65th Annual Conference

Saturday, February 23

Afternoon Workshops

2:15-5:30 P.M.

Master Workshop 95

Walls of Terror, Enactments of Powerlessness

Chair:         

Kathleen Adams, Ph.D., CGP, Private Practice, Austin, Texas

Open to participants with more than ten years of group psychotherapy experience

Group therapists who frequently encounter patients with characters organized around melancholy, anxiety, entitlement and rage may be caught off guard by patients who developed autistic defenses to manage terror and powerlessness. Passive into active enactments by these patients include paranoia, abjection, relentless hope, compulsive spending, omnipotence, sadistic suffering and dissociation.
sharing of work experiences-didactic-experiential-demonstration
 

Learning Objectives:

The attendee will be able to:
1. Recognize abjection, omnipotence, paranoia, relentless hope, encapsulation and sadistic suffering as enactments of powerlessness.
2. Describe case material from groups that illustrates this topic.
3. Discuss the implications of defenses against powerlessness.
 

Course References:

1. Grotstein, J. (1990c) Do I dare disturb the universe? A memorial to W.R. Bion, London, Karnac.
2. Omer, H. and Rosenbaum, R. (1997) Diseases of hope and the work of despair. Psychotherapy: Theory, research, practice, and training. 34(3), pp. 225-231.
3. Tustin, F. (1986). Autistic Barriers in Neurotic Patients, Karnac, London.