READINGS
McWilliams, N. (1994) Hysterical (histrionic) personalities, Psychoanalytic Diagnosis, Guilford Press, Chapter 14, pp. 301-322.
IX. The Contemporary Analytic Integration continued
CLASS 9: November 8, 2023
REQUIRED READINGS
Blum, H.P. (2011). Masochism: Passionate Pain and Erotized Triumph. Psychoanal. Rev., 98(2):155-169.
X. Seminal Contributions from Modern Kleinian, Self-Psychology and Object Relations Theory
CLASS 10: November 15, 2023
REQUIRED READINGS
Joseph, Betty. (1982). Addiction to Near Death, IJP, (63):449-56.
Cooper, A. (1988). Narcissistic-Masochistic Character in Masochism: Current Psychoanalytic Perspectives, Analytic Press: Hillsdale, NJ, pp. 117-138.
Kernberg, O. (1988). Clinical Dimensions of Masochisms in Masochism: Current Psychoanalytic Perspectives, Analytic Press: Hillsdale, NJ, pp. 61-80.