Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy of Cancer Patients

Course Description

Instructor

Norman Straker, M.D.

February 13 – 28, 2019
Wednesdays, 7:00 – 8:20 p.m.

Pay Fee $90

3.75 CME/CE credits offered.

Course Description

This course will provide the therapist with an introduction to psychoanalytic psychotherapy for cancer patients and their families. The first session will address the unique challenges for the therapist of helping the patient face cancer at various stages of the disease. Death anxiety in both the patient and therapist has tended to result in avoiding this painful discussion in psychotherapy at all stages of the disease. Session two focuses on how countertransference avoidance of death can best be managed by interventions that are based on empirical studies and forty years of clinical experience. These new interventions can now permit the therapist to be fully present for the dying patient. Session three will highlight the challenges facing the spouses of dying cancer patients, including preparation for death and managing grief and mourning. A video “The Courage to Survive: Facing the Loss of Your Soul Mate” will illustrate the psychoanalytic treatment of a spouse during the terminal phrase of his wife’s illness and after her death.

Course Objectives

Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:

1) Describe the emotional reactions of the patient and family members to the challenges posed by a cancer diagnosis, including facing death.
2) Describe the emotional reactions of psychotherapists to terminally ill cancer patients and how their countertransferences can best be managed.
3) Describe the psychotherapeutic management of death anxiety, based on an application of two empirically based studies that have been modified to fit within a psychoanalytic psychotherapy.

Schedule of Classes & Course Readings

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.

CLASS 1: February 13, 2019
REQUIRED READINGS

Straker, N. (2015). Chapter 1: The Avoidance of Facing Death. In N. Straker (Ed.), Facing Cancer and The Fear Of Death: A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Death (pp. 3- 12). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

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Straker, N. (1998). Psychodynamic Psychotherapy for Cancer Patients. J Psychother Pract Res.,  7(1): 1–9

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Breitbart, W., Rosenfeld, B., Gibson, C. et al.  (2010). Meaning Centered group psychotherapy for patients with advanced cancer. Psycho-Oncology, 19(1):21-8.

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SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS

Rodin G., Lo, C., Rydall, A. et al. (2018). Managing Cancer and Living Meaningfully (CALM): A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Psychological Intervention for Patients With Advanced Cancer. J Clin Oncol., 36(23):2422-2432.

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Straker, N. (2015). Facing Cancer and The Fear Of Death: A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Death. Rowan and Littlefield.

CLASS 2: February 20, 2019
REQUIRED READINGS

Yuppa, D. with Straker, N.  (2015). Chapter 2: A Fellow’s Perspective on Facing Death. In N. Straker (Ed.), Facing Cancer and The Fear Of Death: A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Death (pp. 13- 19). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

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Vos, M. and de Haes, H. (2007). Denial in cancer patients: An explorative review. Psycho-Oncology, 16: 12–25.

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CLASS 3: February 28, 2019 —NOTE: THIS IS A THURSDAY
REQUIRED READINGS

Freud, S. (1917). Mourning and Melancholia. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XIV (1914-1916): On the History of the Psycho-Analytic Movement, Papers on Metapsychology and Other Works, 237-258.

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Straker, N. (2011). The Courage to Survive: Facing the Loss of Your Soul-Mate. Palliative and Supportive Care, 9 (2): 119-121.

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