SFCP Adult Psychoanalytic Training Program

Curriculum

For questions about any aspect of the Curriculum component of psychoanalytic training, please contact Curriculum Chair Maria Longuemare, MD (marialonguemaremd@gmail.com).

The Adult Psychoanalytic Training Curriculum consists of four years of seminars and case conferences. Classes are held 34 Fridays per year at SFCP in San Francisco*, with each Friday divided into three 90-minute classes: 8:00-9:30 a.m., 9:45-11:15 a.m., and 12:15-1:45 p.m.  Coursework is conceptualized as a group experience that supports each candidate’s unique development as a psychoanalyst. Elements of this group experience include:

  • a focus on what it means to think and work psychoanalytically, with close attention to the understanding of personal unconscious experience and how this relates to the unconscious experiences of groups, societies, and cultures.
  • an intensive, chronologically-organized sequence of courses on seminal psychoanalytic writings, with a focus on fundamental questions in the psychoanalytic conversation and an effort to trace the development of this conversation within the historical context in which it evolved (in Years 1-3).
  • a course sequence on Psyche and Social Context which runs throughout the four-year curriculum and focuses on the intersection between intrapsychic, inter-psychic, and collective dimensions of psychic experience and functioning.
  • a year of coursework (Year 2) on psychoanalytic views of development, conceptualized and taught in close coordination with SFCP’s Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Training Program.
  • a year of coursework (Year 4) focusing on the lived clinical experience, offering candidates the opportunity to integrate their learning from prior coursework and casework to refine their own clinical sensibility.
  • opportunities for each candidate to develop their psychoanalytic thinking and voice by writing and sharing writing in a group setting.
  • immersion in group study of psychoanalytic clinical process, organized around candidate presentations in clinical case conferences.
  • Reflection Groups scheduled throughout each training year to provide opportunities for candidates to reflect together within their cohorts on the social, emotional, and group aspects of learning together, and on ways in which psychoanalytic training is impacting their identity, their clinical work, and their perspectives on the wider society.

The Curriculum Plan below will give you an overview of candidate coursework over the four years of training. The 20-minute video linked here was created as an orientation for candidates entering training in Fall 2022 and offers a sense of how the curriculum is currently conceptualized. (Note: The curriculum is subject to revision in future years.)

CLICK TO ENLARGE:

Graduation Paper Writing Workshop (post-seminar)

This workshop is designed to support candidates in writing their Graduation Paper by studying the literature on psychoanalytic writing and sharing drafts of the graduation paper with the group for feedback. Following the four years of seminars, this workshop meets once per month for 8 months on a weeknight or weekend day determined by the instructor and the group. Candidates may choose to take it at any time during their fourth year of candidacy or during post-seminar year(s).

Upcoming Events

Wednesday, September 27, 2023
Coalition for Clinical Social Work
Ken Epstein, PhD, LCSW, Gary Grossman, PhD, and Maria Longuemare, MD, PhD (presenters); Clara Kwun, LCSW (moderator)
Saturday, September 30, 2023
Child Colloquium Series
Mary Brady, PhD (presenter); Anne Alvarez, PhD, M.A.C.P (discussant, will join via ZOOM from London); Sharon Tyson, PhD (moderator)
Wednesdays, October 4 to October 25, 2023
Psychoanalytic Student Seminars
Marty Mulkey, MFT (instructor)
Thursdays, October 5 to October 26, 2023
Coalition for Clinical Social Work
Lea Brown, LCSW, and Amy Wallerstein Friedman, LCSW (instructors)
Fridays, October 6, 2023 to April 5, 2024
Extension Education Programs
Celeste Schneider, PhD, Frederick Huang, MD, Adam Blum, PsyD, Peter Goldberg, PhD, Michael Levin, PsyD, Israel Katz, MD, and Ortal Kirson-Trilling, PsyD, FIPA (instructors)
Fridays, October 20, 2023 to June 28, 2024
Extension Education Programs
Jan Chess, PhD, MFT, Graeme Daniels, PhD, Elizabeth Stuart, MD, Tom Wooldridge, PsyD, Gary Grossman, PhD, and Benjamin Morsa, PsyD (instructors)
Saturday, October 28, 2023
Dialogues in Contemporary Psychoanalysis
Darian Leader (interviewee); Israel Katz, MD (interviewer); Patricia Marra, MFT (moderator)
Saturday, December 2, 2023
Child Colloquium Series
Kira Steifman, PsyD, and Deborah Weisinger, PsyD (presenters); Yen Quoc, PsyD (moderator)
Monday, December 4, 2023
Scientific Meetings
Mitchell Wilson, MD (presenter)
Login to your account