Transformations in Oneness in Psychoanalytic Work: A Day with Ofra Eshel

February 5, 2022, 9:00 AM - 2:00 PM

Pacific Time

This meeting will take place online via Zoom. Once you register, you will receive an email with the link and more information.

*** Registration will close at 5:00 PM on the day before the event. No registrations are possible after this time, no exceptions.

All times listed are in Pacific Time (PST) unless otherwise noted

New Center for Psychoanalysis

presents

A Day with Ofra Eshel

Recipient of the 2022 Leonard J. Comess Israel Teaching Award

Part I: Being-in-Oneness with the Patient’s Experience: The Analyst’s Struggle

The first presentation offers further reflections and new ideas on the fundamental dimension of analytic work created by the analyst/therapist’s “presencing” (being-there) within the grip of the patient’s psychic reality and the ensuing patient-analyst entity of oneness, and its clinical challenges. Eshel draws on the radical writings of Winnicott and late Bion, especially for working in the throes of massively traumatic, unthinkable and unrepresented unconscious states. She illustrates how this emerging dimension, with its profound ontological-experiential implications, can break through stale treatment situations and forge new possibilities for revolutionizing analytic work, thus extending the reach of psychoanalytic treatment to more disturbed patients, more deeply disturbed aspects of patients’ personalities, and difficult treatment situations. Her particular focus in this presentation is on the analyst’s struggle for being-in-oneness with the patient’s unbearable psychic reality, or the analyst’s struggle for Eros in Racker’s (1968) sense, or for “passion” in Bion (1963) when “two minds are linked.”

Part II: Bion’s Long Road Towards Intuiting the Patient’s Suffering: "Theoretical" vs. "Clinical" Bion

The second presentation explores the complex relationship and the significant gap that Eshel discerns between Bion's theoretical and clinical work, as documented by Bion's own writings from the critical years of his move to LA (1967-1968), and during his later years, particularly in the last two years of his life a decade later. It focuses on two of Bion’s own analytic case descriptions from 1967 in Los Angeles and 1968 in Buenos Aires, and on the account of the Brazilian analyst Junqueira de Mattos of his analysis with Bion over the final two years of Bion’s life -- while comparing them to a close reading of Bion’s radical theoretical-clinical writings during those years. These detailed accounts allow a textual investigation of Bion the theoretician versus Bion the practicing analyst, particularly highlighting the significant and disturbing gap between them. Eshel attempts to offer a possible explanation and understanding of this gap, and especially of Bion’s long road towards intuiting the patient’s suffering.

Learning Objectives

As a result of attending this session, participants should be able to::

Apply psychoanalytic principles of “presencing” and analytic oneness with transference-appropriate sensitivity when working within massively traumatic, unthinkable and unrepresented unconscious states
Demonstrate increased capacity to bear counter-transference challenges with the patient’s unbearable psychic reality
Explain the significance of the gap between Bion's theoretical and clinical work, as documented by Bion's own writings during the LA period
Apply an understanding of Bion’s radical change to their own clinical work

Program Coordinators: Dahlia Nissan Russ, PsyD, LCSW, and Thomas M. Brod, MD

Presenter and Discussants

Ofra Eshel, PsyD, is a training and supervising analyst and faculty member of the Israel Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, a member of the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA), an honorary member of NCP, Los Angeles, and vice-president of the International Winnicott Association (IWA). She is founder and head of the post-graduate track “Independent Psychoanalysis: Radical Breakthroughs” at the advanced studies of the Program of Psychotherapy, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University. Her papers have been published in psychoanalytic journals and book chapters, translated into five languages, and presented at national and international conferences. She received the Leonard J. Comess Fund grant at NCP (Los Angeles, 2011), the David Hammond grant at MIP (Boston, 2016), was a visiting scholar at PINC (San Francisco, 2013), a visiting lecturer and supervisor at the advanced international training program in Winnicott’s psychoanalysis (Beijing, China, 2018), the lecturer at PCC's 8th Annual Wilfred Bion Conference (Los Angeles, 2018), and the 2021 Robert Stoller Lecture speaker (NCP, Los Angeles, 2021). She was awarded the 2013 Frances Tustin International Memorial Prize and the 2017 Symonds Prize, and in 2012 was featured in Globes (Israel’s financial newspaper and magazine) as sixteenth of the fifty most influential women in Israel. She is the co-editor of Was It or Was It Not? When Shadows of Sexual Abuse Emerge in Psychoanalytic Treatment (Carmel, 2017), and author of The Emergence of Analytic Oneness: Into the Heart of Psychoanalysis (Routledge, 2019). She is in private practice in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Photo of Ilan Bernat Ilan Bernat, PhD, is a training and supervising analyst and faculty member at the Israel Psychoanalytic Society (IPS, IPA). He is currently the Chair of Training of the Eitingon Institute, Israel Psychoanalytic Society. Dr. Bernat teaches seminars on Bion’s work at the post-graduate track “Independent Psychoanalysis: Radical Breakthroughs,” the advanced studies of the Program of Psychotherapy, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, at the Israel Winnicott Center, and the Center for Psychotherapy Studies of the IPS. He is in private practice for adults and adolescents in Kiryat Ono, Israel.

João Carlos Braga, MD, is a graduate psychoanalyst of the Brazilian Psychoanalytic Society of São Paulo. Dr. Braga is presently a full member, training and supervising analyst, and faculty member at Brazilian Psychoanalytic Society of São Paulo. A founder, training and supervising analyst at Curitiba´s Psychoanalytic Group, Brazil, Dr. Braga has been in psychoanalytic practice in Curitiba, Brazil since 1985. He has published nearly 30 psychoanalytical papers and book chapters.

Target audience: Mental health professionals, intermediate level and above

4.5 CE/CME Credits

Early registration (by January 10) $110 | $135 after January 10 | Students and Clinical Associates $60 | International Registration $25 USD

Please complete all registration pages until you come to the final "Receipt" page. This will complete your registration and ensure the confirmation email with the meeting details is sent to you.

You will receive the Zoom meeting link when you RSVP below. As a courtesy, the meeting link will also be sent the day before the event around 5:30 pm, PT.

"How do I get my CE/CME Credit?"

Pre-Register below
- If you are registering for the first time you will receive a welcome email. You must follow the directions in this email to complete your registration in order to access your certificates.
Sign in and sign out during the event (by typing your full name into the chat). This is how we record your attendance at the event.
Wait 3 business days
Download your Certificate on the NCP website

CONTINUING EDUCATION CREDIT

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-

PHYSICIANS: 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 The New Center for Psychoanalysis. 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 2 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

PSYCHOLOGISTS: The New Center for Psychoanalysis is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The New Center for Psychoanalysis maintains responsibility for this program and its content. Psychologist must report CE credits directly to MCEP using this document to verify attendance. Please note that a Psychologist must attend the CE program in its entirety in order to receive credit.

SOCIAL WORKERS, MARRIAGE and FAMILY THERAPISTS (LCSW, LMFT, ASW, IMF, LEP, LPCC, PCCI): The New Center for Psychoanalysis is a continuing education provider that has been approved by the American Psychological Association, a California Board of Behavioral Sciences recognized approval agency

Add Transformations in Oneness in Psychoanalytic Work: A Day with Ofra Eshel to my calendar.

Back to calendar