Aaron Mitchum during this seminar will focus on working with emergent expressions of health in an inter-subjective therapeutic context to cultivate change. 

In 2002 the late psychoanalyst and self psychologist, Marian Tolpin, wrote an article called, “Doing Psychoanalysis of Normal Development: Forward Edge Transferences." This paper was exciting and made waves in certain communities because it explicitly challenged the paradigm that all transference was pathological and offered a fuller vision of a psychoanalytic treatment that paid attention to health at least as much as pathology. Tolpin built on Heinz Kohut’s notion of the selfobject transference (i.e. the re-emergence of developmentally appropriate attempts to utilize the experience of the therapist to sustain, organize and grow one’s sense of self in areas that previously had been thwarted) and his known but largely unrecorded clinical style to articulate an eloquent theory of transference that made the tendrils of health being offered by patients more visible and usable.

In this talk we hope to explore the notion of the forward edge inside of an inter-subjective context and its clinician application via a relational notion put forward by Richard Geist called, connectedness. Additionally we will also attempt to link some of these ideas to the late affective neuroscientist, Jaak Panksepp’s work on primary process as well as to some of the general work done in the field on memory re-consolidation in efforts towards applying the concept of the forward edge to an ongoing theory of mind and change. Clinical vignettes will be used for example.

Learning Objectives:

After attending this session, participants should be able to:

1. Identify what Forward Edge Transferences are in a clinical situation.

2. Increase their understanding of how to work with Forward Edge Transferences in a psychoanalytic framework.

Presenter

Continuing Medical Education Credits

This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditatiion Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of the American Psychoanalytic Association and the Greater Kansas City-Topeka Psychoanalytic Center. 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 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)(TM). Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE INFORMATION FOR ALL LEARNERS: None of the planners and presenters of this CME program have any relevant financial relationships to disclose.