Nancy Burke, PhD
The Opening Phase of Psychoanalysis
February 27-March 1, 2025
ZOOM
Nancy Burke, PhD, ABPP, is a board member, core faculty member and past-president of CCP. She is the co-chair of Expanded Mental Health Services of Chicago, NFP, Vice-President of the International Society for Psychological and Social Approaches to Psychosis-US, a co-convener of the 606 Project, on the board of the American Board and Academy of Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology and Associate Clinical Professor, Feinberg School of Medicine of Northwestern University.
Seminar Title: The Opening Phase of Psychoanalysis
Seminar Description:This case-based seminar will honor the tensions that it poses in its very being: Definitions of psychoanalysis tend to be vague and unsatisfying, the debates about how to distinguish psychoanalysis from psychoanalytic psychotherapy are often tedious, and in fact, there are as many ways to engage in the practice of psychoanalysis as there are psychoanalysts. Yet we mean something by the word “psychoanalysis” even if, in discussing it, we find ourselves circumscribing an emptiness capable of holding multitudes. Ditto for “opening;” it’s striking that this course has traditionally, at CCP at least, not been called “The Beginning Phase,” but rather refers to a phase of “opening.” What we mean by that word, “opening,” will likewise be considered as it applies to both the course participants and their patients. Most of all, we will aim to support both analyst and analysand in their efforts to start out on the not-wrong foot, will think together about how best to encourage the development of an “analytic attitude” in both parties, will attend to fears and concerns that could arise in the process of opening an analysis, and will address some of the seemingly concrete issues around the practice of intensive psychoanalytic treatment.
Readings:
Bassen, C. (1989) Transference-countertransference enactment in the recommendation to convert psychotherapy to psychoanalysis. International Review of Psychoanalysis, 16: 79—92.
Bollas, C. (2013). Catch Them Before They Fall: The Psychoanalysis of Breakdown. NY: Routledge.
Cauwe, J. & Vanheule, S. (2018). On beginning the treatment: Lacanian perspectives. Psychoanalytic Quarterly 87:695-727.
Ehrich, L. T (2013). Analysis begins in the analyst’s mind: Conceptual and technical considerations on recommending analysis. JAPA, 61(6): 1077-1107.
Elkins, J. (2024) On “beginning” in analysis. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly 93:567-591.
Freud, S. (1913). On beginning the treatment. 12: 121-144.
Glover, W. C. (2000). Where do analysands come from? A candidate’s experience in recommending analysis. Journal of Clinical Psychoanalysis, 9:21—37
Ogden, T. H. (1992). Comments on transference and counter-transference in the initial analytic meeting. Psychoanalytic Inquiry 12:225-247
Stern, D. (2024) Beginning the treatment on a personal note: Creating emotional connection. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly 93:647-674.
Wigoder, Meir. (2009) “In the Beginning is My End:” The initial analytic meeting from the patient’s perspective. Psychoanalytic Review 96:145-172.