2024 - 2025 San Francisco Yearlong Program
Jacqueline De Lon, MFT and Patricia Marra, MFT, Co-Directors
Ben Goldstone, LMFT, Israel Katz, MD, and Maureen Kurpinsky, PhD, Committee Members
Inventions of Madness: Grappling with Turmoil
What is madness? What sets madness apart from other ways of being and becoming? Delusional beliefs and deranged constructions may get us through a hard night — or they can puncture the symbolic order so thoroughly as to undermine our psychic stability. Is madness a solution, a malady, or both? Is everybody mad?
In this Yearlong, we intend to consider these questions by tracing the evolution of the concept of madness, exploring its vicissitudes and the ways a clinician might navigate these waters — using a range of illustrative material, including psychoanalytic theory and practice, creative endeavors, autobiographies, and philosophical speculation.
| Dates: | Fridays, September 6, 2024 – June 20, 2025 |
| Time: | 12:00pm – 01:30pm |
| Sessions: | 35 Sessions |
| Location: | Online via Zoom |
| Program Fee: | $ 1,450.00 General Admission *If you are a university student, in a pre-licensure clinical training program, or in a residency program, Readers are not included in the program fee. For details, please refer to the Readers Fee information below. |
| CME/CE: | Part I of this program has been approved for a maximum of 25 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ for an additional fee. The CME/CE credits fee is $10 per credit for SFCP members or $15 per credit for non-SFCP members. The cost of CME/CE credits is separate from the tuition fee and billed individually upon the request for credits at the end of the program. |
Part I
La Folie: Madness in the French Psychoanalytic Context
In this class, we will explore the French understanding of madness and particularly the movement of “institutional psychotherapy,” a radical critique of conventional psychiatry and insane asylums. We will use Francoise Davoine’s Mother Folly as our centerpiece, bringing in readings from Michel Foucault, Georges Canguilhem, and Camile Robcis.
Ania Wertz, PhD, PsyD
Fridays, September 6, 13, 20, 27, 2024
Madness and the Social World
What is madness? The Oxford dictionary defines it is “a state of being mentally ill; extremely foolish behavior; a state of frenzied or chaotic activity.”
In this class, each week we will look to the writings of several psychoanalytic authors to see how they (and we) might try to understand and relate to several forms of “madness.”
We will begin with Freud and two concepts: the repetition compulsion and the Uncanny. We will discuss these concepts and their relationship to forms of madness. Then we will turn our attention to the question of racism and the use of madness as a category of control. We will read excerpts from Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum by Antonia Hylton. Lastly, we will consider the role of the analyst inside and outside of the consulting room. Joyce McDougall’s writings in A Plea for a Measure of Abnormality, as well as Darian Leader’s notion of psychosis will facilitate these considerations.
Diana C. Fuery, PhD, LCSW
Fridays, October 11, 18, 25, 2024
(no class on October 4th)
Revisiting the Uncanny
Madness here simply means a break-up of whatever may exist at the time of a personal continuity of existence.
—Winnicott, D.W., Playing and Reality, 1986[N]ostalgia … becomes a fatal tumor on the soul that makes it painful to breathe, or sleep, and associate with carefree foreigners.
—Nabokov, V., Lik, 1938/1997
In his paper “The Uncanny,” Freud (1919), elaborating on the etymology of the word, highlights what is concealed and obscure — albeit familiar — giving off a sense of eeriness when it comes to light. He writes, “…the uncanny is that class of the frightening which leads back to what is known of old and long familiar” (SE 17, 220). In this seminar, we will look at the way the Stranger and the Uncanny are represented in the intrapsychic and socio-cultural spaces. Clinical examples from work with immigrants and the severely mentally disturbed will illustrate technical aspects of treatment and call for clinicians’ capacities to experience and represent their own experiences of strangeness and uncanniness.
Alexander Zinchenko, PhD
Fridays, November 1, 8, 15, 22, 2024
(no class on November 29th)
Memoir and Madness
There is a long tradition of writing memoirs of madness, some focused on severe depression, some on psychotic states of being. We will read excerpts of several in prose and poetry, considering both the experience and its expression.
Alice Jones, MD
Fridays, December 6, 13, 20, 2024
(no class on December 27th, and January 3rd)
Kafka’s “The Hunger Artist” – An Exploration into the question of “What is madness?”
Historically, madness has been defined as insanity, or stupid or dangerous behavior, or at times discerned as having, “… a method to your madness.” Also, there is a cultural view linking madness and creativity that inspires ultimate freedom of thought and expression.
In this class, we will take an in-depth look at Franz Kafka’s short story, “The Hunger Artist,” a story that is disturbing in its nightmarish quality as well as its articulation of the poignant disorienting experience of grappling with what feels incomprehensible — the “Kafkaesque” sense of an oppressive, unconscious world filled with menacing complexity.
Reading additional papers by Milner and Ogden., we will explore how we can connect with the distressing experience of madness — our own and that of our patients. We will also explore what may lead from a fixed state of delusional beliefs to a state of mental flexibility that allows for greater connection between unconscious and conscious experience.
Deborah Weisinger, PsyD
Fridays, January 10, 17, 24, 31, 2025
Education Objectives
Upon completion of this activity, the learners will be able to:
- describe the intellectual history of contemporary psychiatric views of psychosis as medical pathology and be able to discuss critiques of that conception.
- examine the impact of displacement trauma on immigrant/refugee population and recognize the functions of psychotic symptoms in preserving a sense of self.
- evaluate and apply a contemporary perspective on what impacts developing one’s mind and refusing to accept separation, human limitations, and differences.
CE Attendance Policy
APA requires psychologists and other mental health professionals participating in all programs, including in long-term programs (lecture series) to demonstrate 100% attendance in order to be eligible to obtain CE credit. All participants must sign in at the beginning of each class or program and sign out at the end of the class or program. If participants miss a class in a seminar that is part of a long term program, they may be eligible to do “make-up” work for the missed class. Participants can meet with the class via Zoom or another “face to face” platform, if they are unable to attend in person. Alternatively, they can arrange to meet with the instructor, in person, to make-up the instructional time or can engage with the instructor via the “face to face” technologies, i.e. Face-time, Duo, Zoom, or others. This work must be completed within two weeks of the end of a seminar. Credit for the seminar will be awarded once the instructor notifies the SFCP office the time has been made up and the participant completes a course evaluation. No variable credit will be awarded for partial attendance.
Accreditation Statement for CME/CE Sponsorship and Disclosure Statement
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 San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis. 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 25 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.
PSYCHOLOGISTS: The San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
Psychologists attending SFCP events approved for CE credits may report AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ toward their CE requirements. Psychologists self-certify the number of hours they have completed on their renewal form (whether online or paper).
LCSWs/MFTs: The San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis is a continuing education provider that has been approved by the American Psychological Association, a California Board of Behavioral Sciences recognized approval agency
Psychologists, Social Workers, and Marriage and Family Therapists will be awarded AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ on an hour for hour basis; see the program description for the maximum of credits awarded for each program.
Commercial Support: None
Part II
A Necessary Madness: Sleepwalking into the Abyss
There is madness all around us — massive inequality, growing homelessness, climate catastrophe, a cataclysmic political scenario — compounded by the corollary madness of denial regarding them. We certainly register this devastation, but there is so much of it and its quality is so severe that we don’t necessarily address it in our everyday lives. So, what happens with it, with the registration of this ubiquitous madness? How does it show up in the clinic, and in our everyday lives? And what are the implications for the social?
Fernando Castrillon, PsyD
Fridays, February 7, 14, 21, 28, 2025
Culture as Container
Bion’s psychoanalytic study of thinking describes the process in which raw, lived experience is metabolized into psychically usable, symbolic form— involving a complex interaction between container and contained. The capacity to successfully think (or dream) thoughts is requisite for responding effectively to the challenges of human living — fully experiencing, and then learning from that experience. While the metaphor of container/contained can be easily mapped onto the familiar dyadic structure of caregiver/infant or therapist/patient, in the background of all of Bion’s psychoanalytic theorizing is his thinking about groups. This course will explore the concepts of container/contained with specific attention to collective dimensions of human experience and a focus on culture itself. How does the “madness” of the group find expression within its culture? And can culture itself function as a container, aiding in the transformation of what is collectively unthinkable? We will engage these questions through a close reading of Bion placed in conversation with contemporary cultural texts.
Inti Flores, MD
Fridays, March 7, 14, 21, 28; April 4, 2025
(no class on April 11th, 18th, and 25th)
Madness in the Couple
How and why does madness emerge in couple relationships? High-conflict relationships are often based in disturbing interpersonal dynamics that may appear as forms of madness or violence. But even in healthier intimate relationships, dynamics that arise from regressed, defensive, or paranoid/schizoid states of mind can occur and make the partners feel “crazy.”
When it is difficult to tolerate difference, battles over whose “truth” or whose claim to reality can prevail. Moreover, projective identificatory processes in couples can create extreme emotional states that may feel intolerable, unrecognizable, and alien. In this course we will use contemporary psychoanalytic theory to understand how repetitive unconscious projective processes may thrust couples into various states of madness that may have defensive, as well as, developmental purposes.
Shelley Nathans, PhD
Fridays, May 2, 9, 16, 23, 2025
Madness in Film
Film powerfully engages with madness. Through the narrative and, more significantly, through the cinematic depiction with its visual and aural aspects — the sight and the sound of madness — we are brought directly into the subjective, lived experience that both disturbs and enlightens us. This course will look at films that depict madness variously — including the actual experience of psychosis, its effects on the self and those involved with the person who is suffering, and madness related to loss. Each film will be accompanied by a paper that looks at madness from a psychoanalytic perspective. Possible films for discussion include Repulsion, A Beautiful Mind, Woman Under the Influence, and Under the Sand. Possible readings include Bion on psychosis, Herbert Rosenfeld, Freud’s Mourning and Melancholia, and John Steiner on psychic retreats.
Catherine Mallouh, MD
Fridays, May 30; June 6, 13, 20, 2025
Education Objectives
Upon completion of this activity, the learners will be able to:
- identify two ways in which the role of the leader and the masses has fundamentally changed due to transformations in the social/subjective tie.
- describe how intrapsychic and/or interpersonal (dyadic) psychoanalytic models of mind take account of the social context of development
- discuss how the historical and societal views of madness evolved over time, how the social environment contributes to madness, and how madness affects the family and social group.
CE Attendance Policy
APA requires psychologists and other mental health professionals participating in all programs, including in long-term programs (lecture series) to demonstrate 100% attendance in order to be eligible to obtain CE credit. All participants must sign in at the beginning of each class or program and sign out at the end of the class or program. If participants miss a class in a seminar that is part of a long term program, they may be eligible to do “make-up” work for the missed class. Participants can meet with the class via Zoom or another “face to face” platform, if they are unable to attend in person. Alternatively, they can arrange to meet with the instructor, in person, to make-up the instructional time or can engage with the instructor via the “face to face” technologies, i.e. Face-time, Duo, Zoom, or others. This work must be completed within two weeks of the end of a seminar. Credit for the seminar will be awarded once the instructor notifies the SFCP office the time has been made up and the participant completes a course evaluation. No variable credit will be awarded for partial attendance.
Accreditation Statement for CME/CE Sponsorship and Disclosure Statement
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 San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis. 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 25 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.
PSYCHOLOGISTS: The San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
Psychologists attending SFCP events approved for CE credits may report AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ toward their CE requirements. Psychologists self-certify the number of hours they have completed on their renewal form (whether online or paper).
LCSWs/MFTs: The San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis is a continuing education provider that has been approved by the American Psychological Association, a California Board of Behavioral Sciences recognized approval agency
Psychologists, Social Workers, and Marriage and Family Therapists will be awarded AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ on an hour for hour basis; see the program description for the maximum of credits awarded for each program.
Commercial Support: None
Readers Fee
Charges for reading material required for the seminars are not included in tuition. Your readers will be prepared by CopyCentral, and costs are based upon copyright laws and charge based on the content of the readers. The SFCP Office will inform you when your readers are available to be purchased from CopyCentral’s website. Please note that CopyCentral may take 2 weeks to print and mail the readers to you, so we recommend you to purchase them as soon as they become available.
Refund Policy
Charges for reading material required for the seminars are not included in tuition. Your readers will be prepared by CopyCentral, and costs are based upon copyright laws and charge based on the content of the readers. The SFCP Office will inform you when your readers are available to be purchased from CopyCentral’s website. Please note that CopyCentral may take 2 weeks to print and mail the readers to you, so we recommend you to purchase them as soon as they become available.