Fridays @ CCP Lecture Series
Margery Kalb, PsyD
(New York)
On Ghosts, Underinternalizations, and the Interpsychic
Friday May 21, 2027
7-9pm (CST)
ZOOM
About the presentation: This paper builds upon Loewald’s ideas about ghosts, internalizations, interpsychic interactions, and therapeutic action by considering the perils of infantile hauntings and potential passageways toward the more fully internalized ancestors that enlarge our capacity to thrive.
Using Loewald's theory as touchstone, I propose that his iconic concept of “ghosts” (Loewald, 1960) can be understood to represent regressive (re)experiences of undermetabolized interactions. The intensity of internal experience that has little language or organization or representation becomes an enduring “underinternalization” – a potentially problematic blueprint – haunting self and relationships.
But ghostly experience also holds the potential for growth: Anticipating current interest in the intricacies of interaction, Loewald coined the term “interpsychic,” characterizing it simply as the unconscious or preconscious effect and influence we have upon one another. What is interpsychic communication? How does it develop and emerge in clinical interactions, and beyond? And how can it potentiate growth?
Loewald recognized that turning ghosts into “ancestors” does not mean banishing infantile ghosts. He sowed the seeds for understanding how interpsychic communications between analyst and patient can offer pathways toward laying inner hauntings to relative rest, thereby nurturing contact with wellsprings of creativity and vitality.
Margery Kalb, Psy.D, is a Founder, as well as Chair of the Board of Directors, of The Hans W. Loewald Center. She is teaching Faculty and Supervisor at the NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy & Psychoanalysis, where she served as Chair of the Contemporary Freudian Track from 2016-2021. She is co-editor of two books: Ghosts in the Consulting Room and Demons in the Consulting Room, published in 2016, and author of numerous papers on ghosts, encompassing themes such as development and internalization, therapeutic action, therapeutic relationship, interpsychic and intersomatic communications, and loss/mourning. She is in private practice in NYC.
Learning Objectives
1. Participants will have gained descriptive knowledge of psychoanalytic theories on psychic ghostly phenomena.
2. Participants will be able to define the clinical and theoretical meaning and utility of the term ghosts.
3. Participants will be able to recognize and discuss ways that psychic ghosts manifest in the clinical setting.
4. Participants will be able to define ways to intervene clinically when ghosts are prominent in the consulting room.
This is an Intermediate / Advanced Level Presentation
Fees
CCP members: free with annual $195 membership, payable at registration.
Students:free with annual $175 membership, payable at registration.
New Fellows / Ongoing: free with annual $250/$300 membership, payable at registration.
Non-CCP members, single admission: $50
Continuing Education
This program is sponsored for Continuing Education Credits by the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis. There is no commercial support for this program, nor are there any relationships between the continuing education sponsor, presenting organization, presenter, program content, research, grants or other funding that could be construed as conflicts of interest. Participants are asked to be aware of the need for privacy and confidentiality throughout the program. If the program content becomes stressful, participants are encouraged to process these feelings during discussion periods. The Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis maintains responsibility for this program and its content. CCP is licensed by the state of Illinois to sponsor continuing education credits for Licensed Clinical Social Workers, Licensed Social Workers, Licensed Clinical Professional Counselors, Licensed Professional Counselors, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapy Counselors and Licensed Clinical Psychologists (license no. 159.000941 and 268.000020 and 168.000238 Illinois Dept. of Financial and Professional Regulation).
Professionals holding the aforementioned credentials will receive 2.0 continuing education credits for attending the entire program. To receive these credits a completed evaluation form must be turned in at the end of the presentation and licensed psychologists must first complete a brief exam on the subject matter. No continuing education credit will be given for attending part of the presentation. Refunds for CE credit after the program begins will not be honored. If a participant has special needs or concerns about the program, s/he/they should contact Toula Kourliouros Kalven by February 11, 2027 at: tkalven@ccpsa.org
References/Suggested Readings
Chodorow, N.J. (2019). The Psychoanalytic Ear and the Sociological Eye: Toward an American Independent Tradition. London, UK: Routledge.
Balsam, R., Brett, E. & Levenson L. (Eds.) The Emerging Tradition of Hans Loewald. London: Routledge.
Freud, S. (1914). Remembering, repeating, and working-through. Standard Edition, Volume XII: pp. 145-156. London: Hogarth Press.
Kalb, M. (2015). Ghosts in the Consulting Room: Reluctant Ancestors. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 51(1):74-106.
Kalb, M. (2025). Hans W. Loewald: Quiet Revolutionary, Creative Synthesizer, Inspiration for 21st Century Psychoanalysis (An Introduction to The Hans W. Loewald Center). In Balsam, R., Brett, E. & Levenson L. (Eds.) Hans Loewald: His Legacy and Promise. London: Routledge.
Loewald, H.W. (1960). On the therapeutic action of psychoanalysis. In: Papers on Psychoanalysis, 221-256. Hagerstown, MD: University Publishing Group, Inc.
Loewald, H. (1962). Internalization, separation, mourning, and the superego. In: Papers on Psychoanalysis, 257-276. Hagerstown, MD: University Publishing Group, Inc.
Presented by
The Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis/CCP Program Committee