Scientific Meeting: Impact of Siblings on Development Across the Lifespan: Case Study of a Sibling Pair over 60

  •  September 9, 2025
     8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

***This meeting is virtual and will be held on ZOOM.***

NYPSI’s 1079th Scientific Meeting:

“Impact of Siblings on Development Across the Lifespan: Case Study of a Sibling Pair over 60”

Tuesday, September 9th 2025

8:00 – 10:00 PM (EST)

Presenter: Wendy Olesker, Ph.D

Discussant: Jessica Wolman, Ph.D.

The development of sibling relationships is often overlooked and undervalued in psychoanalysis. A study of siblings observed and followed over 60 years in Margaret Mahler’s nursery research, offers insights into how these relationships shape not only one’s place among peers but also shape self-development over the lifespan as validator and confirmer of one’s true sense of self. Mitchell (1953, 2022, 2023) called the birth of a sibling the “trauma of annihilation” of the baby one has heretofore been. The trajectory siblings take to master this “unrecognized trauma (because it is so ubiquitous)” and to transform initial sibling rivalry adaptively is a central focus of this paper. Dr. Olesker, the Director of the Mahler Follow-up Study for the last 15 years, presents on this topic to improve clinicians’ knowledge base and ability to recognize sibling transferences as well as to improve their ability to treat patients with problems with aggression.

2 Contact Hours. 2 CME/CE credits will be offered. See details below.

General Admission: $50

Student Admission: $35

Free Admission for current NYPSI members/students and HFI Candidates

REGISTRATION LINK HERE

Please note registration closes at 5 PM on Monday, September 8th.

THIS MEETING IS VIRTUAL; READ INSTRUCTIONS BELOW:

1. BUY YOUR TICKET.
2. LOOK FOR CONFIRMATION EMAIL containing a link to Pre-Register in ZOOM for the event.
3. CLICK ON PRE-REGISTRATION ZOOM LINK and enter your name and email address. If you do not complete this step, you will NOT receive link to meeting.
4. LOOK FOR EMAIL FROM ZOOM containing the JOIN LINK to the meeting. Click the JOIN LINK to “enter” the meeting.
5. Evaluation Survey and CME/CE documentation will be emailed the day after the event.

Please make sure you type your email correctly when you register!  Contact with questions.

OPTIONAL READINGS
  1. Mitchell, J. (2022). Why sibling? Introducing the “Sibling Trauma” and “the Law of the Mother” on the Horizontal Axis, 75:121-139.
  2. Hemway, M.K., Rolan, E.P., Jensen, A.C., & Whiteman, S.D. (2019). Absence makes the heart grow fonder”: A qualitative examination of sibling relationships during emerging adulthood. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 36(8),2487-2506.
  3. Gilligan, M., Suitor, J. J., & Nam, S. (2015). Maternal differential treatment in later life families and within-family variations in adult sibling closeness. Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 70(1), 167-177.
  4. Pine, F. (2004). Mahler’s Concepts of “symbiosis and separation-individuation: revisted, reevaluated, refined. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 52:511-533.
  5. Vivona J. M. (2013). Sibling recognition and the development of identity: intersubjective consequences of sibling differentiation in the sister relationship. The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 67, 66–83. https://doi.org/10.1080/00797308.2014.11785489
BIOGRAPHIES
*
Wendy Olesker, Ph.D. is a Training and Supervising Analyst at the New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute and on the Faculty at the NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. She is Senior Editor of The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child. Dr. Olesker is Director of the Postdoctoral Fellowship Program at NYPSI and, for the past ten years, she has been Director of the Follow-up Study of the Margaret Mahler Foundation focusing on eight of the original Mahler babies who have been interviewed in depth over many months, given psychological tests, repeated Adult Attachment Interviews, other measures at various points in time, and are now followed into their sixth decade. It is from Dr. Olesker’s longitudinal research and her analytic experience that she has developed a focus on the developmental process as it impacts understanding of the intrapsychic world and the handling of aggression and love relations in analytic work with children and adults.
*
Jessica Wolman, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst in private practice. She received her doctoral degree from the Derner Institute for Advanced Psychological Studies at Adelphi University and completed her psychoanalytic training at the New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. She is a member of the faculty at NYPSI, where she also supervises psychology trainees in the externship program.

CONTINUING EDUCATION

Educational Objectives: Upon completion of this activity, participants should be able to:

  1. Distinguish the unique ways each sibling processed the family environment, especially focused on the handling of sibling aggression, sense of self formation, and ego ideal formation.
  2. Articulate the details about the processes of transformation of aggression during different phases of development.

Psychologists

New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY – 0073.

New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute is approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to sponsor continuing education programs for psychologists. New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute maintains responsibility for this program and its content. DISCLOSURE: None of the planners and presenters of this CE program has any relevant financial relationships to disclose.

Social Workers

New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute 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 #SW – 0317.

Physicians
ACCME Accreditation Statement
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 American Psychoanalytic Association and New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute. The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
AMA Credit Designation Statement
The American Psychoanalytic Association designates this live activity for a maximum of [2] AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Disclosure Statement

The APsA CE Committee has reviewed the materials for accredited continuing education and has determined that this activity is not related to the product line of ineligible companies and therefore, the activity meets the exception outlined in Standard 3: ACCME’s identification, mitigation and disclosure of relevant financial relationship. This activity does not have any known commercial support.

Venue:  

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