The
Need for and the Feeling of Control
Presented
by: Tom Wooldridge, PsyD, ABPP,
CEDS-C
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This lecture
theorizes the need for control, which manifests as an effort to curate experience: a metaphorical gating mechanism that emerges
in response to experiences deemed intolerable and leads to the use of various defensive strategies intended to achieve the feeling of
control. The feeling of control is characterized by five interrelated experiences: (1) predictability, (2) agency in relation to internal
states, (3) narrative coherence, (4) certain forms of bodily experience, and (5) distance from intolerable experiences. These ideas are
developed through both a literature review, which highlights the ways that a wide range of theorists have dealt with the theme of control, and
with a clinical case. Drawing on psychoanalytic epistemology, recent developments in neuroscience, and early Buddhist philosophy, the paper
concludes with a reflection on the possibility that control is a fundamental condition of experience and that the need for control is a
response to this condition, becoming organized in various ways throughout development.
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LEARNING
OBJECTIVES:
After
attending this session, participants should be able to:
1. Discuss the
need for control, an effort to curate experience, as a fundamental condition of experience and describe the feeling of control,
including its five interrelated experiences.
2. Discuss how
the need for control manifests in eating disorders, using a clinical case to discuss the interplay between defensive
strategies, bodily experience, and the need for and feeling of control.
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Tom Wooldridge
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About the Presenter
Tom Wooldridge, PsyD, ABPP, FIPA, CEDS-C is Chair of the Department of Psychology at Golden Gate University as
well as a psychoanalyst and board-certified, licensed psychologist. His books include: Understanding
Anorexia Nervosa in Males, Psychoanalytic Treatment of Eating Disorders: When Words Fail and Bodies
Speak (Relational Perspectives Book Series), Eating Disorders (New Introductions to Contemporary
Psychoanalysis), and the co-edited volume, Advancing Psychotherapy for the Next Generation:
Rehumanizing Mental Health Policy and Practice. He has also authored a novel about the process of
psychotherapy, Ghosts of the Unremembered Past, additionally released as an audiobook with Audible.
His newest book, End the Food Fight: Replacing Control with Connection to Help Your Child Heal from an
Eating Disorder, will be released by Guilford in 2026. He is a Personal and Supervising Analyst at the
Psychoanalytic Institute for Northern California and a Training Analyst at the San Francisco Center for
Psychoanalysis. He is Faculty at the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California (PINC), Northern
California Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology (NCSPP), William Alanson White Institute’s Eating Disorders,
Compulsions, and Addictions program, and San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis, and has a private practice in
Berkeley and via tele-health in CA & NY.
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Monday, January
12th, 2026
7:00 p.m. to
8:30 p.m. Central Time
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This
seminar is free and open to the public.
Click HERE to Register
or
visit our
website www.gkcpsa.org
The Zoom link
will be emailed to registrants on January 9th, 2026.
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1.5 CMEs/CEUs
are available for this seminar.
Certificates
of attendance are FREE for Center members,
$30 for
non-Center members.
(Details about
how to receive CMEs/CEUs will be provided during the seminar.)
Helpful
Information to Access and Participate in the Center Seminar
·
We strongly recommend that you use your PC or Mac for this meeting rather than phone or tablet, as the
reception and functionality is much better.
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When you enter the meeting, you will be on mute. You are free to unmute yourself during the event
during discussion
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We ask that you plan to attend the event with your personal video camera on so that you may be seen
by the other participants on screen. This is necessary for CME/CEU attendance tracking purposes.
·
Make sure you have labeled your name in the box with your video picture. If you have not done so, or if you
want to change your name, place your mouse on your video image. In the right corner, you will see three dots (…). Click the
dots, then click “rename” and insert your name as you want it to read. This is also necessary for CME/CEU attendance
tracking purposes.
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Continuing
Medical Education Credits
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 the Greater
Kansas City Psychoanalytic 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 1.5 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.
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